Re: WSJ TECHNOLOGY ALERT: Google Plans to Build Ultra High-Speed Broadband Networks

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org>
Date: February 11, 2010 8:19:49 AM EST
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] WSJ TECHNOLOGY ALERT: Google Plans to Build Ultra High-Speed Broadband Networks

Three points that I've not seen raised yet:

1. Google isn't very good at email.  Yes, they have a nice web-based
front-end, but that's surface glitz.  Google has horrific problems with
spam/abuse, to the point where it's become a best practice to refuse
all Usenet articles originating there.  And its inbound spam filtering
has an unacceptably high error rate.  And (while this is no longer an
issue, AFAIK) its outbound servers were sending pre-greeting SMTP traffic.
And then there are the outages.   The bottom line is that Google has yet
to demonstrate that they possess core competency in this area.

2. I would be astonished if Google (along with Yahoo, MSN/Hotmail, AOL, etc.)
had not long since been served with a NSL demanding that they provide copies
of ALL email traffic to the feds and remain silent about it.   I think as
a working assumption one should presume that anything traversing a freemail
or instant message provider is being vacuumed up, stored, searched, etc.

(Of course...some universities may have been served with these too.)

3. It's not at all difficult to run a quality email service in a
university environment, *provided* judicious choices are made about
the architecture and software.  A single qualified person should
be able to manage an operation on the order of 10-100K users, which is
the range that such environments tend to be in.  The availability of
rock-solid, well-supported open-source software as well as the rapidly
diminishing cost of hardware make this easier than it's ever been.

---Rsk




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