Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A new Gmail inbox

gmailblog.blogspot.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 313 posts

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#41

Post by aiiane »

moskie wrote: post #27
aiiane wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on why you feel it's disheartening?

It comes off as something being masked as a "feature," when in actuality it is just something that is trying to get me to spend money. It seems like it blurs the line between the "content" of my inbox and advertising.

I think you misunderstand what that tab is for. It's not a place for Google advertising; it's a place where promotional emails from any site are automatically sorted into - to keep them separate from other useful email. E.g. a clothing website that sends emails about weekly sales - that'll end up under Promotional.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#42

Post by typpo »

adventured wrote: post #14

So they're giving me sub folders ("tabs") for my inbox folder. How very 1999. What Gmail is really doing is adding more layers of complexity. Now they have hard wired folders (inbox, sent, etc), labels (aka custom folders), tabs in the inbox, and importance markers (starred / not). They're making the same mistake that consumed many of Microsoft's email efforts: adding complexity thinking that's how you add 'power con…

I would think this simplifies email organization for the average user. Normal people don't use labels extensively and don't customize their inbox. With sane presets for these tabs, Google can give most users an inbox that is organized by default.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#43

Post by aeone »

moskie wrote: post #27
aiiane wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on why you feel it's disheartening?

It comes off as something being masked as a "feature," when in actuality it is just something that is trying to get me to spend money. It seems like it blurs the line between the "content" of my inbox and advertising.

If you're saying what I think you're saying, I think you've misunderstood: if this feature is like their current Labs offering, the "Promotions" label is applied to your incoming mail that is best classified as a "Promotion", such as any promotional email from sites you shop at - it's not additional content that Gmail is feeding you. If you don't have any such email, I suspect this category would simply be empty for you.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#44

Post by ensmotko »

moskie wrote: post #16

It's not available to me yet, so I'm not sure how exactly it works.... but their example pic showing "Promotions" as one of the tabs is pretty disheartening. The post here says it's customizable, so I hope that is not mandatory.

Yes, you can hide the Promotions tab and even configure which mails get sent to this tab...

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#45

Post by owenjones »

bretthopper wrote: post #36

These comments are pretty sad. I know we feel the need to comment on everything right away these days, but honestly there isn't much to say about this feature until we've actually used it. HN almost universally believes in execution over the idea, yet here we are trashing an idea before seeing the execution. It's great that Gmail is trying to innovate and improve the email experience. Maybe this feature won't work ou…

Judging by their recent change of making GChats part of the Google+ Hangout system I am nervous and skeptical about the changes to GMail.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#46

Post by aeone »

bretthopper wrote: post #36

These comments are pretty sad. I know we feel the need to comment on everything right away these days, but honestly there isn't much to say about this feature until we've actually used it. HN almost universally believes in execution over the idea, yet here we are trashing an idea before seeing the execution. It's great that Gmail is trying to innovate and improve the email experience. Maybe this feature won't work ou…

While I do agree with your sentiment that some are being too quick to dismiss the idea without trying it, I'd like to add that this feature (or one very much like it) has actually been available in Labs for a while, so it's possible that some commenters may have real feedback on it already.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#47

Post by pnachbaur »

rayiner wrote: post #20

Wait, are these categories fixed? If so, more proof that gmail is now made for kids: "We get a lot of different types of email: messages from friends, social notifications, deals and offers, confirmations and receipts, and more." That doesn't remotely begin to describe my inbox, but then again I haven't been in high school for a long time now. Where is the tab for "bills"?

It sounds like that would fall into the "Updates" category

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#48

Post by adventured »

aiiane wrote: post #30
adventured wrote: post #14

So they're giving me sub folders ("tabs") for my inbox folder. How very 1999. What Gmail is really doing is adding more layers of complexity. Now they have hard wired folders (inbox, sent, etc), labels (aka custom folders), tabs in the inbox, and importance markers (starred / not). They're making the same mistake that consumed many of Microsoft's email efforts: adding complexity thinking that's how you add 'power con…

not forced to use it. What would you rather they add?

Who said I want them to 'add' anything?

They can make it possible for me to easily search a trillion pages online from one input box, with a great hit ratio for what I'm actually looking for. But they need to add comical layers of complexity - none of which is new or unique - just to sort my email? It's depressing if that's the best their Gmail team can do.

These 'features' have been done before by other companies and other services, and they didn't solve the sorting problem of email. They're just repeating mistakes other companies made many years ago. There's nothing special about sub folders for an inbox folder, even if you call it a tab.

I would argue that Google needs to think originally again about email, as they did when they first came up with Gmail, and not repeat the poor product choices made by other email products and services.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#49

Post by ensmotko »

bretthopper wrote: post #36

These comments are pretty sad. I know we feel the need to comment on everything right away these days, but honestly there isn't much to say about this feature until we've actually used it. HN almost universally believes in execution over the idea, yet here we are trashing an idea before seeing the execution. It's great that Gmail is trying to innovate and improve the email experience. Maybe this feature won't work ou…

Actually the feature is already live (or at least I can see it), so most of the comments probably aren't based on the blog alone.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#50

Post by aiiane »

mrgreenfur wrote: post #39

Seems like this is the G+ification of Gmail. All of googles other products (like all the examples shown: g+, zagat, offers, etc) get featured prominently to get more of those sweet, sweet gmail eyeballs. This is the monetization of gmail. Eyeballs directed towards actual paying or ad-supported services, which is a huge advantage.

Err, what? The labels only sort your existing email. There's no new content involved.
Post reply on HN