Author Topic: Google does no evil; kills reMail (Read 19913 times)

f0dder · « **on:** February 19, 2010, 12:08 PM »

Yup, sensationalist headline.

From slashdot:

Hugh Pickens writes "PC World reports that Google has acquired a popular iPhone application called reMail that provides 'lightning fast' full-text search of your Gmail and IMAP e-mail accounts. The app downloads copies of all your e-mail which can then be searched with various Boolean options. reMail has only been in the application store for about six months — with a free version limited to one Gmail account and a premium version which can connect to multiple accounts. 'Google and reMail have decided to discontinue reMail's iPhone application, and we have removed it from the App Store,' writes company founder Gabor Cselle, who will be returning to Google as a Product Manager on the Gmail team.

While I do believe it's a bit too early to jump to conclusions, this certainly smells fishy.

JavaJones · « **Reply #1 on:** February 19, 2010, 06:01 PM »

Interesting. Was the iPhone app their only product? Perhaps it's just retaliation for Apple not approving Google Talk.

Btw, I always thought Gmail's existing, built-in search was pretty much "lightning fast"...

- Oshyan

wraith808 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 19, 2010, 07:03 PM »

From what I read, they bought reMail to get talent. If you're buying talent, and don't need the product... the solution is foregone?

higherstate · « **Reply #3 on:** February 21, 2010, 01:15 PM »

Do you remember it was not so long ago that microsoft were the one's buying up every idea/company in sight...how things have changed in the last few years.

Are google the new microsoft?

btw.. if anyone has read things like 'the secret' or 'think and grow rich' you will notice that google's tag line does the opposite of what is intended.

When looking at a sentence like 'do no evil' the brain doesn't pay attention to the 'no'. Never use negatives in your goal setting.

Dormouse · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2010, 01:34 PM »

btw.. if anyone has read things like 'the secret' or 'think and grow rich' you will notice that google's tag line does the opposite of what is intended.
-higherstate (February 21, 2010, 01:15 PM)

So you think the writer(s) of 'think and grow rich' know more about growing rich than the founders of Google?

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2010, 02:03 PM »

Are google the new microsoft?

seeming more like that to me every day.

hollowlife1987 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 21, 2010, 02:45 PM »

Are google the new microsoft?
seeming more like that to me every day.
-mouser (February 21, 2010, 02:03 PM)

Well Google's stock is worth more than Microsoft's right now from what I can tell.

Bamse · « **Reply #7 on:** February 21, 2010, 11:56 PM »

Don't you think many startups and investors are aiming at getting bought? I thought that was why new one pops up over and over. This guy now returns to Google from other adventures and probably wont have to worry about electrical bill for some years

Users should only worry if whatever feature/product is bought with the desire to shut it down - in one way or another. Who owns who questions belong to the market place where bigger fish eats smaller fish.

f0dder · « **Reply #8 on:** February 22, 2010, 12:41 AM »

Users should only worry if whatever feature/product is bought with the desire to shut it down - in one way or another. Who owns who questions belong to the market place where bigger fish eats smaller fish.
-Bamse (February 21, 2010, 11:56 PM)

And hasn't reMail been shut down?

Nothing inherently wrong with being bought up, nor buying up smaller companies - but it sucks when doing so kills off projects.

Bamse · « **Reply #9 on:** February 22, 2010, 12:49 AM »

Yes and remaii was an app to a phone, iphone does not vanish. If there is a market for reMail on iphone people are probably already working on a reMail reloaded.

kartal · « **Reply #10 on:** February 22, 2010, 01:12 AM »

I hope that the people who were ridiculing people like me on these boards about Google and its smelly acts up to couple years ago would reconsider their thoughts about Google when more and more Google`s real intentions unfoils.

I do not use anything Google at all and I am glad to be Googleless. Remember, Google is not and has never been your friend

The fact is that Google cannot be your friend, you cannot be friend with an entity that needs massive amounts of cash and energy every second to keep going.

On the other hand it sounds like Google bought them and cancelled the product to promote its cellphone system. If you think about it Google would want people to buy its phone not someone else`s.

Bamse · « **Reply #11 on:** February 22, 2010, 01:38 AM »

Most companies want/need to make money. They think of them self, how it works. Not special for Google so if you have them targeted down as being the one and only problem you should be ridiculed

What are alternatives and what do you use? Which company of this nature has better products, "care" more for user, are more open with info/development, has better licensing?

How are you using a computer, being online without supporting companies in one way or another? Which companies are you friends with? Is it not simply a matter of picking your poison? Because some prefer Google does not mean they are blind or will not switch if something better comes along.

wraith808 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 22, 2010, 08:22 AM »

Users should only worry if whatever feature/product is bought with the desire to shut it down - in one way or another. Who owns who questions belong to the market place where bigger fish eats smaller fish.
-Bamse (February 21, 2010, 11:56 PM)
And hasn't reMail been shut down?

Nothing inherently wrong with being bought up, nor buying up smaller companies - but it sucks when doing so kills off projects.
-f0dder (February 22, 2010, 12:41 AM)

If you are buying for talent (which is what this was said to be), then don't you want that talent working on your projects? Maybe they're looking at integrating the technology into their own products. What's wrong with this?

kartal · « **Reply #13 on:** February 22, 2010, 02:39 PM »

Most companies want/need to make money. They think of them self, how it works. Not special for Google so if you have them targeted down as being the one and only problem you should be ridiculed What are alternatives and what do you use? Which company of this nature has better products, "care" more for user, are more open with info/development, has better licensing?

