Google Announces Inbox, a New Take On Email Organization

More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:03 · Score: 5, Insightful

I'd be just as happy if they'd leave gmail alone. It was fine years ago without all the ****. That said, I might be a crusty old fart and in need of shaking up.

Re:More changes I don't want ... by blackjackshellac · 2014-10-22 06:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

No, considering how badly they fucked up Google Maps, I think you're right to be cautious.

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Jacques
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Sowelu · 2014-10-22 06:10 · Score: 2

I was going to agree that email was fine twenty years ago, but I do kind of like the way modern webmail displays threads even if it screws with the paradigm a bit. God, could they possibly have picked worse terminology for this new stuff though. I'll probably avoid it as long as I can.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by pushing-robot · 2014-10-22 06:20 · Score: 4, Funny

Sorry, I don't understand. Did you mean you'll snooze it ?

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How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:23 · Score: 0

Classic Google maps is still available.
Re: More changes I don't want ... by qqod · 2014-10-22 06:24 · Score: 1

TFA says '..youâ(TM)ll quickly see that it doesnâ(TM)t feel the same as Gmailâ"and thatâ(TM)s the point. Gmailâ(TM)s still there for you, but Inbox is something new....' So it doesn't sound like it will be compulsory at all. Just an optional 'view' or secondary app maybe. It sounds quite appealing to me and it would fit in well to my email workflow but I'll wait to try it..
Re:More changes I don't want ... by halivar · 2014-10-22 06:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

I don't see any reason to eschew experimentation simply for the sake of familiarity. The old inbox will always be around; if not at Google, then at a competitor. You lose nothing. And for every hundred failed ideas, there's one gem that changes how we think about something forever.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by i+kan+reed · 2014-10-22 06:31 · Score: 1

Yeah, but it seems like the point was "Does Google have good ideas anymore?" not "Can I stick with my status quo come hell or highwater?"
Re:More changes I don't want ... by TWX · 2014-10-22 06:36 · Score: 5, Insightful

One could thread messages before webmail if one's mail client had support for it. Hell, Usenet and Fidonet clients could thread messages, as could public message boards. That technology dates back to the dawn of the personal computer, and may well have existed on big-iron machines before that.

That's kind of what pisses me off about modern "innovation", it's reimplementing something that already existed, much of the time, and trying to call it novel or new. There are very few legitimate new technologies these days.

Even when they're going on about VPC and being able to spawn apps, that's just X Consortium all over again. From 1984.

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Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:41 · Score: 4, Informative

Oh Gods, yes. The new maps is an abomination. It drives me insane. It's so SLOOOOW, that huge top-left info box which obscures way too much and keeps flapping up and down, the inability to show transport links AND your searched for items... how the hell are people using it? it's a symptom, though, of Google having become detached from its end-users.
I use the old maps - there's a URL for them still;
https://www.google.com/maps?output=classic
Re:More changes I don't want ... by safetyinnumbers · 2014-10-22 06:48 · Score: 3, Informative

It wasn't threading, it was displaying a thread as one scrollable page that was the innovation. I'd not seen a newsreader or mail client that did that before. Combined with collapsing of quoted text (which was an old idea, I think it was in Eudora or Xnews or something, at least), it's an easier way to read through a thread, removing one level of navigation (paging through messages merged with scrolling down a single message).
Re:More changes I don't want ... by NotDrWho · 2014-10-22 06:50 · Score: 1, Funny

It's like my grandpa always used to say "Kid, if it ain't broke, don't fix it--and also don't ever trust Japs or Krauts."

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SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by jfengel · 2014-10-22 07:23 · Score: 4, Interesting

Yes, but they're not improving it, and the new Maps doesn't seem to be replacing the features of Classic Maps that I really liked. Any interface needs improvement, and while I like the older interface, its failures become more grating over time.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anne+Thwacks · 2014-10-22 07:25 · Score: 1

We are using it because it is marginally better than a hole in the head.
I particularly dislike the fact that, not only have you left the roundabout, but have entered the next one, before it notices. It is positively dangerous when you have to go round a roundabout twice for it to catch up! (In a 40 ton rig).
And that on a Note 3, but it used to work well on an HTC Desire Bravo!
Come of Google - you need to test software before you release it - you are not Microsoft

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Re:More changes I don't want ... by SeaFox · 2014-10-22 07:25 · Score: 2

