What Almost Made Me Cry Today: Gmail Edition

Oh god, oh god, oh god! Fuck you, Gmail, for making this ad, in which a tech-savvy dad uses all of Google’s web services to create a portrait of his adorable daughter starting the day she’s born, with the idea that one day he’ll share with her all the e-mails he’s written her, YouTube videos he’s made, and Google Buzz updates she probably would have ignored. It’s brought me—nearly!—to tears, because I, too, opened a Gmail account for my kid the day she was born. Well, also because I’m a wuss.

Also, a big fuck you to New York Magazine for bringing this whole thing to my attention, including this takedown by TiPb, which points out that this is just the Googleplex’s manipulative way of getting mush-minded parents like me to donate all of their children’s personal information to the Cloud so that Sergei Brin can sell it to advertisers. Screw you all! I’m gonna watch this again and (almost) cry.

Published by Matt

Matt Gross writes about travel and food for the New York Times, Saveur, Gourmet, and Afar, where he is a Contributing Writer. When he’s not on the road, he’s with his wife, Jean, and daughter, Sasha, in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

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