Gmail, Google's powerful web based email service, announced some changes to its contact management features today. Contact management has for some time been a contentious matter among Google Account holders - the company does strange and mysterious things with your email contacts, including tying them in to some other applications without anyone's permission.
Today's new changes failed to alleviate those concerns, perhaps making the situation even less clear than it was before.
The post on the official Gmail blog today announced a new policy. There are now two types of contacts in your Gmail contacts list. There are your explicitly added My Contacts and there are your frequently emailed Suggested Contacts. The distinction between the two is unclear enough that I won't even try to summarize it. Read the following closely.
My Contacts contains the contacts you explicitly put in your address book (via manual entry, import or sync) as well as any address you've emailed a lot (we're using five or more times as the threshold for now).Suggested Contacts is where Gmail puts its auto-created contacts. By default, Suggested Contacts you email frequently are automatically added to My Contacts, but for those of you who prefer tighter control of your address books, you can choose to disable usage-based addition of contacts to My Contacts (see the checkbox in the screenshot above). Once you do this, no matter how many times you email an auto-added email address it won't move to My Contacts.
Taking a look at my new contacts page raises some questions though. Why are suggested contacts being added to My Contacts by default? What are suggested contacts if not frequently emailed contacts? Why are so few of my suggested contacts in My Contacts if that's the policy right now and why is that the policy still by default?
It appears that Google has issued an obtuse policy around an opt-out feature while even bigger questions remain. (Continued below...)
When you open up Google Reader, the company's RSS reader, you'll find not just the feeds you've subscribed to but also the feeds of shared items from your "friends." Those friendships were defined somehow by Google, according to who you email in Gmail apparently. They can opt-out of having their shared items publicly visible at all, but short of doing that - you are seeing their shared items and someone, presumably, is seeing your shared items too. No one knows for sure.
I showed Google Reader to yet another group of new RSS readers today and without any prompting from me, several of them recoiled at the "friends' shared items" feature. Personally, I like being able to see friends' shared items but I definitely do not like that the whole phenomenon is a black box. Where else is my social graph being cross applied by Google without my knowledge?
While Google wrestles with lawsuits over user data from companies like Viacom, it would be nice to know that the company has a coherent and respectful policy. Adding a check box and a blog post for those of us "paranoid" enough to be interested in opting-out of Google's strange Contact magic is not the kind of step that would help build and maintain trust. We are unimpressed.
We love Gmail here at RWW. In December we wrote, though, about Gmail's terrible lack of adherence to standards in email. In February we wrote about Google's nonresponsiveness to complaints about Gmail's lengthy message delivery delays. In March we asked why the new Gmail Contacts API couldn't play nice with others and be based on standards.
Given all that, we'd appreciate it if Google wasn't all loosey-goosey with our contacts. Who knows. Maybe Gmail, and all the Google Apps, are an even better example than Twitter of a service we'll put up with no end of crap from. We still love it.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4462
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all Read/WriteWeb posts
I see the difference between contacts and 'suggesteds', and I see the need for Google to create this email processing feature, but you're right, the way they go about it is totally obscure, and it does raise some ethic questions.
Posted by: xavier vespa
|
July 16, 2008 7:36 PM
mmmm none of this bothers me that much. I DO think that adding suggested contacts to My Contacts should be off by default and I'd rename suggested to 'frequently mailed' but the latter point is minor.
The Reader issue doesn't bother me at all. If someone is nervous about sharing feed items then don't do that. Once you've shared them it would be stupid of Google to not actually show them, so I'm not seeing that complaint.
As for showing the names of your contacts... um... what's up with that reasoning?
Posted by: rick | July 16, 2008 8:04 PM
When I was graduating 6 months ago, i synched all my school emails to Gmail -- I did not use the account until yesterday when I tried to open an email with PDF attachment, it just wouldnt open. I says "Opps error #" - the virus scanner not running. then some other ooopsy.. try later..
This error has persisted for 2 days now.. I really need this document. it also wouldnt allow me to forward the email.. basically I M SCREWED BIG TIME...
My bad.. i put so much trust in a service.. next time.. PAY For something.. and get quality service.. atleast you can pick up a phone and SWEAR out your frustration.. F U GMAIL.
Posted by: COP | July 16, 2008 8:12 PM
As far as I know GReader friends are pulled from your gchat friends and not your contacts. There might be some overlap if you invited people through gchat into gmail (they can use any email they want, but it gets tied to the gmail account they sign in with).
I personally like the fact that all of the people I email get added to the contact list because more than once I needed to email them something again from my iPhone (which, through apple contacts get synced with google) and it saved me quite a bit of time by having it available.
I would love a bit more flexibility with my contacts though, for example I have a ton of craigs sale-xxxx email addresses that get used only once and I have to manually go in and edit them out.
Posted by: Stepan Mazurov
|
July 16, 2008 8:12 PM
That's what happens when software tries to be more intelligent that the user: it hits the fan.
Posted by: Jerome Paradis | July 16, 2008 11:01 PM
I think what they do is wrong from the beginning to the end.
# I don't want addresses I send e-mails to to be added as contacts. (I sent a feedback e-mail to a feedback@whatever.com-address. I won't ever write them again and certainly they aren't a "contact".)
# I don't want contacts to be auto-added, even if I sent them e-mails several times.
# I don't want my Gmail contacts to be used for Google Reader's Shared by Friends-feature! (Even those that are confirmed.)
I want to add people as contacts if I choose to do so.
