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Google Inbox

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Re: Google Inbox

#91

Post by ricket »

Rezo wrote: post #74
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 wouldn't say I have a problem with email as it is today, but I am the exact opposite of you; I never archive or organize any of my email (besides rules for labeling email lists and groups so they directly bypass my inbox). I appear to have 11,600+ emails in my Gmail inbox. If I need something, I just search for it. As the Gmail search is really, really, good, I can pretty much instantly bring up any thread. I there…

I think you have to really consciously process your email though, in order for your system to work. I have gotten really bad at email lately and it's because of this: I leave my emails in my inbox like you. Except I archive something that I'm really, truly done with (never wanna see it again, not even for reference; archive = trash). But now my inbox is a mix of things I haven't yet read, I've read but haven't acted on, things I've read and keep in my inbox for reference, and things that I'm done with but I'm ignoring them so hard that they never actually get archived like they should. "Mark as unread" is used at a whim, usually when I read something on my phone and think "I should read this on my computer" so I flag it unread to make sure it stands out. Nothing is starred, except I have colored stars and mark a bill with a green star before I archive it (this is a remnant of a system I tried in the past but didn't fully stick).

As a result, I end up missing or not doing things, and re-reading emails I've already done, and my inbox is just a big chronologically-ordered mess.

This is my personal email anyway. My work email I'm a little more careful with, but it also piles up over time and rarely something will slip through the cracks. Outlook's flag/reminder system is decent at least, so it's manageable, but it still at times feels disorganized and just not quite how I want it to be.

Re: Google Inbox

#92

Post by aragot »

Chevalier wrote: post #67
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 usually get annoyed by too-hip advertising. But I think it makes sense here. Inbox is designed for mobile use, on the go, for a diverse array of tasks. Young urban people fit that demographic a lot more than a suburban commuter would, since that lifestyle comes with a pretty set routine and a limited variety of schedules. Such ads make less sense when you have too-happy hipsters dancing in a park about the latest W…

Indeed, the video got me thinking that they've probably done a lot of user testing already and they're confident to market it past the HN-type of people.

It also looks so confident that I thought I (31 years old) wasn't in their demographics anymore, and given I'm used to a Gmail interface which was invented in 2006, it may soon be going out of the door, but that's an inner fear of me which is talking.

Re: Google Inbox

#93

Post by exelius »

maggit wrote: post #45
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 :)

EWS (Exchange Web Services) is actually a very good and well-documented protocol built on top of HTTP/HTTPS. Unfortunately, it's Microsoft only, but it's the closest anyone's really come to a "modern" e-mail protocol.

Re: Google Inbox

#95

Post by dmayle »

aroch wrote: post #30

Is Inbox going to be broken on GApps accounts like Now is?

Disclaimer: Googler

In what way do you think Now is broken with GApps accounts? I use Now with GApps, and don't know what you're referring to.

Re: Google Inbox

#96

Post by DannyBee »

deweller wrote: post #75
DannyBee wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's IOS, Android, and Web.

Do you have a source for this?

Yes. http://www.google.com/inbox/ shows it

But i'll shortcut it and just offer an existence proof, since you can find all three pieces with creative searching:

https://itunes.apple.com/app/id905060486?mt=8

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

https://inbox.google.com

:)

Re: Google Inbox

#97

Post by exelius »

Rezo wrote: post #74
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 wouldn't say I have a problem with email as it is today, but I am the exact opposite of you; I never archive or organize any of my email (besides rules for labeling email lists and groups so they directly bypass my inbox). I appear to have 11,600+ emails in my Gmail inbox. If I need something, I just search for it. As the Gmail search is really, really, good, I can pretty much instantly bring up any thread. I there…

Yeah, I have a 10 year old GMail account with hundreds of thousands of messages. I'm simply not organized enough to stay on top of sorting things into folders on the off chance I might need to search for it one day. Search is the easiest way to find anything anyway; but people developed sorting techniques because e-mail search is awful on local clients.

Re: Google Inbox

#99

Post by DannyBee »

dmayle wrote: post #95
aroch wrote: post #30

Is Inbox going to be broken on GApps accounts like Now is?

Disclaimer: Googler In what way do you think Now is broken with GApps accounts? I use Now with GApps, and don't know what you're referring to.

Yeah, I don't get it, my gapps account works great with now?

Re: Google Inbox

#100

Post by magicalist »

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…

> 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

Originally? Lots of space, yes, but search and speed were big ones, as were threaded conversations, labels instead of folders, built-in gchat (that might have been later), amazing spam filtering, POP3 and eventually IMAP access.

Since then, priority inbox has been a huge win for me, and I don't use the tabbed inbox, but some people seem to like it. I'm sure there are a bunch of little things I don't notice as well that would make the 2004 interface feel ancient.

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