I'd be just as happy if they'd leave gmail alone. It was fine years ago without all the ****.
You could also just set up your Gmail in a normal email client and then not be effected by the whims of the UI designers/marketing department. It will stay the same on your side.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Sloppy · 2014-10-22 08:04 · Score: -1, Flamebait

It is positively dangerous when you have to go round a roundabout twice for it to catch up! (In a 40 ton rig).
WTF? How can a mapping program possibly be dangerous or time-sensitive?
(Please don't tell me you are one of those MORONS who relies on software for real-time instructions, instead of having your own plan that was possibly originally aided by software. If you're a moron, then it's not the software that's dangerous; it's that some even bigger, stupider moron allowed you to drive a 40 ton vehicle (or even a 1 ton vehicle) on roads that might have other people within a quarter mile.)
All I can think of, is that the slowness is somehow keeping you from being able to review your route before you it's time for you to leave, so that you end up driving faster to catch up.

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Re:More changes I don't want ... by afgam28 · 2014-10-22 08:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

1. UI innovations are still innovative, even if the underlying technology has been around for a while.
2. There are no existing email clients that bundle semantically similar emails and extract relevant highlights. Even if you're not impressed with the ui there is still a lot of interesting machine learning behind this.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:22 · Score: 1

Your dead right OP!
The problem with Google is two-fold.
1. We are not their customer, we are their data points.
2. Google is full of "High Achievers", high IQ individuals that have fuck all common sense when it comes to how people use computers/devices. Don't get me wrong, they can excel at stuff like sifting sellable data from petabytes of crud, but they have a nasty habit of taking something simple and needlessly complicating it with esoteric gestures and whatnot. I want to use a device, not look like I'm trying to incant a spell.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by ganjadude · 2014-10-22 08:33 · Score: 1

google always throws out 100 half baked ideas, and hopefully one or 2 of them end uop being decent. sometimes its annoying when I find one I like that gets discontinued (igoogle home page for example) but if you make 100 things that suck and 2 that are awesome, thats still 2 more awesome things that didnt exist before. they have the money and talent so let um!

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Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:40 · Score: 0

I don't see any reason to eschew experimentation simply for the sake of familiarity. The old inbox will always be around; if not at Google, then at a competitor. You lose nothing. And for every hundred failed ideas, there's one gem that changes how we think about something forever.
OP here. That's fine provided *choice* is maintained and experimentation is backwardly compatible. Sometimes it turns out we like things the way they are because they are already optimal, not merely because they are familiar. Example: Windows 8.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:42 · Score: 0

not look like I'm trying to incant a spell.
I think you mean sound, unless we're talking about someone trying to lipread what you're saying.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by markhb · 2014-10-22 08:48 · Score: 1

You do realize that "high IQ individuals that have fuck all common sense" used to be Slashdot's key demographic, don't you?

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Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 09:12 · Score: 1

>I want to use a device, not look like I'm trying to incant a spell.
I cast... BCC!
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 09:13 · Score: -1

Old people are annoying dickwads. Especially 5 digit old fuckers.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 09:29 · Score: 0

If you hadn't see scrolling through a thread before your experience with client software has been very limited.
I've never see anything new come out of a website. Even the scrolling images with location dots is similar enough to client presentation modes to not call it new or innovative when it came out. In fact, it's the opposite. Those images are very annoying with most of them not pausing when you're trying to look at them. They also prevent easy skimming because you have to wait for the sequence or click through it. Multiple, static images were much more useful, informative, and faster.
Re: More changes I don't want ... by bhcompy · 2014-10-22 09:37 · Score: 1

For now. And then the old features will be sunsetted, much like the old GMail
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 09:42 · Score: 2, Insightful

1. Some of us define innovation as novel improvements. Implementing something that already exists isn't innovative. Coming up with the initial idea was the innovative part. Incremental improvements aren't innovation, no matter what marketing says.
2. Incorrect.
2a) Bundling: Custom rule based or sorting by specific things (both of which are supported by every modern email client). Also spam flagging. 2b) Extracting: Outlook extracts dates and times and recommends creating calendar events. Thunderbird highlights media content. Every client I've seen provides some sort of email summary. Google is making that summary slightly smarter, something I don't want. I'd much rather people wrote the most important bit on the first line rather than wasting it with a useless greeting. I already know you're talking to me because you sent the email to me. I also know who sent it because you're in the 'from' field. Signatures are a waste of space, more people should use vCards. Back on topic, a smarter summary will likely miss some important aspect of the email due to limited display space, leading to more confusion from the people who will begin the rely on this system instead of actually reading the email.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 10:02 · Score: 0