Gmail Contacts is one of the worst executed products at Google (along with Google Talk).
Posted by: Sebastian | July 16, 2008 11:52 PM
The way GMail handle contacts seems brilliant to me.
It makes perfect sense to have two contact lists:
- One is my contacts folder
- One are additional emails gathered in communications
I share the point that the frequently added Contacts shouldn't be automatically added to your contact list by default. Well that's probably the only thing I can see as not perfect in there...
By the way, why did you omit Contacts Groups? It's a great feature to use if you want to keep your personal contacts list clean! Just create a group and move contacts there!
Also, extract from Google Reader shared items page:
Anyone in the world can view your shared items at this web page. Additionally, all of your friends in Gmail Chat and Google Talk will be able to see your shared items under the Friends' shared items link.
it all sounds pretty clear to me..
COP if you use a free system and don't expect it to go down at any time, it's your fault. Insulting Google, or any other company or person, it's useless and only shows you can't get your own responsibilities. I guess you still use Google as a search engine, Gmail and all other Google features!
Posted by: Lorenzo | July 17, 2008 1:41 AM
Recently my company started using gmail. We also all made accounts for gtalk.
Now every time I send an email to a company client, he wants me to add him as a friends in gtalk! WTF? I am software developer and don't want him talking to me all the time at gtalk.
I already declined to add him as a friend 3 times, I wonder if he sees these declinations? Pretty bad, if he sees them ...
Posted by: Stoicho | July 17, 2008 2:40 AM
In direct relation to your post, here's something that came up on slashdot yesterday. A direct result of google's non-concern with privacy coupled with over-integration between gmail and google calendar makes it possible for anyone to get your first and last name only by knowing your gmail address:
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/1113
Posted by: Marshall Stone | July 17, 2008 4:48 AM
Marshall - I'm a little disappointed with the lack of research you put into this post. I know, like who the hell cares what I think! But the point is you get read by a lot of people, and passing along misinformation because of a lack of research is something that can be corrected. By researching!
You said "Those friendships were defined somehow by Google, according to who you email in Gmail apparently." Apparently? Too hard to figure out? If you had clicked on the Friends Shared Items link, within 1 more click you would have found where you can control your friends list, and 1 more click would have told you why they show up there. And no, it has nothing to do with your contacts.
Personally, I like what they've done with contacts. But then when there's a choice between clicking on a checkbox that says next to it "Automatically move suggested contacts into My Contacts if I frequently email them.", or complaining about "OMG my privacy, it's been so violated", I usually just click the checkbox.
Thanks for all your very informative posts. I'll forgive you this one. Haha. Or maybe, "OMG, I'll never read your f-ing column again!!!!!!"
Posted by: Dan | July 17, 2008 8:55 AM
What's creepy about Gmail. I don't understand this post.
Posted by: LiviuX | July 17, 2008 9:14 AM
Keep 'em honest! Thanks for covering this for us.
Posted by: Paula Thornton | July 17, 2008 10:55 AM
"What's creepy about Gmail?" Comment from LiviuX.
I do enjoy privacy (the little that is left). It creeps me out that Google keeps track of who I email and how often I email them. What other information about my email habits are they keeping? If you have not done so, I suggest you check out your google web history within your google account. You might be surprised the info on your web searches google has stored there. I turned it off on my account.
Posted by: Joe | July 17, 2008 11:20 AM
http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?answer=69989&topic=12016
"Like any regular web page, your public page is viewable by anyone who knows its address. "
"The public page for your shared items is also visible to any of your Google Talk friends who use Reader. "
http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?answer=83041&topic=12016
"Reader's friend list comes from the list of people you can chat with on Google Talk or Gmail chat. To invite friends to see your Reader shared items, simply invite them to chat. To remove them, delete them from your Gmail contacts, or from your Talk list."
Posted by: Monk | July 17, 2008 1:10 PM
Monk beat me to it, but I think it's worth reiterating that actually Google is pretty clear about what they are doing and how to opt-out of it. I think there's room for complaint that it's opt-out rather then opt-in, but then it's a free service.
For those that want more information it's all in Google's help:
http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83041
Cheers,
Adam.
Posted by: Adam Shand | July 18, 2008 9:20 PM
C'mon, guys! It's clear as water: more than five replies, and a contact becomes «My contact». And anyway, the former way they handled it looked a lot like some mail clients -- auto-add for every reply --, but at least the autocomplete feature had (and still has) an algorithm to put most contacted on top.
Maybe it's still not perfect, but they're getting there.
And Google Reader... c'mon! If you dont want to share, don't share, or at least look at the configuration options and edit them to your preferences.
Posted by: Jorge Rosa | July 19, 2008 7:40 AM
1. There is nothing remotely confusing (or "unclear") about the quoted contact list explanation near the beginning of this article.
2. As pointed out above, there is a simple link within google reader that explicitly explains all of the people who have access to your shared items. Opt-in might be nicer, but it is not a black box.
3. c'mon
Posted by: Jim | July 22, 2008 9:38 AM
I am still nervous about googles datamining in general. While the service is great I really dont like the fact that google nows much more about me then my girlfriend. I use reader, gmail, analytics and search.... And it bothers me to see the precision of the adds delivered in my gmail.
If anyone can recommend an gmail alternative (decent search - threaded conversations) that I can install on my own domain - it would be much appreciated
Posted by: Andreas | July 28, 2008 1:43 AM
I have been using gmail for quite some time an some times i really find it creepy.
Posted by: Usman Zia | July 28, 2008 4:41 AM