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What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

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Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#11
post #3

Don't forget, they tried "open" with Google Wave, which was a total flop. Developers did not buy into it. You can't expect to have it both ways, especially since Apple has proven that a closed infrastructure (walled garden) works.

They've tried "closed" with Google+, which is also a total flop.

Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#12
post #2

Everybody knows that SMTP is old, inefficient (hey, it’s nearly plain-text!), insecure, diversified (so many different servers to choose from!) and generally just bad. Clearly a closed web interface that only runs in Chrome would be much better for everyone! Then people could always be sure with whom they communicate, nobody could hack or social-engineer their way into other accounts, and everyone would have to follo…

Bill Gates is a goy so he can not be king of the internet. But Google would make a good king, so just bow down.

Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#13
Youth geeks are just discovering that corporations are all alike.

Nothing that the older timers don't already know since the mainframe days.

Google is just arriving to the point where the shareholders have more to say than whatever a few geeks scattered around the world might think.

Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#14
post #2

Everybody knows that SMTP is old, inefficient (hey, it’s nearly plain-text!), insecure, diversified (so many different servers to choose from!) and generally just bad. Clearly a closed web interface that only runs in Chrome would be much better for everyone! Then people could always be sure with whom they communicate, nobody could hack or social-engineer their way into other accounts, and everyone would have to follo…

SMTP is worse than plain text. It's plain text and base64 (which increases file sizes by ~30%). It's a horrid protocol, but sadly it's what we're currently stuck with.

But this is all moot as the article is about XMPP, WebDav and RSS. The SMTP headline is nothing more than clickbait.

Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#16
post #10
post #7

Can someone confirm Google is killing XMPP and its server-to-server federation? The Verge says Hangouts is not using XMPP but does it mean that XMPP (Google Talk) is definitely going away?

Well, the quote from The Verge is the following: "Singhal says Google had to make the difficult decision to drop the very 'open' XMPP standard that it helped pioneer."

That's for the new Hangouts service. If you can keep using XMPP with your Gmail account, then it's not that terrible. I don't know if it's a forced replacement.

We may need to wait for Google's announcement.

Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#17
post #9

I'm pretty disappointed by the recent dropping of standards that Google has been doing. I'm quite a sceptical person and I've never been a fan of any big corp, but Google has been the one that I've trusted my data in the most and that I've been happiest with. I still trust them with some of my data, but I'm rapidly losing faith in them and in fact I'm starting to think that Microsoft are a more "open" company... and…

I was a Microsoft hater when I was 15, too, but at least Microsoft makes their money by selling Windows, Office and the like rather than by selling my data. So even if their ‘cloud services’ such as Outlook.com are ad-supported in some way, at least they don’t completely rely on that, and I still have the choice whether to use Windows or not – all their services run just fine in Opera on Debian, too.

Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#18
Hyperbole aside (they won’t drop SMTP) that is a very narrow and unfair view on the situation, they at least tried for years to make it work with these standards and failed.

They were obviously the last ones doing so, and this new approach is mainly about modernising their infrastructure.

Is there anyone else of any consequence out there who is building these sorts of messaging apps on top of XMPP?

Google was the last one standing, and it just didn't work out.

And why cherry pick “standards”? how about web standard? Chromium is a very big commitment to them.

Edit: I should be more specific as I meant a federated implementation of XMPP.

Re: What's next Google? Dropping SMTP support?

#20
Yes, something like this:

"Our users do not feel the need for SMTP so much as to make it profitable, we are pursuing other options, hence our SMTP servers will be closed down in 3 months' time. You can continue communicating using Google+ or Gmail."

Honestly, they look very much like losing some real-world perspective. I mean real as in 'the table holding my keyboard'.

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