I never used AOL, but I had friends who told me that it was awful—that people kept bugging them, wanting to chat.

Google might be turning into something similar. I mean, as a Mac user, everything seems fine. But when I log into my gmail account from work, using Internet Explorer, Gmail wants to tell me what everyone is doing—based on nothing other than the fact that I've sent them e-mail in the past. People like my colleague at the nonprofit, who is a fellow night owl. And bloggers whom I would never presume to send notes to for any frivolous reason: Gmail wants Windows users to know whether they are at their machines at any given hour of the day or night.

It's kind of creepy. I understand that it's supposed to facilitate chat, but do I really want to chat with everyone I know? Do I want them to be able to chat with me?

And is chatting efficient anyway?—isn't there a certain amount of sitting around while the other person types? And having them wait while I type, producing lines that contain [cough, cough] typographical errors?

Hm. I don't know if I like this Brave New World. I think I want the old one back.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:30 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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It's so true.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 04:40 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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