Comments on: The downside of Web 2.0 http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2005/12/05/the-downside-of-web-20 Rachel Blum on Software, Games And The Rest Of Life Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:41:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Josh http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2005/12/05/the-downside-of-web-20/comment-page-1#comment-65 Josh Mon, 19 Dec 2005 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2005/12/05/the-downside-of-web-20#comment-65 <p>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.</p> <p>Of course, my last three years of emails exist only only on yahoo's servers, so who am I to talk?</p> 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?

]]> By: Robert Blum http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2005/12/05/the-downside-of-web-20/comment-page-1#comment-51 Robert Blum Sat, 10 Dec 2005 15:13:14 +0000 http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2005/12/05/the-downside-of-web-20#comment-51 <p>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)</p> <p>They're not immune to other problems, though. Internet outages - data inaccessible. Backbone provider squabbles (Level3!) - data inaccessible. And, even worse, they <em>modify</em> my data.</p> <p>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.</p> 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.

]]> By: Mark http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2005/12/05/the-downside-of-web-20/comment-page-1#comment-50 Mark Sat, 10 Dec 2005 06:29:16 +0000 http://www.robertblum.com/articles/2005/12/05/the-downside-of-web-20#comment-50 <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> 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.

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