Is Google blocking third party GMail notifiers?
Slashdot has already reported it. And now users on some forums have started complaining about it. Google is apparently blocking access to its GMail service by third party applications like GMail notifiers and clients. Some of these free applications let user access GMail accounts from their e-mail applications. This apparently does not benefit Google in anyway because the primary way Google earns from GMail is through the ads that are displayed on the web interfaces inside mail views in GMail. Google itself released its own version of GMail Notifier recently.
People have slammed this move from Google if in fact this is true claiming that they have the right to choose the client they want to check their mails. But the fact is that GMail is a free service that is maintained by Google and supported by ads on the web interface. And they perhaps have every right to protect that aspect of this wonderful mail service. Also, since it is still in Beta phase, you cannot really blame Google for taking any drastic step because they clearly say that GMail is not supposed to be used for mission critical purposes as it still has bugs.
Similar sort of a situation already exists in the IM Market where Yahoo! Messenger and AOL are constantly in war with third party applications like Trillian and Gaim which let users use multiple IM protocols from a single interface.
Contributed by: Sushubh, Publisher of Software news at Software Journal
