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Google Begins "Gmail 2.0" Rollout
Stony Stevenson writes "Google on Tuesday confirmed it is giving Gmail a new look. This blog post has screenshots of a new Gmail interface that has been made available to a limited number of users. They are calling it "Gmail 2.0" even if Google isn't. Google confirmed the update is underway at its new San Francisco office, just prior to a briefing on an unrelated upcoming Google announcement. A Google spokesperson said that the new look has been made available to about one percent of all Gmail users and is being rolled out the rest on an ongoing basis."
This is a triumph.
I guess I didn't realize that gmail was past 1.0 yet. I thought it was still a beta.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
How much do you trust Google?
...thanks to a JavaScript back-end rewrite...I highly doubt that GMail uses JavaScript on the back-end. In fact, it is pretty well known that GMail is written in Java and only uses JavaScript on the front-end.
That's an Alpha.
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Yeah, I noticed a couple days ago that my Gmail interface changed a bit. After RTFA'ing I confirmed that I indeed have the new version, but calling it Gmail 2.0 is just plain hype!!
Discussion System prefs link: http://slashdot.org/users.pl?op=editcomm
I noticed this this afternoon. I haven't read TFA, so I don't know if they mention it, but switching from listing/viewing messages is pretty much instant now. It appears to pre-load messages, which is nice.
Apparently, one of Google's goal in releasing this new version is to provide a new code framework that will help them to speed up Gmail's response time in a number of areas. One feature of note is that Gmail now pre-fetches and caches messages in the current view, so when you click on a message, it loads almost instantly. On my broadband connection, I see much improved response--clicking a message now displays it almost instantly--no lags or delays.
-Jim
http://gmailtips.com/
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
What is a beta of a beta?
A Microsoft beta
If i had one dollar for every brain you dont have, i would have $1.
My wife, of all people, ended up getting this--she called me in yesterday and wanted to know "What the hell is wrong with [my] Gmail?" Among other things, it looks like they've further integrated the IM features (which we both hate) and made them far more difficult to disable. She's one of those computer users that gets absolutely terrified and unnerved if anything about her computing experience changes, so this is not at all a positive thing. Fortunately, there is an "Older version" link in the upper right corner that reverts back.
Just give me bigger attachments.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
...how 'bout first enabling that promised IMAP interface so I can ditch the unreliable POP on my iPhone?[end-o-whine]
Twelve-and-three-quarter inches. Unyielding. This wand belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange.
Go to http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2
Worked for me
This must be why I noticed a new message from Gmail advising me to disable firebug for gmail.google.com.
I'd just be happy if my account would get the much touted IMAP feature.
the ability to modify the appearance of labels on a per label basis. Would make it easier to sort at a glance.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
What is a beta of a beta?
that would be a fizbin *.
(*) except on tuesdays
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
No, a Microsoft 1.0 is Alpha, MS SP1 is Beta and MS SP2 is the 1.0 version. When the product is good enough it's discontinued and the whole cycle starts again.
From TFA : "an updated version of Gmail that's supposed to be faster than the current one"
If that is the case, I'm not even sure it will be noticeable, Gmail is already one of the fastest, most responsive web app (not to say web site) I know of...
Still looks "bargain basement." They need to get a more professional look to it like the new "Live" Hotmail has because at the moment, it looks like something your mom would knock up as her first webpage.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
It's great that they're improving the interface, and being able to access mail stored on Google's servers via IMAP is a nice addition. But what I REALLY want is to be able to store my mail on MY server, and access it via Google's awesome interface. Really, just use Google as an IMAP client to my mail server.
I know they offer to do that via POP, but I want the "live" copy of my mail to remain on my server, and for Google to access it via IMAP. I don't like the idea of all my mail being stored on someone else's server, especially when I'm not paying anything for it and therefore should have no real expectation of it still being there tomorrow.
Google for domains seems at first glance to do this, but your mail is actually still stored on Google's servers.
Has anyone ever heard of this sort of feature coming in the future?
is it compatible with Comcast ?
Did they decide that Konqueror is a 'supported' browser yet? Or is it still incapable of supporting Gmail in some mystical way?
Ie: Can I stop changing the URL to "https" after logging into my account?
Chewie does not get a medal. Come on, George. Can a Wookie get a medal?
No, that's a bollocks.
If it weren't for this article I wouldn't have even noticed that i was using "gmail 2.0" are you sure it isn't more like going from gmail .5 to .6? it's still in beta....
