Yes, that should be done much better, no debating that.
However, I’ve always found it a little disturbing that people tend to rush to doing the same thing as everyone else. There’s a million email services out there (well, there used to be), and these days, the barrier to entry to having one’s own email service is much, much less than it used to be. But still all sorts of people just use gmail. There’s a million reasons to not use it now.
Last, of course, though, is omfg people, you have to not be lazy when sharing your email address. Get it right. You shouldn’t be allowed to get a credit card, driver’s license, or sign up for a utility, when you’re obviously not responsible enough to pay attention to your own email address that is used as validation for so many other things.
The movement of a majority to gmail makes some sense. Android (and all other google services) basically forces users into making a google/gmail account. Not to mention people tend to flock to the same services once they start snowballing in popularity.
Before gmail, everyone (that I knew) was on AOL, which (probably) got its users from requiring accounts to use their network back in the day. I don’t remember it that well though, so I might be wrong there…
Gmail had huge momentum prior to Android even being launched, though, and this in the era when Google was still Doing No Evil™. Google did begin to strong-arm their position later… but, so much of that is people’s ignorance and laziness (and that’s not meant to be criticism) - the majority just don’t take the time or have the desire to understand how any parts of the internet work, what a standard is, and why things being centralized (everyone flocking to a single email service) is actually a terrible thing.
Yes, that should be done much better, no debating that.
However, I’ve always found it a little disturbing that people tend to rush to doing the same thing as everyone else. There’s a million email services out there (well, there used to be), and these days, the barrier to entry to having one’s own email service is much, much less than it used to be. But still all sorts of people just use gmail. There’s a million reasons to not use it now.
Last, of course, though, is omfg people, you have to not be lazy when sharing your email address. Get it right. You shouldn’t be allowed to get a credit card, driver’s license, or sign up for a utility, when you’re obviously not responsible enough to pay attention to your own email address that is used as validation for so many other things.
The movement of a majority to gmail makes some sense. Android (and all other google services) basically forces users into making a google/gmail account. Not to mention people tend to flock to the same services once they start snowballing in popularity.
Before gmail, everyone (that I knew) was on AOL, which (probably) got its users from requiring accounts to use their network back in the day. I don’t remember it that well though, so I might be wrong there…
You’re very much right, and it is an unfortunate truth…
Gmail had huge momentum prior to Android even being launched, though, and this in the era when Google was still Doing No Evil™. Google did begin to strong-arm their position later… but, so much of that is people’s ignorance and laziness (and that’s not meant to be criticism) - the majority just don’t take the time or have the desire to understand how any parts of the internet work, what a standard is, and why things being centralized (everyone flocking to a single email service) is actually a terrible thing.