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Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can disable all the tabs and return to your normal inbox.
That, unfortunately, doesn't seem to work on the Android client (did that for the webapp). I'd give the app a bad rating for becoming more and more crappy, but I have no G+ account, cannot have a G+ account and therefor are unable to participate..
It's very likely a test. Google does a lot of testing that ultimately is not publicly released.
Feeling pretty smug about never jumping on the gmail bandwagon right now
Why the rage here?
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.
If you read their earnings release from yesterday[1], you will see this gem "Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 6% over the second quarter of 2012 and decreased approximately 2% over the first quarter of 2013." If you aren't careful you might think that is a "good thing" Gee it cost them 6% less to get a click? No, that isn't the definition you should use [2] the price they got per click went down. So when you get less per click, well you make it up in volume (which they did with a 23% increase in paid clicks).
What that means in simple terms is that the business unit that makes about 10x the revenue of all other Google businesses combined, is showing weakness. And Google is responding as they must, by increasing the opportunity you have to click on ads, as the price per click is a market thing (there are others who are offering ad channels).
This is the fundamental around all of the changes Google is putting in place in their properties (keeping you on their SERP, making everything G+, wrapping your experience in IOS around their applications).
I don't think the changes you are seeing are "wrong", I think they are inevitable.
[1] http://investor.google.com/earnings/2013/Q2_google_earnings....
Okay. So this style of advertising is known as "native/integrated advertising". As someone who runs a startup doing the same, I have few things: 1. Google has been doing this for years. It was known as "adwords". It's multi-billion dollars tool that gave birth to SEM. 2. It is limited to promotions tab. Promotions tab is where users go to check their promotional emails. I doubt Gmail will move them to real inbox. In…
1. This new "feature" is basically automated filters. Most folks who've used gmail for years have at least some filters set up. Google didn't say anything about throwing ads in the promotions tab, so this is a little...strange.
2. Slippery slope. How long until this populates the main inbox tab? I bet google could even charge differently depending on which tab you want your ads to show up in.
3. XMPP Federation. Google Reader. Google Wave. How long will it be until Gmail is either axed or full of so many ads that it's unusable?
4. Does Adblock / NoScript block these? Can it?
5. The history of Gmail was that it was a next-generation email service and started as an invite only club. Now, every email provider under the sun gives similar features, and gmail hasn't changed much. Personally I think that this is a good thing, it shows that the service is stable and the ideas were correct. But people at Google might think otherwise and might want to try to "innovate" more. Sooo... ads.
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.