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by knz42
4450 days ago
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There are a number of fundamental issues with this service. 1. As a recipient my privacy is violated: a signal is sent automatically to the sender without my consent to signal when I open the message. A co-founder argues "the feature exists with other systems already": the difference is, these other systems are opt-in: as a recipient, I agree explicitly to read acknowledgements when I choose to download the alternative messaging client. As an e-mail recipient, I do not agree to this "service" and it is unethical to force it upon me. 2. The "expire" feature breaks the workflow of most e-mail users I know, including myself. Most users will first open an e-mail, quickly scan it, then mark it for later in-depth processing. If the expire timer starts at the first open, chances are the e-mail will have disappeared by the time the recipient re-opens it later. 3. The service breaks search: with Pluto mail stored at Pluto's servers, it is not possible to search across both Pluto and non-Pluto e-mails in one query. 4. The strategy to "provide e-mail client plugins" is not scalable obviously, due to the wide diversity of clients actually used. (Did the founders make a market study of which clients are actually used? On mobile, my own analysis shows there are at least 6 different apps in wide use. On desktop, at least 4. The development overhead of providing plugins to all is huge.) |
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1. Most email open tracking services do not alert the recipient (or require opt-in). Tracking email opens is basically standard practice these days. We don’t have numbers but I bet the majority of marketing emails track opens. Also, many new services such as Streak, Yesware, and ToutApp track opens without opt-out ability or downloads. The only similar service that we know of that has a time-limited opt-out option is Boomerang.
2/3. Pluto’s goal is to change the way people think about email. If an email is going to expire in a few minutes/hours does search matter? Pluto may not make sense for your business emails and that is ok. We are providing an option for people to use for emails that they don’t want to follow them for the rest of their life.
4. It is a big task and we’re working on ways to make Pluto as accessible and easy to use as possible.
David Gobaud Co-Founder @ Pluto Mail