2a) You don't get it, maybe because you haven't tried it. Google's bundling works ''without user-defined rules'', doing all the sorting automatically from learning algorithms. Name another client that does that for something other than spam filtering.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 10:12 · Score: 0

I've never see anything new come out of a website.
kimonolabs.com. Had you seen something like that before?
Ok, it's not entirely new (what else is?), I've seen offline that semantic multiple selection before at Lapis, but that's not well known and doesn't provide an online API from interactive manipulation like Kimono does.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by xvan · 2014-10-22 13:48 · Score: 1

Name the last 2... and no, youtube doesn't count.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by kaladorn · 2014-10-22 18:39 · Score: 1

The main tragedy, if I ever have to come off Gmail, is exactly how much grouping (in the form of hundreds of labels, many nested). It's how I classify and find my way around gigs and gigs of email.
I can recover my email itself from Gmail via POP. WTF can I recover or port the whole classification and grouping - the labels!
If there was a way to get that out in a way that would import to something else, I'd darn well consider it.

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-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 23:35 · Score: 0

Exactly. I noticed this change to my Gmail last night and was pretty irritated by it. I don't want my email to be auto-sorted by Google, which is why I have all of the category tabs disabled. I want all of my mail to go into my inbox but Google doesn't give a shit as they forced me to have everything separated, except now they are located in categories in the left sidebar with no way to disable it.

I'm glad I began my transition to Outlook.com months ago. Once the remainder of my contacts have updated their address books, I can finally dump Gmail and be rid of their ever-changing for no reason garbage.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 00:30 · Score: 0

BS, I AM a Google customer in that I pay them annually for services and they still pulled this shit. I think it's time to say goodbye to Google for good and not just because of this crap they pulled with Gmail, but the crap they pull with every service and that fact that Android is a pile of shit that corrupts itself and needs constant tweaking to keep running.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 00:33 · Score: 0

Nope, not with this filtering that they are now doing. Stuff that I had in my inbox, going back years were suddenly moved to Google's arbitrary categories. Using a client would only pull the stuff from inbox and miss out on all of the other important emails that Google oh-so-helpfully moved without my consent.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 00:44 · Score: 0

Because my email is too important to experiment with. It was working fine for years. Having automatically filtered categories is highly inefficient and makes me miss those important messages.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 00:54 · Score: 0

Google has never introduced anything that was awesome. Every single change they make detracts from what existed before.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 01:04 · Score: 0

That looks incredibly unintuitive.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 14:42 · Score: 0

I suspected I wasn't the only one that thought the new Google Maps was way slow.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by pnutjam · 2014-10-24 02:55 · Score: 1

Google maps has dramatically improved my commute. I know 10 different ways to get there, but google maps will automatically route around traffic problems and update itself to insure I have the fastest route. I use it all the time, real time is the only way to get the full benefit.

Catch up gramps.

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Cheap storage VM.
Re:More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-24 12:35 · Score: 0

I would recommend Waze. It is community based and far more friendly than Google Maps (especially lately).
As for the traffic and such... where do you think that data comes from? I wondered this as I was sitting in the back of a car on a long commute once and had Google Maps open. I happened to notice tiny print detailing where the traffic data was coming from... some service called Waze!
So yeah, I downloaded it and have not looked back since. There is actually FAR more info than the traffic data that Google leaches from it such as reports of objects in the road, construction, police traps, stalled vehicles and lots more. In addition, Google updates its traffic data once in a while, but Waze recommends a new route within (I believe it was) 5 minutes of a reported delay.

It begins again by blueshift_1 · 2014-10-22 06:04 · Score: 3, Funny

... now we get to see comments everywhere flooded with "Can I haz invite code, plz. user@genericdomain.com kthx"

Re:It begins again by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:30 · Score: 0

You have invites? sephiroth153@gmail.com please.
Re:It begins again by Nimey · 2014-10-22 06:55 · Score: 2, Funny

a/s/l?

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E pluribus sanguinem
Re:It begins again by Zynder · 2014-10-22 09:18 · Score: 1

old / hardly ever / mom's basement

Automated digesting by Defenestrar · 2014-10-22 06:04 · Score: 1

Automated digesting of email could be a useful feature of AI.

