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Google Inbox

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Re: Google Inbox

#41

Post by scrollaway »

taeric wrote: post #33
scrollaway wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious? Are you saying Google, which has revolutionized webmail and is one of the largest and most popular email providers, doesn't "get" email?

Oddly, I agree. GMail is nice, but every time they try and remake email they completely mess up. Remember, Wave was supposed to be the next email, as well. Heck, they even had some odd push to get me to "plus" messages to people instead of emailing them. And really, I can't remember any feature that pulled me to gmail other than a) free, b) lots of space, and c) google's name. The non-threaded messages was actually s…

So they try new things... if those things fail, it doesn't mean they don't "get" email, it means the idea was not the right one. It's not like they turned gmail into Wave, much less Inbox. I'm glad someone out there in the big providers is trying new things.

If anything, to me, it shows they get email more than anyone else: They realize that it's deeply flawed for a lot of today's workflows and that a solution, in order to have a chance, needs to be built on top of the open standards of email and be backwards compatible with them.

Re: Google Inbox

#42

Post by SloopJon »

joshfinnie wrote: post #23

I am sad that this seems to be Gmail only. Why have developers lost touch with standard IMAP protocols so we can use these new fancy apps with any email provider...

The vast majority of my Gmail access is through IMAP, and I'm quite happy for Google to leave that alone. Their tastes are very different from mine, and change more frequently. I would not be happy to wake up one day to find that Google had shuffled my messages, created new folders, and randomly labeled my messages to look like the flag of the world cup-winning soccer team.

Re: Google Inbox

#43

Post by benaston »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #25

Slightly off-topic, but can we talk about that video? I would love it if Google could just sell me on the idea of their products for once, instead of trying to sell me on a twentysomething Brooklyn lifestyle. When I get hit in the face with these cheap emotional ploys that feel like an early 2000s Microsoft Zune ad, I get distracted from the actual product being touted. My resistance goes up. Does this approach work…

Agreed. Was left less enthused and more suspicious of the product because they couldn't/wouldn't tell me what it was in the prmo video.

Re: Google Inbox

#44

Post by gk1 »

GuiA wrote: post #19

Congrats to Google on shipping! Side question: am I the only person fully satisfied by my email workflow? I practice inbox 0- if an email is in my inbox, it means something needs to be done about it (whether it's replying, filing a bug report, writing a patch, etc). Once it's done, it gets archived. I star the stuff that I'll need to refer to later, like tickets for a flight or concert. I then have a few server side…

I set aside time every Monday for getting to "inbox zero." That's when I go through every email in my inbox -- including those I've let linger for the past week -- and do one of the following:

- If it requires a task and I can do it within 2 minutes, then I just do it. - If it requires a task that'll take more than 2 minutes, I schedule the task on my calendar and archive the email. - If it's just for future reference (eg, flight confirmation), I add an appropriate label ("Travel") and archive it. - If it's none of the above, then it either gets archived or just deleted.

So I don't have the problem that Inbox is trying to solve. What I'm wondering is will this eventually be forced onto all users, whether we need it or not?

Re: Google Inbox

#45

Post by maggit »

joshfinnie wrote: post #23

I am sad that this seems to be Gmail only. Why have developers lost touch with standard IMAP protocols so we can use these new fancy apps with any email provider...

An unfortunate reality is that IMAP is a really bad protocol. I encourage you to try implementing a client to get a feel for how difficult and quirky the protocol is. (Be sure to try implementing IDLE)

I'd love to see a better base protocol with a clean extension mechanism and a culture of documenting and publishing such extenstions. One can dream :)

Re: Google Inbox

#46

Post by mudil »

What I would like to see is Gmail becoming more like Zendesk/Desk.com. So I can effectively manage responses, contacts, etc, with a single click and pre-defined responses.

Re: Google Inbox

#47

Post by sz4kerto »

GuiA wrote: post #19

Congrats to Google on shipping! Side question: am I the only person fully satisfied by my email workflow? I practice inbox 0- if an email is in my inbox, it means something needs to be done about it (whether it's replying, filing a bug report, writing a patch, etc). Once it's done, it gets archived. I star the stuff that I'll need to refer to later, like tickets for a flight or concert. I then have a few server side…

I have tried all kinds of intelligent note taking apps, GMail workflows, and so on. At the moment I think that the Unix philosophy works here as well: I use simple but working tools and I build my workflow on/with them instead of using a complex, big app/infrastructure that tries to find out what I'm interested in. So I'm stuck with an email provider that follows standards, and I feel good about being able to move to another provider, etc. in case I want to do so.

In most cases, I know what I want, and I am OK with opening the app that can do the job for me. However, I want that app work properly and always. That's why I don't find Google Now too appealing: I don't want a personal assistant who tries to figure out what I want. I want a personal assistant that can do what I want when I ask for it. I don't need an app that scrapes my email for airline tickets -- I need an app that makes me easy to look up delays and departure times. I don't want an app that sets an alarm clock automatically when I have a meeting because there are two cases: 1) I need an alarm, but then I need to be 100% sure that it's set (and I don't want to double check whether magical AI figured it out properly) 2) I don't need an alarm (so I don't want my personal assistant to set up one). I cannot risk missing somethink: if it's not important, I'll try to unsubscribe.

But that's only my use case.

Ah, and +1: I don't want to keep emails. If I don't want to retain some information, then I just delete it -- there's no search algorithm in sight thats accuracy is independent of the search space. More emails, items -> less effective search.

Re: Google Inbox

#48

Post by Chevalier »

Hmm. I'm not sure that this is actually an email app. For the record, I think Gmail and its steady incremental improvements embody email perfection -- I can't imagine going back to life before auto-sorted tabs -- and I'm totally willing to give Google the benefit of the doubt. Still... it's tough to see how Inbox improves on Gmail.

Instead of email, I think Inbox is an effort to finally (FINALLY) improve GTasks by marrying it into Gmail and Google Now. GTasks is woefully lacking. My recent switch to Trello has absolutely revolutionized my work flow, more than I thought possible. Inbox's autotasking looks like a big improvement on the dumb list, but it still doesn't look like a real competitor to Trello's kanban system.

(One last plug for Trello, just because using it for an hour has turned me into a wild-eyed fanatic. It's AMAZING. Try it!)

Re: Google Inbox

#49

Post by egeozcan »

jaysonelliot wrote: post #25

Slightly off-topic, but can we talk about that video? I would love it if Google could just sell me on the idea of their products for once, instead of trying to sell me on a twentysomething Brooklyn lifestyle. When I get hit in the face with these cheap emotional ploys that feel like an early 2000s Microsoft Zune ad, I get distracted from the actual product being touted. My resistance goes up. Does this approach work…

I also found myself thinking about the lifestyle of the people in the video, instead of the product. I'm no marketing expert but I suspect that this is a bad thing for a successful campaign. I haven't seen anything in the video that's not already available with the combination of Google Plus, Gmail, Google Keep and Google Now - maybe that's why I feel that way. Can't tell.
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