Slashdot Mirror
New Version of Gmail Being Tested
Keith writes "Gmail was launched on April 1, 2004, and has revolutionized the way many of us use email. The interface has remained largely untouched since it launched, but get ready, it's soon to undergo a change in what they describe as a 'New Version'. Only a select few people have access to use the new interface — mainly employees and trusted people outside the company called 'Trusted Testers'. From the ZDNet blog entry: 'Google lets every-day users who are fluent in both English and another language translate small snippets of English text into the language of their choice. This is how they can offer services in several languages without spending a dime on professional translators. Unfortunately, exposing sensitive information in this manner makes it hard to keep a secret. One of my readers, who wishes to remain anonymous, stumbled across an interesting snippet of text (which I confirmed exists) spilling the beans on a new version of Gmail that is either currently being tested, or about to be released to testing in short order.'"
Oooh! Oooh! Let's hope it has Flash ads!
-Stephen
The interface has remained largely untouched since it launched, but get ready, it's soon to undergo a change in what they describe as a 'New Version'.
Does that mean they're going to rename the existing version "O.G. Mail?"
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
So, on the basis of 2 words in a translation request, there is a whole new version of Gmail coming out ?
How the hell did this get to be news ?
Why use POP when you can use IMAP? As long as you can backup your messages on your local computers, I don't see any benefit of using POP over IMAP.
"without spending a dime on professional translators"
Why do people do stuff for Google for free? What do they get out of it?
seems to be a lot of mystery and intrigue around what is probably going to be minor cosmetic changes.
Are we all so enamored of googles many accomplishments that a site redesign becomes major news?
I don't think anyone was that concerned when yahoo and hotmail redid their sites...of course, they just made them more annoying.
Having said that, it will probably be that this rumored site redesign is when Google starts rolling out their sinister "Phase II"
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
I'm a nerd, It's news to me, it matters.
For what it's worth, Google is stopping to call it GMail.
All of the icons were changed over the past few days to say "Google Mail" instead of GMail with little fanfare. Not sure if this is any indication of things to come, or simply a branding effort coming from the top-down. Guess we'll have to wait and see...
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
So this will be a beta of the new version of a service that's still in beta?
I wonder how many years more it'll take for gmail to lose the "beta" designation.
maybe you missed the big, bold "Translate Phrase for Gmail UI" at the top of the image?
or maybe u missed the "Link that users can click on if they are part of the trusted testers program to go to the newer UI." that is near the bottom?
+1 irony for subject title this was posted under... "nothing to see here"
sigs... don't talk to me about sigs....
Here comes 7 more words for ya. At least it has a possible new feature, this time. (Breaking news! Now with 350% more proof!)
Hopefully they fix broken signatures when responding to email. Now it places my signature to the very bottom of the email - below the quoted text I am responding to. I am tired of cutting and pasting my sig every time I respond to an email.
word.
Maybe they can finally get rid of the 'beta' in the logo :)?
Overall, I think Google has a hit with their latest offerings. Google desktop for instance is a perfect addition to indexing and searching 65k+ Outlook emails (work still uses Outlook). Similar to Lookout, but doesnt crash Outlook. Google Documents has greatly improved and is perfect for sharing documents across PCs. Installing Microsoft office or OpenOffice is really optional now. While Gmail's interface isn't perfect, they have been making small updates throughout the months. I still think it beats Hotmail, Yahoo, etc...
It's just a nice webmail system - webmail has been around for years before gmail. I use gmail, I like gmail, but what exactly did it revolutionize?
It didn't suck.
In the context of webmail, that was pretty darn revolutionary!
We live, as we dream -- alone....
Or a "delete" button that goes to the next thread automatically.
Also, prior to gmail, users of free web mail had to constantly delete all their old messages so they wouldn't go over their quota. Also if you didn't log in for a month you got your account cancelled. Also you couldn't use free web mail for professional purposes because it stuck an ad on your outgoing mail. Web mail also didn't allow free forwarding, pop access, or allow you to use an address at your own domain....which basically locked you in. Gmail changed all that.
And it was the first mainstream Ajax application I know of.
I agree...it was pretty damn revolutionary. At least for those who pay attention to such things.
Let me click one button and sort by sender, subject, size, etc. That's the #1 reason I don't use Gmail.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Apart from a little thing I like to call "User interface that doesn't irritate the living fuck out of me." And almost instant searching of all my email.
Warning! Humor Process Failure. (A)bort (R)etry
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Except that it's the best mail UI ever devised. I have actually switched from my "real" mail client to using gmail exclusively. I love the "keep everything in one folder, tag it and search" approach. Much better than dozens of folders with filters. I love how threaded mails are displayed; I always know what people are replying to. Oh, and search is fast.
Furthermore, they don't try to create a "real" app inside the browser, instead concentrating on making an awesome "web app." Yahoo recreates a "real" application inside the browser. So you've got tons of buttons and drag and drop and folders and all that crap, all of which makes the application slow, and doesn't really help you get your stuff done. Google has the right idea: It's a browser, make it a great web app, not a shitty copy of a "real" app.
Pray tell, what is so shitty about the current gmail UI?