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Gmail Launches Add-ons

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Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#61

Post by alooPotato »

bgentry wrote: post #50
alooPotato wrote: post #5

We (Streak yc s11) were a launch partner on this and launched our Add-on today. Even though we already have a chrome extension for desktop, add-ons allowed us to live inside the native Gmail mobile apps. Happy to answer any questions about the add-on platform....

I’m unable to install the Streak gmail add-on in my GSuite org. The “install” button is just disabled. Is this due to a gradual rollout on Google’s part? I haven’t been able to find any settings in my admin section that would enable this. Also, are there any downsides or missing features of the add-on version compared to the extension version?

There is currently a Google bug where admins of a G Suite domain can't install any add-ons.

In terms of functionality, we're keeping our add-on fairly lightweight. On mobile, the add-on lets you deep link into our native apps for more enhanced functionality. On desktop, if you have our extension installed, it just replaces the add-on entirely so you get the most functionality possible.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#62

Post by oliwarner »

skybrian wrote: post #52
aNoob7000 wrote: post #29

Are there any concerns about privacy? I mean now you have applications that will use a platform that Google is known to scan for information. I know everyone has heard this before, but I would like to see what people think. A couple of days ago, people were all up in arms about phone companies selling your website traffic. What makes Google better than god forbid AT&T or Verizon?

First of all, these are integrations that you explicitly install (like installing an app), so that's obviously opt-in. That's a bit different from the adtech stuff many companies do without any benefit to you. Second, why do you ask just about Google and not the other companies involved? For example, if you're interested in the Trello integration, you also need to trust Trello with any data you send there. Presumably…

Opt in isn't enough to stop it becoming a toilet.

Years of Britney Spears Naked Screensavers and malware "removers" have taught us that users are idiots. You can net a bazillion users with one "unlimited space" add-on.

Obviously, there's some vetting but that doesn't always work.

These add-ons could run on Google's servers and only have connectivity to your inbox and session. Instead, this appears to allow companies to do what they like, sharting your data over multiple jurisdictions if they want. Doesn't fill me with confidence.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#63

Post by pfarnsworth »

All I want is to be able to define a search, and have gmail separate those into a new tab, with a badge that tells me how many unread emails are there. That's all I want and my productivity would increase drastically.

They almost have it with multiple inboxes, but the layout is really shitty and I have to scroll around my gmail window to see the various inboxes. Why can't they just add this as another tab? It's infuriating that such a simple and useful feature doesn't exist yet. This is why having a monoculture for things like email is a bad idea, they don't really care.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#64

Post by alooPotato »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #63

All I want is to be able to define a search, and have gmail separate those into a new tab, with a badge that tells me how many unread emails are there. That's all I want and my productivity would increase drastically. They almost have it with multiple inboxes, but the layout is really shitty and I have to scroll around my gmail window to see the various inboxes. Why can't they just add this as another tab? It's infur…

+1

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#65

Post by halfteatree »

oliwarner wrote: post #62
skybrian wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, these are integrations that you explicitly install (like installing an app), so that's obviously opt-in. That's a bit different from the adtech stuff many companies do without any benefit to you. Second, why do you ask just about Google and not the other companies involved? For example, if you're interested in the Trello integration, you also need to trust Trello with any data you send there. Presumably…

Opt in isn't enough to stop it becoming a toilet. Years of Britney Spears Naked Screensavers and malware "removers" have taught us that users are idiots. You can net a bazillion users with one "unlimited space" add-on. Obviously, there's some vetting but that doesn't always work. These add-ons could run on Google's servers and only have connectivity to your inbox and session. Instead, this appears to allow companies…

> users are idiots

Please, for the last time, stop using this rhetoric. How would you like to be called an idiot? As a developer and a user, I'm deeply offended by this condescending attitude.

I really don't know what people like -- apparently opt-out is bad, so now we're using opt-in. Still, "opt-in" is bad because it's becoming a toilet? How do you expect _any_ platform to work? Self-host everything?

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#66

Post by eridius »

mseebach wrote: post #45
fortythirteen wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they "no longer scan Gmail for advertising ", or do they no longer scan Gmail?

They'll have to scan it for search. And spam, as sibling comment mentions. And, really, to store and display it at all, depending on your definition of 'scan'.

"Scan" means they take the data out of the "email" silo and use it for purposes other than providing email services to the user (such as using it for advertising).

Searching is not "scanning". Nor is any other normal behavior of providing email services.

So the question at this point is does Google keep your email data silo'd or do they use it for other purposes?

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#67

Post by fareesh »

jypepin wrote: post #25

So, I started using inbox a while ago when it was announced and I love it. Really. What's the state of development of it? Doesn't seems to be moving much and a lot of features from gmail are still missing, and I continue to see dev happening on gmail and not on inbox. Should I be moving back to inbox?

Came to post this as well. Inbox is a great product, but it seems to have been forgotten - probably because most of the users still use gmail, since getting "normies" to switch to anything is near impossible without social pressure being some contributor to the switch. Plus, Gmail still has a ton of features that were never ported over, which will also prevent some advanced users who rely on these features consistently, from switching.

Inbox is in a weird place - the features we want in Gmail are in Inbox. The features we want in Inbox are in Gmail. The mails are in the same place. The web clients are separate codebases. I can't imagine all the talented people working at either team are happy with this situation given the way their contributions end up not coming to us users because of this separation. If anyone here is on either team, or has some insight into this, I'd really like to understand what the thinking is behind this stuff. The same sort of goes for Allo, Hangouts, etc. What gives, Google?

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#68

Post by icebraining »

fortythirteen wrote: post #55
mseebach wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll have to scan it for search. And spam, as sibling comment mentions. And, really, to store and display it at all, depending on your definition of 'scan'.

My point being that "advertising" is a very limited use case. There's nothing necessarily stopping them from selling your scanned, very personal information to anyone.

Their privacy policy is very clear that they don't share personal information, with four exception, none of which include selling it. So, if you trust them, they don't.

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#69

Post by thrownaway954 »

gnicholas wrote: post #37
icebraining wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Labs were experimental features developed by Google itself. These are stable features developed by third-parties. They both extend Gmail, but that's about it.

But there's still a chance that Google will discontinue the gmail addon marketplace, just like they previously killed Chrome apps: http://www.omgchrome.com/not-joke-google-killing-chrome-apps...

Electron based apps seem to be the successor to Chrome Apps

Re: Gmail Launches Add-ons

#70

Post by vmarsy »

sushisource wrote: post #27
jypepin wrote: post #25

So, I started using inbox a while ago when it was announced and I love it. Really. What's the state of development of it? Doesn't seems to be moving much and a lot of features from gmail are still missing, and I continue to see dev happening on gmail and not on inbox. Should I be moving back to inbox?

Yeah, inbox seems vastly superior to me, with the exception that it runs like absolute shit on Firefox which I can only interpret as intentional, considering I find FF faster than Chrome for a lot of other stuff these days.

I specifically installed Firefox 57 so that I could try Inbox there, because as you point out, on Firefox 56 it's very slow (especially the initial load).

On Firefox 57 with that new Quantum CSS, I found Inbox to be amazingly fast (I'd say even faster than Chrome on my yoga pro 2 - except for the right pane of Google Hangouts which takes a while to load still)

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