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A new Gmail inbox

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Re: A new Gmail inbox

#241

Post by shalstvedt »

russgray wrote: post #56
typpo wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I thought the point of gmail was that you didn't need to organize. Just search.

Indeed, that's the purported utility of Gmail: keep around every piece of information, so you never lose track of anything.

Does it work that well for you? How much email do you get on a daily basis?

(I work at a small software startup, SolNovus, that has been exploring this for a while, and for us, it doesn't seem to work that well in practice. Users can't always remember keywords for long-archived messages and have to resort to scanning pages of emails, even when tagged.)

Really, I think the ticket to having an inbox you don't have to organize is not to hide everything beneath the search box, however smart it may be. At some level, you need to incrementally generate queries, because the search will be imperfect. Things like search visualization methods that help incrementally refine queries, tied to more flexible and configurable machine learning, look promising.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#243

Post by vkou »

jpdoctor wrote: post #140

I assume this is about getting Google Promotions better airtime in people's inboxes. One more reason to remove the google flow from your critical path. We always knew there was going to be a time that they needed to please shareholders over users, and that time has come.

This has nothing to do with giving Google Promotions airtime... And everything to do with filtering all promotional material out of the average user's Inbox.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#244

Post by BariumBlue »

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…

well, let's say the majority of people are "smart" enough to not comment on something. Then you only get comments from the "stupid" people, giving an appearance those comments are from the majority, rather than a less constrained minority.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#245

Post by dmlorenzetti »

tuxracer wrote: post #192
dmlorenzetti wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about useful search? Currently, you can't direct searches within nested folders. You either search all messages, or search within one folder/label. So for example, I have e-mails grouped by project, and within big projects there are sub-labels: project1/testing project1/doc project1/proposals ... project2/testing ... If I search in "project1", it doesn't look in any of those sub-folders. Search also could use a g…

You can search nested labels. If you go into a sub label you should see the search box auto-populate with that label (including the nested on). For example I have a nested label "Invites" in the label "Calendar" (Calendar/Invites). Searching "label:calendar-invites blah" searches for "blah" inside the nested label.

I know you can search within Calendar/Invites.

The issue arises if you know the message you want is somewhere under Calendar, but you're not sure whether it's in Calendar/Invites or Calendar/Rejected or Calendar/DateNotSetYet. As far as I know, it's not possible to search them all at once, just by searching under the tag Calendar.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#246

Post by udfalkso »

simonsarris wrote: post #126

Oooh I like this very much, though it looks like I'm not allowed to play with it just yet on my account. Labels and filters solve several Gmail problems but demand too much footwork on my part. I found that my Gmail experience got better when I adopted this credo about two weeks ago: Thou shalt have but one Gmail label, and that label's name shalt be "Needs Reply". Either it can wait, and be there when I specifically…

I discovered another approach recently that works great.

If an email needs a reply, I hit reply and save it as a draft.

My drafts is now my one and only email to-do list.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#247

Post by DannyBee »

jedc wrote: post #206

Disclosure: I work at Google and have been dogfooding this on my personal account for a while. I draw a distinct line between my work e-mail and my personal e-mail. In my work e-mail I have a lot of rules, filters, automatic labels, and use multiple inboxes. I also need to read and deal with most every e-mail I receive. In this inbox I don't (and frankly wouldn't want to) use the new Gmail inbox. Based on many of the…

FWIW: I feel exactly the same way. I use this on my personal email, and it hasn't gotten anything wrong in months, while successfully moving a lot of the stuff i only want to tangentially care about to where it belongs.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#248

Post by bound008 »

saint-loup wrote: post #154
slg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this UI might have changed a little, the feature set isn't new. The Smartlabels Gmail Labs experiment does the same automatic categorizing and filtering. I have used the experiment for a while and it is really pretty good about knowing what is what and in turn minimizing the amount of email that I see as soon as it arrives. In my experience it has been much more helpful than priority inbox system that Google ro…

That's what the Gmail Labs is for: testing features before some of them being released to everyone.

Google Labs is a place where they incubate awesome ideas and features. Then they launch it into the main project and people hate it. Then they kill it.

I would rather they just left it in labs.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#249

Post by Draiken »

jaredmcateer wrote: post #212
mythz wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I much prefer the new Compose, it unobtrusively let me create an email whilst browsing through my history.

I too prefer the new compose, my only gripe is the unnecessary collapsing of attaching things other than files on the hard drive. The thing I attach most often is an image at a web address, to do so I have to hover the +, click "insert photo", select the web address option, paste in the web address and then click ok. Far too many steps.

I think these are completely intentional. Additional steps made for the few that use that stuff, and hiding out the complexity for the big majority that doesn't want that.

I don't think they would ever create anything without a decent reasoning behind it. May not be your reasoning, but there is one.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#250

Post by cm2012 »

jaredmcateer wrote: post #218
SCdF wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really interesting. You don't even label emails you've archived? I like to chuck "invoice" on everything that represents money changing hands: actual invoices, e-purchase emails (congrats on buying this game / software, here is your key), stuff like that. I also have a few others about specific topics. In terms of labeling emails that need replies for me if it's still in the inbox if it needs a reply / action.…

I like to keep a Zero Inbox as well so labelling things is absolutely essential, I have over 20 labels. Seeing the 2000 unread emails in my girlfriends inbox makes my eye twitch.

My unread 26,000 may kill you.
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