I continue to be a big fan of Gmail (and if you’re using Firefox, you can make Gmail look real purty with the Better Gmail extension). It’s a cinch to find old messages and accessible from anywhere. But news from the past week contains reminders that the on-line computing “cloud” upon which we are increasingly reliant can sometimes send a lightning bolt down on our heads. One on-line storage service lost most of its customers’ files and couldn’t do much more than issue an apology.
While Gmail has served me reliably, other users have not been so lucky. That’s why I recently backed up all my Gmail messages to my hard drive. The loss of my e-mail archive would be devastating to me and it’s worth the extra hassle. Someday, cloud computing may be sufficiently reliable that such precautionary measures may not be necessary, but that day hasn’t arrived yet.
