>My Google Mail account shows I'm using only a fraction of the 2911 megabytes of space I have available, but many users are pushing the top limits of that huge amount of personal storage. Google announced they plan to speed up their push to give users more space.
>This tells me two things, one of which I consider neutral, and one I consider bad. First, more people are using Google Mail for more things. That's neutral to me. I'm happy other people are happy with Google Mail, as I am for the most part, but I don't consider that fact as having an impact on small businesses one way or another. Everyone needs mail, Google offers several great programs for free or a small fee to handle mail for individuals and companies, and that's fine.
>The need for more space more quickly than planned means people are using Google to store too many photos, videos, and music clips. Those items take far more space than standard e-mail. The "rich media" world requires more space.
>However, I'm concerned because people continue to use e-mail as a storage system and database. That's not what e-mail is for, and using it that way always leads to problems. Google Mail does a better job protecting e-mail than many services, and better than a small company trying to manage their own e-mail server, but it's still an e-mail system, not a database and storage system.
>I've mentioned before my search for an easy and affordable way to get information out of e-mail and into a real database that can be shared with others, searched, and backed up properly. A few companies say they have a solution, but they want hundreds of dollars per user. That won't pass the small business budget process (the owner will gasp and throw the proposal into the trash). So I'm still looking.
>If you have a system you like, let me know. I'll continue to look, and will let you know when I find some affordable options worth testing.
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