Re:Automated digesting by scubamage · 2014-10-22 06:33 · Score: 5, Funny

"Excuse me Dave, but the crown prince of Nigeria requires your assistance immediately. Also, there is a marked amount of concern about your penis size, you may wish to speak with a medical professional."
Re:Automated digesting by Defenestrar · 2014-10-22 06:44 · Score: 1

Yes, but after the AI digested it, all I'd have to do is flush ;)
Re:Automated digesting by nine-times · 2014-10-22 06:56 · Score: 2

Actually, I'd like to see better methods of processing/digesting email, but not for personal email.
My work email is flooded with all kinds of junk, and I wouldn't mind someone trying to improve that. I get a bunch of ads that I wouldn't necessarily call "spam", but their ads. I actually want to get some of them (they're sometimes relevant to my job), but it's always super-low priority. I also get copied on a bunch of stuff that I might want to look at, often don't really need to, but that I do want to keep a record of the exchange in my email.
I also get automated notifications for certain kinds of things which could stand to have automated intelligent processing. For example, I might have an automated alert set to email me when a server isn't responding to a ping, and I *do* want to see that. However, if the server's internet connection goes flaky overnight, I might end up with 80 messages saying, "Error: server.domain.com is offline", and then a little while later, "Recovery: server.domain.com is online". It'd be nice to have all of those rolled up into a email digest that says, "You received a flood of messages with similar subjects. Here is a list of them, in order." I don't know practically how you'd do that, but I wouldn't mind if someone were to figure that out. Considering how much spam still gets through my spam filters, I don't expect a solution anytime soon.
Anyway, my only point here is that there are improvements that could be made.
Re:Automated digesting by BradMajors · 2014-10-22 08:30 · Score: 1

It was figured out a long time ago, get modern and use RSS instead of email for notifications.
Re:Automated digesting by Defenestrar · 2014-10-22 08:37 · Score: 1

Still doesn't solve the vendor infotisements. No way they're going to rely on your subscription to an RSS when they can shoot you a direct email. Some of their communication wouldn't be useful without a very vast array of RSS servers on their end either (i.e. notifying you of a sales rep change, etc...). RSS is good, but I don't think it'd get all of the topics nine-times mentioned.
Re:Automated digesting by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 09:45 · Score: 0

You can create email rules to move those types of messages into specific folders.
Re:Automated digesting by nine-times · 2014-10-22 23:30 · Score: 1

That would be nice if everything I received notifications for supported RSS.
Re:Automated digesting by ale2011 · 2014-10-23 21:41 · Score: 1

I get a bunch of ads that I wouldn't necessarily call "spam", but their ads. I actually want to get some of them (they're sometimes relevant to my job), but it's always super-low priority. [...]
That's the really challenging part. Marketers were not that bad in the dawn of newspapers. They worsened steadily as TV took root. The Internet offered them a chance to get interactive, and they declined. It required legislative efforts to mandate opt-in/out, and (honest) spammers abode by with bad grace. Spammers don't know why their ads work, and don't want to. They turned marketing into a non-cooperative game.
In this scenario, knowing how many times people open what messages, Google can infer message scores. They are quite unable to make yes/no decisions, but they can order messages accordingly. I suspect that's the basic idea of their new tool, as long as something called "Inbox" can be considered new nowadays.

I also get [notes and transactions whose flow is wanting better coordination...]. I don't know practically how you'd do that, but I wouldn't mind if someone were to figure that out.
When there's cooperation, the settings that deliver best mutual benefit should be worked out by direct interaction, for the sake of effectiveness. That would put email back into its role of transport mechanism, where it belongs.
Re:Automated digesting by nine-times · 2014-10-24 01:12 · Score: 1

When there's cooperation, the settings that deliver best mutual benefit should be worked out by direct interaction, for the sake of effectiveness. That would put email back into its role of transport mechanism, where it belongs.
I'm not sure what you mean here, but email transport is still in its role of transport mechanism, whereas email clients are still in their role of sorting and arranging emails for display by a user in a configurable way. I'm not sure what there is to be changed there. Do you feel like explaining your comment?
Re:Automated digesting by ale2011 · 2014-10-24 04:12 · Score: 1

