Now that we’ve gotten everybody excited about the “Web 2.0″, I thought it was time to point out a few shortcomings. Actually, they all boil down to the same thing – you don’t own your data any more.
Point 2: Google again, I’m afraid. Sorry – they make the biggest target. Not only can they hold my data hostage – now they’re also fiddling with my data. They recently introduced “anti-virus scanning”. (Which is a rather silly name. It’s virus scanning – it’s not like they’re trying to scan for anti-virus’, right?). As part of that “service” they chose to remove any file that they can’t disinfect.
While it’s a noble goal to protect us all from infections, the fact remains: Google is actively removing data that was sent my way. Now granted, e-mail was never meant for reliable communications – but that’s the way it’s used these days. And keep in mind, we’re living in dangerous times – so what if the Bush administration decides Google should remove all “terroristic” content?
Point 3: Your data is someplace else. If the service ever goes away, so does your data. Unless you keep backups.
It all boils down to one thing. If you entrust your data to somebody else, you live on their good will. Since I’m hardly the only one seeing that, I predict that the near future will bring quite a few applications that will sync up your local data and your web data.
In the meantime, make sure you don’t trust critical data to web services. If you have to do it, make sure you can back up your data. And that means everything, not just some parts. (Yes, I’m talking about you, Basecamp!)
If Google ever goes away? I think the odds are better that you will die or at least your personal server’s hard disk will crash than Google disappearing. And six minutes here and there would probably compare favorably with your own server’s hard disk’s downtime over time. Google’s distributed redundant storage system will survive the internet in an all-out nuclear holocaust.
The issue is more that your data is more easily subject to subpoena and harder to “delete,” since even if you trash it online, bits and pieces of it will remain in Google’s system all across the country for months and probably years.
Point well taken. The ‘away’ comment is referring to services in general though, not only Google. And I think there are plenty of web services that are very useful, but might go away any time. Google is sufficiently big to weather most of those problems. (Cashflow, legal issues, takeover – all not really an issue for them right now)
They’re not immune to other problems, though. Internet outages – data inaccessible. Backbone provider squabbles (Level3!) – data inaccessible. And, even worse, they modify my data.
My point remains – if the data is critical to you, keep it under your control. Don’t entrust it to another entity that you cannot control. And always make sure there’s an exit strategy.
Blackberry’s recent troubles should be a bit of a wakeup call regarding the vulnerability of seemingly solid companies. Point being: nobody’s going to look out for you like you will. Best to have ownership of all the data that’s important to you.
Of course, my last three years of emails exist only only on yahoo’s servers, so who am I to talk?