I think that online contacts would be a big boon for me personally. I don't have a particularly sophisticaed cell-phone, and while it's great to have my contacts at home, I'd like to be able to access them while travelling. OTOH, between security breeches and corporate data-mining (Google wouldn't do this if they didn't think they made money off it), I'm hesitent to put so much information in one online location that everyone knows about. So I'm excited, but apprehensive... but not as much of either as I am over the medical directory.
Because it's true.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
I noticed yesterday that two things had changed about my Gmail: the "Loading.." button is now in the middle of the screen, not top right as before, and ... <drum roll>
...the whole thing is much, much faster!
Now I know why.
Ugh. Windows Live Hotmail is also known as 'Scourge of the Internets' Hotmail. It's too damn slooooooooooow. If there's something good about gmail's interface, it's its no-clutter fast interface. Hell, I ditched outlook for gmail just for the superior mail search.
BTW. If you were going for a 'funny' score, you *really* need to work on your sarcasm, sir.
It compiles! Quick ship the release candidate :D
Just set your bookmark to https://mail.google.com/ - you'll start & stay in SSL. I've been doing this for a really long time ( I can't remember when I even created the bookmarks I have in all my browsers to do exactly this. )
Please ignore any obvious problems in this post.
...if it passes HTML validation now?
I am not really here right now.
Wouldn't it make sense to finish rolling out IMAP across the board before another hefty upgrade?
I don't know what their actual problem is...Design by committee probably. I think one of Apple's greatest strengths right now is that they have a real solid clarity of vision; they have people who know what would be cool and useful and they give them the freedom to make it happen.
Microsoft has bits and pieces...Some teams know what they're doing, and put out good products...I'm not displeased with IE 7, or Office, aside from the usual proprietary crap. Vista...Well, I haven't used it much, so I'll not claim to be an expert. But it fails on some of the most fundamental stuff, stuff that should be right as a given, like file copying and responsiveness. The security features are executed really poorly from a user standpoint; it's much more friendly to turn them off.
To me that just suggests that no one is in charge. The worst design decisions almost always result from committee and compromise. You need to hire a good lead, and let them stamp their vision on it.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
It works much better on my iPod touch. For one I automatically get mobile view instead of defaulting to (an extremely slow to load) full html view, and now there is a "basic html" option, which works a lot faster than how the full html view worked before. The full html view is no longer available, though.
--- What?
In a tab using Firefox, in the "older" version, I see "Gmail - Inbox", and, if I have new mail, a number indicating the new mail(s), like so:
:)
"Inbox - Gmail(3)".
Very convenient! Love it!
However, with the "newer" interface, the tab title looks like so:
"Gmail - Inbox..."
which denotes the newer way this is handled:
"Gmail - Inbox - yourusername@gmail.com"
thus hiding from me whether or not I actually have any new email, and how many.
Google - please put the "older" way back into place, and I'll start using the "newer" interface.
Thanks!
"...there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight. Awkwardness and stupidity can." ~ Mark Twain
Just give me bigger attachments.
Sheesh, when will people understand that EMAIL was *not* concieved for large binary attachements... and that UUENCODE is just a hack allowing that... if you want to send a big file just upload it to an FTP and mail the ftp:// link... or use teh usenet!
In a more on-topic comment, when will people at google fix their broken javascript so that gmail can work properly with Konqueror web browsers?, sure they are all for open source and summer of coding, but can't they just pay one of their monkeys to fix their javascript hacks to make them standard compliant?
I say, screw the interface [improvements], at least make it work well!
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
I haven't tried it yet, but any change in Contacts is welcome.
first of all lets me get this straight I think Gmail is good client and the IMAP access has gone a long way to make it even better BUT
gmail does NOT SYNC with anything e.g. my contacts in my phone
solution = syncML !
contacts, calendar etc lots of others e.g. plaxo (annoying interface) and ZYB have this sorted and here I am fumbling around with CSV files
I hate it I try and sync with many differant devices and just wish there was a nice way
hell there is a thunderbird plugin there is a outlook plugin and MOST phones support it....
please please google gmail 2 should focus on contacts and introduce syncML !
regards
John Jones
That's my burning question. Does the update now allow Konqueror to use the advanced interface? If not, then there's no benefit to me as yet.
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
I'm still waiting for the IMAP option to appear on my gmail account's settings page. And, yes, my language is set to English(US)
"A little misunderstanding? Galileo and the Pope had a little misunderstanding."
I think they opt for usability. After all as you said, they are geeks, not artists.
- Fully re-written Contact list management is a huge improvement, nice overview of all groups and individual entries. Easy three-panel navigation and editing.
- Added event invitation to Compose Mail; more check spelling options.