The reliability of email worsened as a consequence of spam and tentative mitigations thereof. Typically, poorly rated messages end up in spam folders and remain unnoticed, irrespective of their legitimacy. That behavior can be client-side only, but more often decisions are made by the receiving server too.
By direct interaction I mean a transport-neutral setting. For example, "Recovery: server.domain.com is online" could be enhanced to something like, say, "Recovery: server.domain.com is online. Further on/off messages are suspended for 8 hours unless you click <here>." The sender can use a general-purpose notification manager that recipients can configure online. That probably works better than mixing those notifications with the rest of email and let a general-purpose email client sort them out.
Re:Automated digesting by nine-times · 2014-10-24 04:48 · Score: 1

For example, "Recovery: server.domain.com is online" could be enhanced to something like, say, "Recovery: server.domain.com is online. Further on/off messages are suspended for 8 hours unless you click ."
I think I mentioned elsewhere, a part of the problem with the sort of notifications I'm talking about is that I'm receiving them from many different vendors/services/devices who each choose their own standards, forms, and methodologies. It's the nature of things that I don't necessarily have any control over what I receive, how I receive it, when I receive it, or what form it comes in as. If I could even control what came in the subject line, then I wouldn't consider it such a problem.
For example, it's not just notifications saying, "Recovery: server.domain.com is online", but also any number of different notifications from different domain registrars that a domain is about to expire. I can't make GoDaddy, Namecheap, and NetworkSolutions follow the same procedures for how far in advance I get notified that a domain will expire, or what that notification will look like. I can't even stop one of those companies from deciding to change their own policies, changing the subject, content, and sender of those kinds of notifications. In fact, just to give an example, Dropbox uses Mailchimp for a bunch of their notifications, which means that each email is sent from a different sender address.
You can say, "Well these companies should have a better method of notification than email," or "These companies should be following certain standards," but good luck with making that happen. Until you can come up with a better solution, I'd really appreciate if someone could come up with some good tools for managing this kind of flood of notifications.
Re:Automated digesting by ale2011 · 2014-10-24 21:29 · Score: 1

I don't see how a mail client can discriminate between an email from my aunt and a message resulting from, say, an error in a cron job execution. Automated guesses based on message's body are unreliable. If I cannot control sending, I cannot configure any message attribute —header or envelop field— to be used for discrimination. Hence, I cannot manage that flow, no matter what tool I use. Garbage in, garbage out.
Mailchimp is a general-purpose notification manager. I would ask why they don't provide recipients with the ability to configure how they want notifications to be sent. I note they're commercial, and get paid by senders. Please recall the first paragraph of my first post in this thread. The point is that there is something wrong in how advertising is conceived and carried out. Perhaps we could have used the Internet to fix that. Instead, the current trend is to try and "fix" the Internet in an attempt to squeeze some more juice from economy as it came out of the industrial revolution.
On the other hand, Google is big enough be able to have Mailchimp and their likes begin to relent. Is the new "Inbox" aimed at doing that?
Re:Automated digesting by nine-times · 2014-10-24 22:24 · Score: 1

I don't see how a mail client can discriminate between an email from my aunt and a message resulting from, say, an error in a cron job execution
Well then you're not the person to figure the problem out. It should actually be fairly easy to discriminate between an email from your aunt and a cron job error. Leave that problem to someone who does see how it can be done.

The point is that there is something wrong in how advertising is conceived and carried out.
I see. So let's just round up all people everywhere and control how they send email, since that'll be easy. Why even apply existing techniques for analyzing text to improve existing email filtering/sorting tools in email clients, when it's so much easier to control human behavior?

This looks a lot like what Microsoft is doing. by mmell · 2014-10-22 06:05 · Score: 1

I've seen a similar functionality already present on my old hotmail account. The Windows 8.1 mail interface (used to) sort some emails into metafolders like "social" so on. I immediately disabled it, as it interfered with my habitual way of viewing/scanning email - I was missing inbound messages because of it.

If this is more of the same, I think I'll opt out if/when Google decides to roll it out to the whole wide world. I like GMail (beta) just the way it is. YMMV.

