Still can't get over how they threw away Inbox[1]. That should have been the new default for everybody, not thrown away.
Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
31–40 of 75 posts
Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#32Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#33I shudder at the amount of retraining non technically sophisticated users will need. The doctors, teachers, and everyday people who just want their e-mail to work so they can worry about their real jobs will all have some annoying cognitive load forced on them for reasons that benefit Google and not them.
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Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#34It’s quite tiring how often they change this. Gmail is a horrible, cluttered, and slow UI. I have started migration to my own mail server with opensmtpd, dovecote, mutt and Rainloop for web mail.
If the major concern is the UI, not the Gmail server, using another email client (desktop email client) is an easier solution. There is a big gap between using another client and setting up a new email server altogether.
An alternative may be also paying another email provider, and probably setting up your own domain name for it, for easier migration eventually.
Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#35It's funny that right now there isn't a single comment that mentions something positive about the new interface.
It's either completely terrible or - more likely - people hate change.
Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#36How many (HN) Gmail users still use the Gmail interface? I remember giving up on it as a primary interface in the mid-to-late '00s, my laptop was crappy and the interface had slowed down so much that it was nearly unusable. There was visible lag while typing a message on my circa 2003 cheap HP laptop (I was a student, it was what I could afford). It was like getting sent back to 1996 and typing out documents in Word…
It wasn't as early as mid-to-late '00s, but it has definitely been a few years since I've used the Javascript version of Gmail. It used to be snappy and responsive back when it was introduced (when Gmail was the cool new thing), but in recent years it has been a resource hog to a level that its features cannot justify. HTML-only Gmail for quick update checks/read-only usage, local email clients for anything more complex I need to do.
Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#37Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#38How many (HN) Gmail users still use the Gmail interface? I remember giving up on it as a primary interface in the mid-to-late '00s, my laptop was crappy and the interface had slowed down so much that it was nearly unusable. There was visible lag while typing a message on my circa 2003 cheap HP laptop (I was a student, it was what I could afford). It was like getting sent back to 1996 and typing out documents in Word…
I suspect the answer is "a whole lot of us".
Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#39I shudder at the amount of retraining non technically sophisticated users will need. The doctors, teachers, and everyday people who just want their e-mail to work so they can worry about their real jobs will all have some annoying cognitive load forced on them for reasons that benefit Google and not them.
I'm starting to see real problems with the continuous upgrade way of life. Giving people clearer and longer cycle of use seems healthier (especially for non tech savvy people). Less random surprises, less regressions, less relearning, and when it needs to happen there's one clear hurdle to climb, if you want it.
I think there is multiple stages in technology.
A quick growth stage, typically when the subject is still new and being explored, and where a continuous or very regular upgrade is the best strategy. For example, smartphones or computers were evolving so much still not that long ago, that keeping one for more than 3 years was rare, and costing a lot in term of usability.
And then, there's a cooling down phase, when the evolution is much slower, and gains are few and far between. In this context, a consolidation strategy is better, and if one keeps the previous strategy, you can end up with changes that feel forced and are not actually evolution, but just something pushed because one has to push new things constantly.
Re: Gmail – A New Integrated Layout
#40Sweet, now I can get the worthless Meet tab directly in the web version. Can't wait for it to only be GMail and Meet and have no other apps, because their enterprise offerings (with other worthless apps) cause changes to everything else.