- ~50% increase in mailbox capacity (plans were reported ages ago, but it seem they roll it out with interface update)
It doesn't feel extremely fast, but I hope they can fix it. It seems like Google is on a right track. I only wish they extend these features to all localization. (e.g. in Hebrew there's no even chatroot of all...
I think the "plain"-ness of the app is partly responsible for it's speed (at least the client duties). There isn't a whole lot of flashy css and there are no images at all... that's less for the client to parse and assemble which helps it render faster. Just my $0.02...
And get off their microsoft trip of "we are right"
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
"I for one welcome our new Email Overlords." "Gmail2.0b"+"Secure IMAP"+"GoogleGroups"+"Google Domain Hosting"= Family mailbox manager. I got 2.0 yesterday, and IMAP last week. Between the two, I immediately decided to separate myself from my Charter for business mail services. But as I looked, between Google Groups and Google MX domain hosting, I'm about 90% into deciding to move my 'lastname.org' and .net (some domain snarfer has my 'lastname.com'... the money grubbing scum!) to google, and use Gmail as the bassomatic of mail services for my blood relatives. The last 10% is purely confirmation... I'm playing with the setup right now. Migration will start next week.
I manage about 150 of my relatives email forwarding for relative@'lastname'.org/net using a friends Linux system and a simple sendmail alias management file. Google, while a bit harder, looks like I can do that (using a 'forward' account with nicknames and filters... can't manage with a text file... sucks), PLUS offer direct emailboxes that provide IMAP and POP services to my extended family. This is a godsend for the 10 of us who are consultants 'in the field' and our current ISPs are (properly) not allowing external SMTP connections for sending mail from POP enabled accounts. And I can also manage my mom's mailbox, which is no small feat (76 year old women [with a political agenda] are the hardest of clients).
And Google's IMAP and POP use encrypted transports... my Cable/ISP does not.
With Metro WiFi coming in at 1/5th what I pay for cable+internet, plus google being a the central service that allows me to globify my email access, my email management... I see this a good thing.
Thanks.
Turning off my vista laptop is a supreme pain in the ass. Why the fuck would the default function of the power button do the same thing as shutting the lid on my laptop? Jesus christ if I wanted to do that I would just shut the fucking thing instead of making my way to the start menu, pressing the right arrow key and realizing that this stupid shit defaults to highlighing "All Programs" and all I did was expand it, so I grab my mouse and click the power button and it doesn't shut down it just sleeps. What the fuck.
Uh... yeah so... thats why... uh... Vista sucks? Wow, thats really actually not a big deal when I write it out, but it gets me every time.
Dunno why, but running Firefox 2.0.0.8 on Ubuntu Gutsy, the new interface is really slow and clunky. It takes the screen several seconds to redraw if I select a message, and scrolling is just painful. I'd wondered why it had suddenly slowed down over the last couple of days - this so-called 2.0 interface explains it. Think I'll stick with v1 for now.
(Just tried it with Firefox on Windows - just as bad)
As a Vista user who has turned off security, as well as Aero, it's an okay OS. It works just fine, and I'm generally happy with it, except for one bit that I'm terribly unhappy with: the incompatibilities with older software. That's really irritating, and they fucked that up big time.
C//
Well, first of all, my initial thought was "WTF happened to my Gmail?" because this change occurred the same day that I installed OS X 10.5 (and the new Safari). Now that I know the changes were made on Gmail's end, it makes more sense.
1) For a while yesterday, the new titlebar/tab of the main Gmail window said: Gmail - Inbox - username@gmail.com (where username is my account name). Now it just says "Gmail". That's right, it doesn't update anymore to say "Inbox (1)" when I get a new mail.
2) Hovering over names in your message list gives a new style pop-up that shows the person's name, email address, and picture. Across the top of the pop-up are styled gradient buttons that say "Email", "Invite to Chat", and "More...". Clicking More will show options for "Recent Conversations" and "Show in Contact List: Auto, Always Show, Never Show, Blocked". Previously, hovering over names in the message list just showed you their email address. The new functionality seems similar to what the old version did when you hovered over your contact / chat list in the sidebar.
3) Chat now works in Safari. There are new (?) options for the chat list, including "Size of chat list: tiny, small, medium, large" and "Show in chat list: Most popular, all". (This may not be new, I never used G Chat in a browser because it didn't work on Safari before).
4) There are new actions to apply to messages. One is "Filter messages like these" the other is "mute". I'm not sure what mute does.
5) As the linked article says, Contacts management is now vastly different. It actually still looks a bit unfinished (or maybe it's just Safari's rendering, but I doubt it).