Re:This looks a lot like what Microsoft is doing. by sexconker · 2014-10-22 06:12 · Score: 2

Gmail had a similar thing (though as with many features, Hotmail had it first), I think they called theirs "Priority Inbox", which covered both the actual priority inbox as well as all the other social/travel/etc. filtered inbox views. Like you, I immediately switched it off. The only one I can tolerate is Hotmail's "Active View". It's useful enough to warrant existing and innocuous enough to not warrant me trying to turn it off.
Re:This looks a lot like what Microsoft is doing. by pnutjam · 2014-10-24 02:59 · Score: 1

I use that feature. It's nice that my phone doesn't chirp every time I get an email offer. I may be interested, so it's not necessarily spam, but it sorts into the "promotions" box and I can peruse (or ignore) at my convenience.

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Cheap storage VM.

Perhaps... by msauve · 2014-10-22 06:05 · Score: 0

Google should fix things that are borken before breaking new things.

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"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law

Re:Perhaps... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 13:25 · Score: 0

You mean like GMail's failure to implement simple (and badly needed) filter capabilities that were old hat in Eudora ca. Eudora's early versions?
GMail is watered down email designed to serve you ads. No more than that.

No Fuckign Thanks by sexconker · 2014-10-22 06:07 · Score: 3, Insightful

It combines the worst of mobile, email, and social.
At least they're not injecting it into Gmail like all their previous attempts... ...yet.

Re:No Fuckign Thanks by eneville · 2014-10-22 08:46 · Score: 2

Agreed. After I don't know how long I've been using email, both GUI and CLI clients, I've found the only feasible way to do it without clutter is to use mutt. When something stupid comes in that can only be read with a HTML client as it has no text/plain part I can funnel it through lynx. I've not found any web client to help at all helpful when it comes to processing a mail inbox. Sorry, call me grumpy but snooze feature is no different to me setting a flag. I'll be surprised if anything beats mutt this decade.

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Why UNIX?
Re:No Fuckign Thanks by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 09:48 · Score: 0

Am i the last person using ELM ? I tried PINE a few years back and couldn't adapt to the interface.
Re:No Fuckign Thanks by mattack2 · 2014-10-22 12:51 · Score: 1

Use alpine, and you can (usually) read the rich/html part still in your terminal program. You can have it default to the plain text part, but use A on an individual message to view the rich part if necessary.. No need to pipe it through lynx. Plus, alpine does Unicode too, which can sometimes be useful (at least it's not showing up as gibberish..)
(Pine/alpine long ago was able to view the plain-text-ified rich parts, but I made the suggestion long ago for the A toggle, and it was added.)

oh fuck no ! ! ! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:08 · Score: -1

*already* HATING on gmails insane, presumptuous idiocy in 'helpfully' 'categorizing' all MY fucking email until i have no idea what is where...
*AND* concatenating ALL the email exchanges in one big blob is NOT HELPFUL to me in any way, shape or form...
(AND -without spending another hour looking- i do NOT find any easily discernible method to have it show up how i would like, which is just 'normal', not anything special...)

here's an idea: show me MY emails SEPARATELY and in reverse chronological order, and you are DONE... ALL the rest of the 'helpful' shit you are doing is FUCKING UP MY EMAIL such that i have NO IDEA where my 'stuff' is anymore...

exactly why i dumped your gmail shit on my computer and went thunderbird; exactly why i dumped your gmail shit on my tablet and went with another app UNTIL THEY DID THE SAME STUPID SHIT, then i had to get ANOTHER app...

geezus, fucking jerks can NOT leave well enough alone...

Re:oh fuck no ! ! ! by lgw · 2014-10-22 07:57 · Score: 2, Informative

That's good info, but they do push their annoying-as-fuck unneeded "improvements" by default. I'm tired of it - I've migrated my important email to Outlook.com now, and I'm sorting out my personal email now (harder to change as I search history more there than the financial stuff).
I've said it before on /., but I'll repeat it: Outlook.com doesn't suck. Gmail was the only sane answer 12 years ago, but my how times have changed.

--
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Re:oh fuck no ! ! ! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:12 · Score: 0

If you are so stupid as to go and enable these features and then blame anyone/everyone but yourself for enabling them, you deserve much worse than to sleep in the bed you made (like no free email hosting)
You even admit you don't use gmail at all, so what the fuck is your problem?
How bout you stick to bitching about things that can actually effect you in the slightest instead of not at all.
Re:oh fuck no ! ! ! by non0score · 2014-10-22 08:36 · Score: 1

And what're they supposed to do? Set it to not improve by default? How does that even make sense? How is anyone going to discover new features?
Re:oh fuck no ! ! ! by lgw · 2014-10-22 09:43 · Score: 0

Now that's a good problem to occupy the attention of Google's "UI designers", who clearly have nothing useful to do with their time!

