Google Testing Gmail Redesign

An anonymous reader writes "Google is testing out some big changes for Gmail. Some of the changes are: the sidebar has been replaced with a slide-in pane, the 'compose' button has been moved, and there's a new feature called 'reminders'. From the article: 'Gmail may soon look nothing like the Gmail we all know so well. Google has invited a select group of users to test a completely new interface for the webmail client, according to Geek.com, which appears to be part of the trial. The test version of Gmail — which may never see an official release — dispenses with design elements that have been present from the very early days of the email service.'"

Comments

Re:How about "no thanks" ....

[Arker]

(Speaking of separating semantic data from presentation directives):

"why can't we have that idea for web stuff? and even modern apps?"

We kind of sort of do - it was baked into the idea of the web from the start - but advertising firms and 'designers' got involved pretty early too, and neither of them can stand it. They now collectively have firm control of the W3C and every major browser as well so it's a difficult fight at this point.

I have to admit I let myself be seduced by webmail many years ago and this might be the straw that drives me back to mutt. The idea of webmail is great - get your mail in a simple standard interface that's system agnostic, without having to carry your tool around with you from computer to computer, it's just a few k that can load over the net into your browser wherever and whenever you need it.

Only now, ever so many years later, it's become far from that. It's a massive web app that requires me to disable basic sanity and security checks in order to even load, and it exists in order to push advertising at me more effectively, NOT to let me access my email more effectively. Every change they make that clearer and clearer.