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Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

googleappsdeveloper.blogspot.co.uk

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Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#91

Post by jpalomaki »

untog wrote: post #57

The fact that this was posted on the Google Apps blog is telling- I imagine that Google wants to roll this out to Apps users before general Gmail users. I'm surprised by the reaction in here- yes, it's an addition to the standard e-mail system. Do we really want that system to stand absolutely still? If that's the case, why are we cheering so much web browser development? Surely a browser from 1997 should be good eno…

Some weeks ago somebody proposed a way of indicating that he is just expecting a short reply to this email (for example yes/no). I think this is pretty close.

Also I can see uses for this on business systems. Notifications are send via email, could be useful to make it possible for users to also take action in their inbox without proceeding to web.

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#92

Post by jacalata »

icebraining wrote: post #63
makomk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The format may be open, the ability to use it isn't - you need to register with Google[1] or they won't display actions on your e-mail. This appears to be necessary for security reasons. Imagine if every e-mail provider did the same thing! [1] https://developers.google.com/gmail/schemas/registering-with...

That's bad, yes, and I wish they didn't require that, but it doesn't hinder the use of the protocol outside of their services, which is the most important thing. It just adds some extra work to the senders.

To hinder: to add difficulty. I'd say it certainly does hinder use of the protocol.

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#93

Post by dmbaggett »

m_eiman wrote: post #90
dmbaggett wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point, but consistency of email display went out the window with HTML email. We (and Google, and hopefully everybody else providing mail readers) put a ton of work into sanitizing HTML before rendering it in the preview pane. This makes mail display a delicate balance between safety and preserving the sender's intent. It's already a far from trivial problem, and is one of the hundred or so non-obvious reas…

Has there been any effort to create a standard subset of HTML that is safe for email? Seems like a problem worth solving once for everybody.

Not that I know of, and in fact real-live HTML emails often contain complete gibberish (made-up tags, etc.) that doesn't even validate; we have a bunch of fix-up rules for this stuff.

CSS is a complicating factor as well: some CSS is unsafe and must be stripped, which requires a real (error-tolerant) CSS parser to go along with your real HTML parser.

And identifying remote images: you'd think that was easy right? But do you know how many ways there are to reference a .png image in HTML and CSS?

At one point Facebook emails were even hiding web bugs in BGSOUND tags -- sneaky!

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#94

Post by BrianEatWorld »

m_eiman wrote: post #90
dmbaggett wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point, but consistency of email display went out the window with HTML email. We (and Google, and hopefully everybody else providing mail readers) put a ton of work into sanitizing HTML before rendering it in the preview pane. This makes mail display a delicate balance between safety and preserving the sender's intent. It's already a far from trivial problem, and is one of the hundred or so non-obvious reas…

Has there been any effort to create a standard subset of HTML that is safe for email? Seems like a problem worth solving once for everybody.

When I got dropped into crafting newsletters, I made the mistake of not looking into what different clients support only to find that my beautiful CSS buttons and the majority of the formatting was completely useless.

I agree a standard set of HTML and CSS for email would be a huge benefit.

It was only afterwards that I started noticing most beautiful emails are just sliced images displayed within tables. Thats right, tables.

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#95

Post by abraininavat »

d43594 wrote: post #35

Whatever happened to the Unix philosphy? 'Write programs that do one thing and do it well'. Last thing I want in my inbox. Call me a purist but email is for emailing people.

What happened to it? It's still around. People still write programs that do one thing and do it well. You're welcome to use them.

Are you implying that there ever was a time when all programs did only one thing and did it well? Which era was that?

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#96

Post by pfortuny »

calinet6 wrote: post #82
pfortuny wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I know of. Why? Links? Phishing would be much different if people read links instead of the label. Images? Really? Just attach them and do not add clutter to the message. Edit: did I say something wrong? Really ?

Sorry—I was reading into it as an analogy outside the context of e-mail: I initially interpreted it as a slight on the entire HTML technology. Making more sense now, sorry for the confusion!

I see and I understand. Not to worry. It looked lime some weird misunderstanding since the beginning.

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#97

Post by Ironlink »

yread wrote: post #7

I don't get it, wouldn't an html email with a form element do the same thing?

Unlike an HTML form, this could show up in the notifications drawer on Android.

I for one think it would be pretty sweet if I could just tap a notification to (for example) verify my email address & archive the message, rather than involving a browser!

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#98

Post by imissmyjuno »

dragonwriter wrote: post #74
crdoconnor wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many possibilities? There is nothing here that couldn't be achieved by having the user click on a link. And he's right, it does make phishing easier.

> So many possibilities? There is nothing here that couldn't be achieved by having the user click on a link. Because its machine parseable, it makes a lot of presentation options available that aren't available when you rely on a standard hyperlink without a data format with a standardized identification of the requested action. > And he's right, it does make phishing easier. Well, that depends on what the requiremen…

>Because its machine parseable, it makes a lot of presentation options available that aren't available when you rely on a standard hyperlink without a data format with a standardized identification of the requested action.

You're right: this addition turns email into a data or event queue of sorts with standardized actions that can be performed on it. I like it. Given that email is one of the few non vendor-locked communication technologies we have and we already have a lot of infrastructure to deliver it reliably, this seems a promising evolution path.

I'd like to see something similar for IM: currently SMS is the only open standard for instant messaging, and any other option locks you into either a platform or a specific client, which the other person will probably not use.

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#99

Post by ChrisClark »

gcb0 wrote: post #73
makomk wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The format may be open, the ability to use it isn't - you need to register with Google[1] or they won't display actions on your e-mail. This appears to be necessary for security reasons. Imagine if every e-mail provider did the same thing! [1] https://developers.google.com/gmail/schemas/registering-with...

And even if they implement the "open standard" in outlook, who says Google won't bait and switch (oh the irony) then, like they did with their youtube apps on windows mobile?

Oh yeah, bait and switch. If Google abused an API and went against the terms would you complain about bait and switch when the access was disabled?

Re: Gmail: Introducing Actions in the Inbox

#100

Post by bigtones »

We were one of the companies to support this during the launch announcement today, and we've been playing with it for the past month or so. It's an awesome feature for transactional emails that require a quick action to be performed - we use it for task notification emails where you can check off a task as complete right within the email client. It's based on an open standard, and plain old HTTP POST so not specifically tied to Gmail.
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