--
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Re:oh fuck no ! ! ! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 11:06 · Score: 0

Better yet, his/her argument is that the UI changed too much so they've moved to a Microsoft product for interface stability. Bizarre reasoning.
Re:oh fuck no ! ! ! by jordanjay29 · 2014-10-22 13:40 · Score: 1

12 years ago? Are you living in 2016?
Re:oh fuck no ! ! ! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 04:03 · Score: 0

You have obviously not seen Gmail in a very long time then. I already had all of those worthless tabs disabled, but they added a SECOND place with categories in the side pane and moved whatever they felt like out of my inbox and into seemingly randomly named categories where I didn't notice many of them until it was too late. You CAN'T disable this newer categorization crap and you have to manually move your email back to the inbox if that's where you want them.
So yeah, keep your fucking mouth shut about things you have no clue about, kid.

Bundles are great... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:09 · Score: 1

I like my current bundles... new messages are bundled at the top, just above the older messages.

As if we needed by Jawnn · 2014-10-22 06:09 · Score: -1, Troll

...yet another reason to not trust the Google. I have no doubt that those who don't value privacy will be all over the new hotness. I won't.

Re:As if we needed by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:39 · Score: 0

How is this a reason not to trust Google? You seem like a hater.
Re:As if we needed by Lilith's+Heart-shape · 2014-10-22 07:03 · Score: 3, Funny

I'm a longtime Gmail user. Google already has the kinky emails my wife and I exchange. So does the NSA, and I hope they're at least ducking into the men's room to wank.

--
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Re:As if we needed by narcc · 2014-10-22 07:07 · Score: 1

There are many, many, reasons not to trust Google.
This, however, is not one of them.

--
Required reading for internet skeptics

can I snooze on this feature ... by micahraleigh · 2014-10-22 06:10 · Score: 1

... and never come back to it?

Re:can I snooze on this feature ... by non0score · 2014-10-22 08:38 · Score: 1

Do you have an INVITE? Did you even RTFS? This looks pretty opt-in to me.
Re:can I snooze on this feature ... by micahraleigh · 2014-10-23 06:40 · Score: 1

I read the summary, at least. Today's opt-in features are tomorrows standard features. It's a vetting mechanism -or at least a pretext of one.

Slashdot beta for example.

You have slashdotted an inbox by MerlynEmrys67 · 2014-10-22 06:10 · Score: 5, Funny

The error that the other server returned was:
550-5.2.1 The user you are trying to contact is receiving mail at a rate that
550-5.2.1 prevents additional messages from being delivered. For more
550-5.2.1 information, please visit
550 5.2.1 http://support.google.com/mail... dy7si138331wib.0 - gsmtp

And at google's scale - impressive

--
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them

Re:You have slashdotted an inbox by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:17 · Score: 0

That is not due to an underpowered system....it's a default mechanism to prevent abuse, spam, etc.

oh fuck no ! ! ! by jordanjay29 · 2014-10-22 06:11 · Score: 5, Informative

You're not forced into any of those features. You don't have to use the tabs, Unread/Important-first inboxes, or threaded view. Please take a look at the settings page for once and stop your bitching.

Google Beta products by dysmal · 2014-10-22 06:12 · Score: 1

I thought they removed "Beta" from Gmail already.

Re:Google Beta products by non0score · 2014-10-22 08:41 · Score: 1

Does "Inbox" read "Gmail" to you? Last time I checked, there's no law saying no company shall make two programs that serve similar purposes in different ways.

Hmmm ... by gstoddart · 2014-10-22 06:13 · Score: 3, Informative

So this is the Google Wave thing that nobody knew WTF it was for, but which everyone kept saying was super awesome and the way of the future ... but for email?

I'm afraid I'm not really overly interested.

I guess it's cool that someone is still trying to design new things and think about things differently. But from reading TFA, this sounds like something which I'm not sure why I'd want it.

--
Lost at C:>. Found at C.

