GMail will now always show images by default
gmailblog.blogspot.com
GMail will now always show images by default
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#2I dont understand the (Tracking always?) part of the title.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#3I dont understand the (Tracking always?) part of the title.
One of the reasons email clients often don't load images by default is because when an image is loaded the server it's pulled from can track that it was loaded, and thus infer that the email has been opened.
By loading images automatically, this tracking will again be possible. However, Google may be getting around this by loading all images on receipt by the Gmail servers and then caching them as the blog mentions. That way a sender will only be able to track that the email made it to Google, not whether the end user actually viewed it or not.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#4I dont understand the (Tracking always?) part of the title.
Agreed, that seems like pushing FUD down everyones throat.
Why not leave comments to comment section and use original post titles instead.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#5Looks like gmail proxies the images via https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/. I don't see an issue, gmail is already tracking me, but the sender can't track me.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#6I dont understand the (Tracking always?) part of the title.
This part of the title was an editorial addition by the submitter. No doubt he his thinking of the use of images in email to signal that the message has been displayed (loading the image sends a request to the server, which can be logged). However, the submitter didn't read the article that he submitted, in which Google explains that they are storing copies of the images on their own servers precisely to disable these forms of tracking.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#7I dont understand the (Tracking always?) part of the title.
I'm the poster, didn't mean to be provocative. The blog post didn't explain how the secure proxy works. Normally email marketing uses a tracking image that has a unique url to detect which users open an email. I'm wondering what the behavior is for that now.
Is all email open tracking broken now? Good thing for users, not so good for email marketing campaigns/tools.
Was hoping some gmail devs would comment here. The blog entry didn't have comments enabled.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#8I dont understand the (Tracking always?) part of the title.
A common marketing tactic is to include a link to a small, transparent image in the email they send. The URL is personalized to each recipient, and so they can check their server logs to see who opened their email and when.
It's unclear if this technique will work against the new GMail approach; maybe Google will always fetch all images as soon as the mail arrives, which would immediately ruin any signal.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#9From the submitter title:
> (Tracking always?)
Looks like submitter missed this in the post:
Of course, those who prefer to authorize image display on a per message basis can choose the option “Ask before displaying external images” under the General tab in Settings. That option will also be the default for users who previously selected “Ask before displaying external content”.
Probably worth updating the HN title to reflect this.
Re: GMail will now always show images by default
#10I dont understand the (Tracking always?) part of the title.
One of the reasons email clients often don't load images by default is because when an image is loaded the server it's pulled from can track that it was loaded, and thus infer that the email has been opened. By loading images automatically, this tracking will again be possible. However, Google may be getting around this by loading all images on receipt by the Gmail servers and then caching them as the blog mentions.…
The downside, for me, is that I very consciously enable tracking this way for mailings where I want my reads tracked.
When you actually want to be marketed to, it makes it easier for the sender to tailor their content -- and I do for some markets want to get the tailored stream.