I have gleefully embraced many new free internet based storage solutions and applications, including Flickr, Blogger, Writely and Furl. I have also touted them as signs of the revolution that will move us from reliance on our desktops. However, in the spirit of learning from mistakes, here is an example of what can happen when we rely so heavily on free internet applications and file storage that we don’t own or control.
I stumbled on this story today that made me consider how I will use these services in the future. I am not a member of the Yahoo! Group in the story, but as a member of another Yahoo! Group, it does give me pause. It has certainly reminded me of the “here today / gone tomorrow” potential of any of these wonderful free tools. Where possible, it makes sense to backup content to the lowly desktop. I have already made several copies of my Furl data as I would lose hours and hours of internet surfing if I lost my account. While the ol’ desktop may not be flashy, for now, it is more dependable. . .