Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#81

Post by Tyrannosaurs » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:22 AM UTC

AndrewDucker wrote: post #10

I'd love for Google to work out how much money they make from me in a year, and then to offer to go ad-free for 50% more than that. At least then I could make an informed decision.

If the internet has taught us anything (other than that there are many people with way too much free time) it's that a vast majority of people would rather not pay for stuff and as a result the number of people willing to pay will be so small that it's not really worth their while.

Outlook.com does have this option for $20 a year - would be interesting to know what the uptake is.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#82

Post by scholia » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:25 AM UTC

tnkd wrote: post #36

Registered specifically to post this. Today seems to be an interesting day on HN. First, Google's ad revenue's are down ~5%, every jumps up and down saying the end is near and they need to shape up before they fade into irrelevance. Now a hint of a forthcoming feature where they are doing just that, making a change to increase revenue and people lose their minds. Lets think about this. The feature is under Promotions…

> The feature is under Promotions, a section already laden with junk for most people

In my case, as a journalist, it includes a huge amount of useful email. Either way, I'd have to check it often, because Gmail's sorting into categories is abysmal. (For the same reason I have to check the spam folder multiple times a day. It contains a high proportion of legitimate email.)

However, it's a moot point because I turned the tabs off within a day.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#83

Post by ronaldx » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:26 AM UTC

igul222 wrote: post #30

tomp wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say it's exactly the reverse. The people who are most bothered by ads are the people to whom the ads provide the lowest value, and are thus the least likely to click them. For example, me.

Whether you pay to opt out of ads is a function of how much you hate ads and how willing you are to spend money in general. I think the latter factor is more significant.

Your premise is at least partially fallacious - whether or not I am willing to spend money anyway, is not the same as whether or not I am influenced by advertising.

If I spend money in the same way as I would have spent anyway, then the advertising has been a waste of time.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#84

Post by workbench » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:27 AM UTC

Feeling pretty smug about never jumping on the gmail bandwagon right now

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#85

Post by Colliwinks » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:27 AM UTC

asfasfafwF wrote: post #5

martin-adams wrote: post #2

Yes, I saw this, but seems to be limited to the Promotions filtered tab which, well, an advert next to an advert. I'm kind of okay with that. But it does make you wonder if this is the start of a slippery slope.

I think this is a slippery slope. They are essentially unsolicited mail that you never asked for. Some people will genuinely use the promotions tab to receive email from companies for which they have requested promotions be sent to them. Google is getting a free ride without permission.

Exactly: "Promotions" is not "Spam". There is already a spam folder, so these should go straight in there, if anywhere.

How does this fit in with the CAN-SPAM act?

"Unsubscribe compliance

    A visible and operable unsubscribe mechanism is present in all emails.
    Consumer opt-out requests are honored within 10 days.
    Opt-out lists also known as Suppression lists are only used for compliance purposes.

"

If there is no unsubscribe option, are google in violation? (Their get-out may be that these are not actual emails, but by making the transition from clear ad space to inbox, most people would argue that the delivery mechanism is irrelevant)

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#86

Post by workbench » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:28 AM UTC

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #29

So this is why they wanted to "help us" sort out our inbox? I feel defrauded into believing their motivation. Like suddenly realizing I was given a lift solely because my presence in the car allowed the driver to enter my estate or place of work. This is wrong.

> Uses free product from a company thats only profit comes from advertisements and selling user data

and yet you're surprised and upset when they use that free product to show you ads… please don't tell me you actually fell for that "Don't be evil" BS

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#87

Post by scholia » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:30 AM UTC

wjk wrote: post #68

The tabs are nice and all. But is there a way to have both the tabs and a button so i can see all emails at once in 1 tab? Been clicking around with no success.

Same here. I can't see any way to see all mail either, apart from turning off the tabs. Which I did.

The tabs were pretty much useless anyway, because the sorting is so bad. I have one important category of mail that's already tagged with a label, and Gmail had examples under three different tabs. That's so incompetent it's almost malign.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#88

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:31 AM UTC

OoTheNigerian wrote: post #71

sillysaurus wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One step further: If I'm in the "promotions" tab, then I'm actively looking for deals. So if Google can come up with promotions that interest me, then I'll welcome this new change. It's not like they're spamming our other inboxes. It's just the promotions inbox.

The promotions tab is NOT where you go to actively look for deals. You do that on Groupon. The promotion tab is where you get promotional emails from services that you have OPTED IN to receive emails from. So is it far game if the Viagra emails only appear in the promotion's tab? Google is sending spam (unsolicited emails). That is all there is s to say about it.

[deleted]

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#89

Post by Joeboy » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:38 AM UTC

chalst wrote: post #69

JonnieCache wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.roundcube.net/ is generally agreed to be the best webmail system. It's OSS.

I don't know about "generally agreed", but it has been adopted by Kolab and Mountain Lion as their email front-end, which I count as substantial votes of confidence in the product. I'm resistant to adopting this kind of technology: I'm no security guru, but the idea of having Apache/PHP invoking Postfix directly as an executable (i.e., not via SMTP/ whatever) makes me feel nervous.

> the idea of having Apache/PHP invoking Postfix directly as an executable (i.e., not via SMTP/ whatever) makes me feel nervous.

I don't know much about roundcube, but afaik it works by talking to your SMTP/IMAP servers.

Re: Ads in Gmail displayed as normal emails?

#90

Post by icebraining » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 10:52 AM UTC

Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #72

icebraining wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's in the "Promotions" tab, not the primary inbox. Personally, I think there are better reasons to leave Gmail (which is why I did so years ago).

So if I've got rid of that (generally I have fewer than half a dozen e-mails in my inbox so tabs were pretty pointless for me) where do they appear? My assumption was in the regular inbox.

Those are clearly "special" emails, so I don't think it can be safely assumed they would be processed the same way as normal emails - it would have to be tested.

Personally, I think Google added the Promotions tab exactly because they knew they would get a major backlash against putting ads in the normal inbox.