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In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

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Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#61

Post by joering2 »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #10

I don't think Google cares whether its users are "passionate" or not. They've reached market saturation, so further spread of their products through word-of-mouth (via passionate users and such) isn't a goal at this time. With regard to their Internet service products, their goal seem to be to monetize the user base effectively, while avoiding wasting funds on unnecessary developer time. To that end, many of their pr…

Precisely. I can be as pissed at Google as they come, ready to pick up my pitchfork, but at the end of the month when I spent $120,000 on adwords and made $280,000 in profit as a return, I will gladly tattoo Google logo on my chest.

The scary part is they will sunset gmail eventually. I know from someone inside “L team” that founders hate how much headache gmail brings for such little return. Initially started at the boom of free email providers with fancy always-updating clock of how many extra megabytes you just got in last few seconds, fastforward today there is no money to be make in providing free email.

As they failed to secure sale for a reasonable amount and on fair conditions, expect eventually they will offer to keep paid accounts and auto forward anyone else to another provider for a year or so and then sunset gmail free only leaving gmail enterprise on.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#62

Post by sonnyblarney »

sjg007 wrote: post #54
sonnyblarney wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've worked in large orgs it makes sense. They had a strategic priority a while back to 'make mail good on mobile' ... whereas now they are folding it all back into the gmail umbrella because the overall strategic impetus would be to be gmail founded. So, short term strategy now important with the longer term issues of product portfolio. Collapse the 'good bits' of inbox into Gmail and move forward. You have to…

My problem with gmail and inbox is that the search feature is terrible. I routinely have to search for things that I setup like a to do list or a recent reply.. and I use a few keywords and nothing can’t find them.

This!

This is a huge deal.

Searching for stuff in my business inbox is important. If you can't trust search, then you have to manually walk through those emails.

And because Gmail 'clusters' threads together, it's often impossible to find something.

This has disrupted me on a few occasions.

If you can't trust your email ...

Gmail team: make 'search' by default more inclusive. Err on the side of including stuff. It's kornballs that you don't do this already.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#63

Post by wybiral »

I don't even try to understand Google anymore. They released "Hangouts Chat" not to be confused with Google Hangouts, which is not to be confused with their Allo, Duo, Voice, or Messenger apps. On the upside, they shut down Google Spaces and replaced Gmail Chat with Google Hangouts (not Hangouts Chat, that's different) and now they've canned Inbox and are keeping the Gmail app.

Huh?

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#64

Post by sonnyblarney »

Aeolun wrote: post #43
sonnyblarney wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've worked in large orgs it makes sense. They had a strategic priority a while back to 'make mail good on mobile' ... whereas now they are folding it all back into the gmail umbrella because the overall strategic impetus would be to be gmail founded. So, short term strategy now important with the longer term issues of product portfolio. Collapse the 'good bits' of inbox into Gmail and move forward. You have to…

The problem is, in companies with billions to burn the design is largely decided upon by people that have no business doing any design.

I know of a 'top Brazilian designer' who was hired by Google and then quit because they just didn't get it.

I can actually see a shade of rationality in 'metrics driven design' i.e. 'picking the colour blue' on the web page. Small change in hue = difference. But beyond that - you need to trust your designers.

If they are set up with the right philosophy and don't let their aesthetic aspirations get out of hand ... you need them.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#65

Post by hamstercat »

paublyrne wrote: post #5

The new look Gmail has performed very poorly for me. Hanging for extended periods while changing views, and during search. I'm not sure why a UI refresh would have such an effect but I've been avoiding switching because of this

I have to agree with this. I have upgraded (or rather it upgraded for me a couple of weeks ago), and now everything I do is delayed by a couple of seconds. Archive an email? I can't close the tab otherwise the browser tells me I'm going to lose data. Send an email? Ditto. I wouldn't mind a better UI, but beside the added lag I don't find there's anything better or different than before.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#66

Post by bootlooped »

dawnerd wrote: post #17
paublyrne wrote: post #5

The new look Gmail has performed very poorly for me. Hanging for extended periods while changing views, and during search. I'm not sure why a UI refresh would have such an effect but I've been avoiding switching because of this

I hate their “new” tabs that tries to categorize emails. It’s just extra clicks to get to the emails I want. It’s forced me to go back to a dedicated email app.

Tabs were not something just introduced in the new UI, the have been in Gmail for 5 years. You can turn them off in settings, or drag and drop emails into different tabs to train it. Gmail has a very high degree of customization and available settings.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#67

Post by enobrev »

sorenjan wrote: post #40

I never bothered with Inbox because I figured Google would cancel it some day. I understands user's disappointment, but it can't be a surprise. This is what Google does. It's amazing to me that a company with close to 90 000 employees and that attracts top talent can't find a way to support their services longer than a few years. How much does a handfull of indian engineers and space in their own datacenter cost?

That about sums it up for me. Unsurprised disappointment.

Was great to have it. I'll miss it. I hope someone picks up where they left off. I'm unsure whether I'll be willing to pay for it if someone does.

Gmail is still fairly incredible overall, but it's simply par now rather than the revelation it once was.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#68

Post by refoundglory »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #60
foobarian wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was a fan boy for a while due to the general Unix geekdom impedance match, and I disliked the Apple ecosystem due to being led by big-ego designers, but I still gotta admit, Apple's incentives are better aligned with the little people's (the end users') interest. In the case of Google the users are the advertisers and you get what you get. I see the decisions play out internally at the adtech company I work for, an…

Looking at the prices for the new iPhones, I don’t know what little people you mean.

People who are not incorporated.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#69

Post by rajathagasthya »

paublyrne wrote: post #5

The new look Gmail has performed very poorly for me. Hanging for extended periods while changing views, and during search. I'm not sure why a UI refresh would have such an effect but I've been avoiding switching because of this

I hate how it collapses the left menu bar (Inbox, Drafts, Sent etc) to icons only and then has a big lag to open the menu drawer and show the texts when you hover over it. Gmail was better when it was simpler.

Re: In killing Inbox, Google takes another swipe at its most passionate users

#70

Post by bootlooped »

orky56 wrote: post #18
dawnerd wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate their “new” tabs that tries to categorize emails. It’s just extra clicks to get to the emails I want. It’s forced me to go back to a dedicated email app.

The feature/lab "Multiple Inboxes" overrides this. That's why I have been using and continue to use through Inbox and all the latest Gmail changes.

I wish there were something in between Multiple Inboxes and tabs. I would like to make my own tabbed categories for my inbox.
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