How are you using a computer, being online without supporting companies in one way or another? Which companies are you friends with? Is it not simply a matter of picking your poison? Because some prefer Google does not mean they are blind or will not switch if something better comes along.
-Bamse (February 22, 2010, 01:38 AM)

Well I do not agree with the fact thatI I need to choose this company or that company at all. What I care and try to implement is being careful about my choices and actions. I also believe that small actions and choices can lead to big changes if they are done and repeated enough times. I just try to practice my fair share within Virtual mediums. I stay away from helping Google or other big corporate commercialization of Internet. I do not use javascript and cookies (I ban-delete them) I heavily kill and filter ads. I generally disable Flash and alikes unless it is for educational purposes. I do not use Tv , I only turn my cellphone if I need to make a call.(Cell phones can have impact on your health). Half of the time I use text based web browsers, and Internet just looks fine to me inside a text based web browser. I never participate in any kind of virtual social linking and environment like facebook, myspace twitter etc etc. I pay for my email service, web service etc, being cheap is not that cheap in my view.

Ideally all these technologies are great and offer amazing possibilities but corporitization-commercialization of all these good ideas are abusing the innovation and I personally do not want to participate in that in any way. For some reason some people like to think that all these articulated ideas can only be attached to paranoia or fear which is wrong approach to take when one needs to be critical.

Anyways I firmly believe that everyone should be careful about their own deeds. When you drive a car you need to be careful, same for browsing online or using Google services. Being careful and being critical is a good thing. I have been using computers for 20 years and browsing the net for 15 years. Being critical and trying to understand the technology behind the visible technology always helped me

Bamse · « **Reply #14 on:** February 22, 2010, 05:58 PM »

Unless you have some strange distinction between online and offline forces I guess you are talking politics.

You are still a raving internet shopper compared to Richard Stallman http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/

kartal · « **Reply #15 on:** February 22, 2010, 06:04 PM »

Unless you have some strange distinction between online and offline forces I guess you are talking politics.

You are still a raving internet shopper compared to Richard Stallman http://lwn.net/Articles/262570/
-Bamse (February 22, 2010, 05:58 PM)

Well I just know what I am talking about and taking my own prescription.

If I had a foundation that was feeding me like Stallman has I would have done the same thing. Unfortunately technology(not ads, not adsense etc) is where I make my daily bread.

superboyac · « **Reply #16 on:** February 22, 2010, 06:10 PM »

Google may be the new Microsoft. But everything they offer is still free to the consumers, so that's the big difference. I'm not defending google, I'm just pointing out something.

Dormouse · « **Reply #17 on:** February 22, 2010, 06:13 PM »

It' not just free, it's also the focus of a lot of the innovation that is having an impact on large numbers of internet users. There's not much sign of innovation from MS any more - just the development of their products.

kartal · « **Reply #18 on:** February 22, 2010, 06:28 PM »

It' not just free, it's also the focus of a lot of the innovation that is having an impact on large numbers of internet users. There's not much sign of innovation from MS any more - just the development of their products.
-Dormouse (February 22, 2010, 06:13 PM)

I think that the only real innovation Google has ever had was the Google search. The rest seems to be acquired through commercial acquisations, or acquired through using and expanding open source software.Since MS is a closed source company they need to write everything themselves. Anyways I am not a MS supporter either I just want to little clear up this Google fantasy land.

Dormouse · « **Reply #19 on:** February 22, 2010, 06:47 PM »

They were innovative in the way they did search - but basically that was just a better search and there were many examples of search working before them. There's a lot since that didn't exist before they did it - or at least not in a way that affected many people. Of course, if you avoid everything they do you might not notice it.

Lots of people seem to dislike Google now, and they have got very good at making money. But their ability to do that has been fuelled by innovation.

I dislike Apple and refuse to use any of their products any more (many years since I did) but I can't deny that they have been innovative in a number of areas that have paid off big time for them.

Bamse · « **Reply #20 on:** March 01, 2010, 03:42 PM »

Google has a good eye for others genuine innovation. Picnik just got bought http://blog.picnik.c...gle-acquires-picnik/ Picasa will be going places now

A better example of problems with such big players than an Iphone app. Picnik was (is) unique among online photo editors. Not a Photoshop clone at all, any pixel idiot can use Picnik. As easy as Picasa. They are happy now in their new Google Seattle offices and perhaps original Picnik will continue. If Google just wipes Picnik I can see evilness because there are no obvious replacement. If Picnik does not become just an added featue to Picasa Web Album then acquisition is good news

kartal · « **Reply #21 on:** March 02, 2010, 08:43 PM »

Google has a good eye for others genuine innovation. Picnik just got bought http://blog.picnik.c...gle-acquires-picnik/ Picasa will be going places now

-Bamse (March 01, 2010, 03:42 PM)

This just reiterates my stand on Google. I have not been let down by Google so far.

Here is what should not happen

internet=google
friend=google
google=not evil

Bamse · « **Reply #22 on:** March 03, 2010, 07:24 AM »

Google = Video codec

http://investor.goog...leases/20100219.html

wraith808 · « **Reply #23 on:** March 07, 2010, 10:22 AM »

Google does no evil: Open Sources reMail

http://bit.ly/b3yUgH

ppass · « **Reply #24 on:** March 09, 2010, 01:59 AM »

Google has a lot to learn from reMail. As those of you using gmail know, as strange as it may sound, gmail email search does not even support wildcards. So you cannot search your emails for donationco* as you would in Google web search. You have to type "DonationCoder" full text. This blows my mind. Google, the king of search, does not even allow wildcard searches in its emails... Amazing, isn't it?

So, instead of killing reMail, they should integrate it in gmail.