This just worked for me. I have never touched my language settings before so they were set to English(US). I changed them to UK and said no when it asked if I wanted to change the language of my other Google apps. Still had no IMAP so I reverted back to US English and what do you know there's IMAP!
Thanks!
:( I guess I'm not good enough to get such things.
If this post has multiple meanings, and one of those pisses you off, I meant the other one.
**shiver**
The three scariest words in IT. Actually... pretty much any business.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Too bad https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2 doesn't let everyone in. :D
Btw, here's the goods:
http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-newer-version-large.png
http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-newer-version-2-large.png
http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-newer-version-3-large.png
http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-newer-version-4-large.png
http://blogoscoped.com/files/gmail-newer-version-5-large.png
The government can't save you.
They won't. Not trying to be snide but that battle was lost long ago. It does not matter that FTP is technically more efficient and better designed for file transfer. Attaching a file is simple and, like it or not, using an ftp server involves more steps, additional software, additional security, and additional training. FTP fails the mom test. It's harder than attaching a file for NO additional benefit to the user in 99.999999% of cases. Furthermore, most people do not have or know about ftp servers, they have email accounts. So they use the tool they have and know how to use.
Does this cause problems for the network admins? Sure. Doesn't matter though. Ease of use/learning for the user wins here. If you want ftp to be used, make it easier to use than attaching a file and people will flock to it. Until then, it's going to be used only by nerds like me in the few special cases where ftp is the only alternative.
Whatever they did behind the scenes managed to break the ad blocking capabilities in both the Better Gmail and Customize Google Firefox add-ons. A minor annoyance -- but still... More info at: http://lifehacker.com/software/sneak-preview/gmail-speeds-up-improves-contacts-316673.php
And I still can't click on a column heading to sort by sender, date, size, etc. Search and labels are great, but they don't fulfill EVERY need. Why does gmail still lack such basic functionality that every other binary and web email client of the past decade has had?
For example: say I've got a few hundred messages and I want to find the few that have large attachments--ZIP files, a bunch of pictures, whatever. How do I do this with Gmail? Should I tag message with large attachments in a special way? If that's your suggestion, I'd like to point out that that is STUPID for two reasons:
1) the data is ALREADY THERE. Why should I manually tag messages? Aren't computers supposed to DO WORK FOR US?
2) that requires me to know ahead of time what ALL my needs will EVER be. What if I've been collecting this mail for years and then suddenly think "I'd like to find all these messages." But oops, I don't have my TIME MACHINE, so I can't go back and tag them all.
With anything else, it's just a click or two.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
What is a beta of a beta?
A meta-beta?
What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
Looking at the screenshots, it basically looks like the standard un-attractive gmail that it always was. I think yahoo has the superior interface between hotmail and gmail, and yahoo comes the closest to mimicking the desktop experience for an online email application. I'm not denying that gmail doesn't have nice features like free pop3 and email aliases but the usability and design is rather lacking.
"During My Service In The United States Congress, I Took The Initiative In Creating The Internet." -Al Gore
Try:
http://www.companionlink.com/downloads/
http://www.scheduleworld.com/tg/cal/day.jsp
and of course, the open source
http://www.gcalsync.com/
It's stunning that Yahoo fixed this ages ago. You get a free app to download to your desktop, (Intellisync - works fine).
This from someone who has to sync blackberry, notes, outlook, tbird, act! and oh god I'm going to kill myself if they add any more fsuking apps...just call me 'lord of the ugly hack'
P.S. Dawn takes some of the pain away for non-technical users if doing 'one-way' conversions with CSVs
Gmail 2.0 will be referred to as being in "gamma"
And honestly, I can't tell too much difference on Firefox. I haven't tried MSIE (ugh) but I might....
Windows has detected an undetectable error.
It's exactly what Steve Jobs said years ago: they have absolutely no taste. And 'taste' doesn't mean a nice shiny user interface, taste reflects every single bit of the system, from the kernel to the API's to the shiny buttons.
Programming and designing software is much more a creative and artistic process while Microsoft is much more technology-centered.
I don't get those big gray blocks. It's ugly and useless.
factor 966971: 966971
As an English (US) speaker who hadn't received IMAP access yet, changing my language setting to UK and then back to US activated IMAP. Guess it works in reverse as well.
...and how are binaries on usenet less hackish than binaries in e-mail??
I'm among the 1% and I realized that the neat checkgmail applet doesen't work correctly anymore. Hopefully the checkgmail team can fix it soon.
It's now not possible to log out of chat or switch to "busy" icon without changing to the older version- the whole toolbar usually gotten after clicking on my name is gone in 2.0.
I thought the new Gmail was going to be integrated with Google Gears so that it worked offline? I'm sure I remember reading that.
