Google Could Try Bribery To Retain GMail Data
Heh, so Google is now displaying a public service announcement of sorts to GMail users trying to export their contact information to Facebook. It reads more or less like this:
Trap my contacts now
Hold on a second. Are you super sure you want to import your contact information for your friends into a service that won’t let you get it out?
Here’s the not so fine print. You have been directed to this page from a site that doesn’t allow you to re-export your data to other services, essentially locking up your contact data about your friends. So once you import your data there, you won’t be able to get it out. We think this is an important thing for you to know before you import your data there. Although we strongly disagree with this data protectionism, the choice is yours. Because, after all, you should have control over your data.
My initial reaction — yeah, it’s my data, I decide where to store it, and it’s rather presumptious for Google to try to convince me to do something else with it, after I’ve clicked a button to export. It’s rather like an “Are you sure?” dialog box taken to an extreme.
I think less “we know better” would be more effective. Here’s a suggested rewrite, based on recent events:
You’re the best user in the world
GMail believes we have the best users in the world. Period. The brightest, most capable group of this size ever assembled. We want to make sure that you feel rewarded for choosing GMail, and we want to continued to attract the best users to GMail.
So that is why we’ve decided to give you all $1000 cash, effective today. To claim your money, click the appropriate check box to cancel your export to Facebook.
GMail users, you are what makes this company great, and our goal here is to recognize you for your contribution, in a way that’s meaningful to you. Thank you for all that you do, and for making Google a place where magic happens.
Implement something along these lines and it’ll be like, “Zuckerberg who?”