Everything is Broken

Don't do it ...

I’m continually startled by the way people use email in the Philippines. Using a Yahoo address is phenomenally popular, even for business. I could forgive a mom and pop company from using momandpop@yahoo.com.ph, but when you get top management handing you cards saying ceo_888@yahoo.com.ph there is something clearly very wrong.

In no particular order, here are a few reasons why you should NOT use yahoo for your business email address.

• It looks tacky. It looks cheap. It gives the sense that your company is run on a shoestring and has no marketing department.
• Getting your own domain is cheap and easy. You can get an email/webhost in the US for USD 3 a month, and a domainname for USD 9 a year. If you really can’t bear to part from your Gmail or YahooMail, then set up your own domain to point to their service. Gmail doesn’t even charge for this, and Yahoo’s charge is minimal. At least you’ll seem to have control of your own destiny.
• Information leakage. Despite Google’s and Yahoo’s best assurances, there is no guarantee that your vital business documents will stay secret. While I believe they try hard to protect your information, there is always the chance of a rogue administrator inside the company reading and using information in your account. If you run your own mailserver, this is not an issue.

So do yourself a favour, get your email hosted properly somewhere. You know who you are.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Life, Philippines, Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.