A top Microsoft exec (Allchin, i think it was) once described the windows OS code base as "fragile," to a partner interested in doing some security-related enhancements. He then went on to recount an instance in a release candidate for XP where moving one item in the default search path caused the OS to crash on startup.
To this day, when I think about the problems I've seen in Microsoft products and the complexity of the systems involved, the word "fragile" always appears as the best description. Not "poorly written" or "compromising design" -- but rather it's the concept of myriad complex components all built by independent teams, each of which depending on countless other components, and where the only communication between teams are APIs. No developer ever has a complete vision of how the system works as a whole, and faulty assumptions about undocumented aspects of any component can cause a failure that brings the whole system down.
Its not so much poorly designed as it is poorly connected.
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea...."
RFC 1925
And when you think about it, being true, doesn't it stop being funny? Think of the poor folks that must endure it.
Oh and thanks to whoever modded me flamebait. I read slashdot with flamebait weighted as +5.
"If God created us in his own image we have more than reciprocated." - Voltaire
I use fetchmail to slurp a copy of messages from gmail to my machine at home. I use uw-imapd to act as a Mac-OS hosted imap server at the house too, but that's another post.
This way I get to keep a copy of my data under my control and also use gmail from my blackberry.
(Yes, I know that I've sold my privacy to Satan (or Google) by having my email hit their servers forever.)
But Herr Heisenberg, how does the electron know when I'm looking?
'Cause USENET binaries are 1337, apparently.
After seeing this article, I took a closer look at my GMail interface (the contacts part). I did notice I've been running the updated version this whole time! I didn't even realize it. It's pretty subtle if you just look at your inbox all day like I often do. The new contacts is kind of nice even though I haven't had much time to explore it. However, in just a few minutes of clicking things I did manage to break the interface running in Firefox. After clicking from Drafts to Contacts, the interface just got "stuck". I now can't go back to my inbox or any other subsection and my contacts aren't showing up. A complete refresh though fixed that. Anyway, I look forward to picking through the new tweaks to the interface.
I got it to work by changing my language away from English (US) -- to English (UK) because I was tired of not seeing changes on my settings page -- and after still not seeing changes, I changed it back, and when I did, IMAP became enabled.
Gravity Sucks
I never use chat and always disable it, so I was quite annoyed to discover that when Gmail 2.0 was rolled out, not only was chat re-enabled, but I was logged in! Any new account, or old account using Gmail 2.0 for the first time, will automatically have chat enabled and their status will be showing as online, without any request to do so. I consider this a privacy violation.
The "turn off chat" link at the bottom only disables it, though those stupid rollovers still show up (all I wanted to see was a reasonable-sized box with their e-mail address in it, not some big thing with a silhouette placeholder avatar that I will never fill in!).
There is no way to get rid of the chat box on top of the box of labels, without going to the "older version" in the link at the top right.
While I'm perfectly comfortable with the older version, and I'd have no problem staying with it, I have to click the "older version" link every single time I log in, especially when from a different computer or new location.
Why can't I simply kill chat once and for all?
- RG>
Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
This was already revealed by Ionut Alex Chitu 2 days ago.
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/10/gmails-new-version-is-now-available.html
Anjanesh
http://anjanesh.blogspot.com/
Anyone else ever think Google needs "a face"? Really, who the hell cares about this new client? There's no one specific person marketing it.
Irrespective of your opinions on Gates or Jobs (I certainly have mine), you have to admit it gives these kinds of releases a little flash. Imagine the iPhone without Jobs or Windows without Gates
Who is the face of Google?
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
I actually agree with his point, but Steve criticizing the "taste" of others is like twitter calling someone else a troll. Do you really think those white big-chinned iMacs looked tasteful?
At least on Usenet the 8-bit binary content is far more usual, so you don't get the 33% overhead that usually is associated with mail attachments.
I started with nothing and still have most of it left.
I couldn't figure out why Gmail notifier for firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/173 wasn't working. There's no clear comment on the mozilla pages.
The universe is made of atoms and empty space. All else is speculation. --Democritus of Abdera, 435 BC
Oh ... I noticed a few changes here and there, and an "older version" button. I did not realise I was one of the 1% of users chosen for the upgrade.
As far as I can tell, it's mostly just a lot of little annoying things. Pages seem to load slower now (the inbox and compose screens start off small and grow over about a second). The drop-down boxes which were once native are now rendered in JavaScript, making them uglier. The email compose font now has annoying serifs. And the title bar now uselessly tells me my own email address (screen clutter!)
I switched back...
Just tell Konqueror to use another browser's user-agent string (or none) on mail.google.com.