Gmail discussion groups have expressed both criticism and outright confusion over the new virus-scanning utility.
For starters, the service cannot be shut off, leaving users at the whim of the company’s filtering rules. The service also continues to block all executable file attachments it receives, something it has done since its launch in April 2004.
Finally, in a move even stalwart Gmail devotees have called bizarre, Google isn’t releasing which vendor is being used to provide the new service.
Of course, unless a user is in the anti-virus field, the option to turn anti-virus protection off and knowingly receive infected files isn’t likely to cause much commotion outside a limited number of industry professionals.
The bigger issue for many, however, is that the service continues to block all executable files, which prevents Gmail users from receiving emailed copies of applications, something many on the discussion threads purport to do.
Carl Stevenson, for example, an attorney living in Tampa Bay, Fla., uses Gmail as his primary account. According to a Gmail discussion thread he set up on Rage3D.com, the Gmail service prevents him from easily sharing applications between his multiple computers.
“I often need to email myself an application from my desktop to my laptop for use while traveling,” Stevenson wrote. “I can’t do that using Gmail, which is really inconvenient, because Gmail is really the only web-based service that provides the kind of storage capacity you need to share such large files.”
Gmail’s free service currently offers enough capacity for up to eight billion bits of information, the equivalent of 500,000 pages of email.
The biggest issue on the threads, though, is Google’s silence over the origin of its new scanning technology. For users familiar with the multiple anti-virus vendors out there, the lack of information makes it all the more difficult to assess the service’s merits.
”How do I know if this is a good thing or not?” Thomas Halley, a systems software engineer from Atlanta, wrote on GameDev.net. “I can’t fully speak to the strengths and weaknesses of the service if I don’t know which vendor they are using. It’s really absurd.”
Despite the complaints, Google has made no move to open up the channels of communication about the new service. According to an official statement released Monday, the company has given “thoughtful consideration to user feedback,” but has “no plans” to change the existing features.