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A new Gmail inbox

gmailblog.blogspot.com

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Re: A new Gmail inbox

#221
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the compose that pops up and doesn't open in a new page? 100% agree.

Go to your gmail. Enable keyboard shortcuts. Press "d".

I prefer shift+C since it makes Chrome pop up a separate window (I like alt-tabbing to reference when writing e-mails... maybe that's just me)

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#222
post #205

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…

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 think that labels become problematic because the more things you label, the closer looking at "All emails labeled X" looks just like a search.

In other words, to be the most useful, a label needs to have as few uses as possible, or else become a separate folder for perusing. And if a label looks just like a search, skip the clutter and just do the search. If its a bin for perusing, well, good on this new feature.

I can't imagine when I'd want to view all emails labeled "Invoice", for instance. If I know I'm looking for a software key, then doing a search will be much faster than clicking on the label and eyeballing it for the right one.

In your example that's also something you have to label manually. If you forget one and then look through the "Invoice" label folder and don't find it, you have to go do a search anyway. As much as possible I want to reduce the number of things that could be screwed up by mere forgetfulness. So by not using labels there is no chance of screwing it up, and there's less work to do to boot.

So I'd rather not concern myself with taking the time to organize my to-be-archived emails into labels unless it represents a non-trivial gain, and I don't think the gains are very large in nearly every practical case. "Needs-reply" is the only one, since it represents a separate queue of to-do emails.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#223
post #205

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…

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 don't label either - searching has served me fine.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#224

My browser has a navigation bar and a tab bar, and now my gmail has a navigation bar and a tab bar inside those. This started over a year ago, and has gotten even worse. http://threehuskies.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/why-is-there-a-...

How do you plan to archive or delete emails without buttons to do so?

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#225
post #204
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how obnoxious the new compose it, it is getting hard to trust them to do the right thing with Gmail.

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

I have wanted that exactly zero times. But I wouldn't object to the the new compose if you could maximize it without popping it out into a new window, and make that the default. The problem is not the new features, but the functionality they removed.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#226

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…

Knee-jerk reactions are a big problem on this site. Perhaps there should be a delay between a story posting and comments being allowed.

But on the other hand, what other type of reaction is possible to a blog post that advertises a new feature that most people cannot try out yet and form measured reactions to?

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#227

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…

Your complaint is a common one and essentially boils down to, "There are many comments here that are not appropriate for HN."

People can say what they want to say, at least within HN guidelines. It's not like these are YouTube comments. And I'm not sure about the almost universal belief in execution over idea either, or at least I'm happy to be one of your counterexamples. Can't both be important?

Finally, it's not like Google's proposal is equivalent to some kid's after-school project. Context matters, and in the latter case it would be quite unfair to trash it. If anything, people know that parts of Google read HN and hope somehow that their voices get heard.

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. But I for one, can't stand it. I don't like composing emails on top of other things in the background. I find it jarring. For similar reasons, I also don't like the reply mode where you are editing within a conversation. I guess I like viewing messages in the context of a conversation, but not composing them that way. I just wish that I had the option of composing things separately. C'est la vie.

Have you given the 'd' keyboard shortcut a go?

Ah.. Thank you so much... Now to figure out how to adjust my user scripts to trigger that from the Compose button too...

Re: A new Gmail inbox

#229
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how obnoxious the new compose it, it is getting hard to trust them to do the right thing with Gmail.

Going to add that I love the new compose. What makes you say that it's obnoxious?

I don't want the visual clutter of having other stuff behind the message I'm writing, and I want to use the full screen, or close to it. The new compose forced me to "pop out" the window and maximize it, leaving compose to be 3 operations.

As several people have pointed out there's actually a keyboard shortcut that does what I want ("d") I didn't know about, so now I'm at least slightly less grumpy about it.

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