Re:Hmmm ... by sexconker · 2014-10-22 06:24 · Score: 1

Yup. It's an amalgam of all the aborted attempts Google has made at jamming social shit into email (including their own) and making the interface extra shitty and extra "mobile".
Re:Hmmm ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:30 · Score: 4, Interesting

I used google wave as it was intended. In fact, seeing it work as intended was one of the coolest things ever, and that's why they kept a lot of its features and incorporated them into google docs. We used wave to plan a camping trip with about 20 people. 20 people all working at the same time on a single document, adding things to "buy" lists, getting contact information, editing errors, putting confirmation numbers, adding/removing what each person was able to bring or was responsible for, etc. It was incredibly collaborative and brilliantly simple to use. Sadly I don't think most folks used it like that, or got to experience it. As it stands now, google docs almost completely implements what was there, so at least that functionality still works.
Re:Hmmm ... by scubamage · 2014-10-22 06:32 · Score: 1

Agreed - wave wasn't so much a bad idea as a good idea that was badly sold to people. Glad the functionality is still around because it is useful for realtime collaboration.
Re:Hmmm ... by halivar · 2014-10-22 06:54 · Score: 2

It was what it was: a proof of concept; spaghetti thrown at the wall to see if it sticks. The ideas in Google Wave have been incorporated into a bunch of stuff all over the net, from G+ to Facebook and elsewhere.

To those who are somehow upset about this... by orange_account · 2014-10-22 06:13 · Score: 1

You should be happy. This will likely mean Gmail won't get the types of changes you don't like, as they'll end up in this "Inbox" thing instead.

Re:To those who are somehow upset about this... by dysmal · 2014-10-22 06:17 · Score: 1

On the contrary. This means that Gmail will get all of the "features that everyone loves" from inbox and Gmail users will be slowly ingested into the latest Google sponsored maw of despair.

Mail inbox@google.com to opt in by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:14 · Score: 3, Funny

Can I mail outbox@google.com to opt out?

Re:Mail inbox@google.com to opt in by cascadingstylesheet · 2014-10-22 11:59 · Score: 1

Can I mail outbox@google.com to opt out?
If history is any guide, no. At least, not for long.

No thanks. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:15 · Score: 0

My mail server works fine. No bells and whistles for me.

Re:No thanks. by jones_supa · 2014-10-22 06:47 · Score: 1

You can use GMail with IMAP too.
Re:No thanks. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:07 · Score: 0

You can use GMail with IMAP too.
You get a small, broken subset of IMAP functionality with a whole host of fake "folders" you can't delete/rename/move/etc. because Gmail is all "label" based and hijacks a bunch of the folder names it spoofs. For example, I transitioned a perfectly functioning, normal email account I've been using with IMAP to a big-money, big-contract Google account, and because I dared to have a folder with the word "Archive" in it I got to spend the next week (thanks to the unconfigurable throttling) redownloading, indexing, and manually filing a decade of emails into new subfolders under "[Archived]". I still haven't bothered to try and fix the Sent or Junk "folders".
Re:No thanks. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:36 · Score: 0

Why the fuck do you want to use Google at all?
Re:No thanks. by mattack2 · 2014-10-22 13:15 · Score: 1

Sort of. Gmail sort of kind of barely works with IMAP.
I admit I can't personally list the things that it doesn't do, but I know there has been discussion on the alpine mailing list many times in the past about how Gmail improperly (and purposely, from their end) follows the IMAP protocol.

Make it a plugin for local mail clients by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:18 · Score: 0

When they make it a "local system" product that doesn't in any way shape or form send/receive data to/from google, then it could be of interest.

Since nobody in their right mind allows their e-mail to "stay" on any of the internet e-mail servers run by someone else (google, yahoo, microsoft, xyz isp), this tool will do nothing for us.

Re:Make it a plugin for local mail clients by praxis · 2014-10-22 06:36 · Score: 2

For plain-text email, once it passed through their machine you have lost your privacy. You gain no privacy or right-mindedness by not letting mail "stay" on their servers.
Re:Make it a plugin for local mail clients by Mr.+Slippery · 2014-10-22 06:48 · Score: 1

You gain no privacy or right-mindedness by not letting mail "stay" on their servers.
The law disagrees. Stored e-mail is different than e-mail that passes through a server.

--
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Re:Make it a plugin for local mail clients by praxis · 2014-10-22 07:57 · Score: 1

That law only applies in the United States. Email is a bit more global.
Re:Make it a plugin for local mail clients by lgw · 2014-10-22 08:03 · Score: 1

The NSA disagrees: all email ever sent is stored now, in their datacenters, next to the recordings of every voice call for the past decade. Your tax dollars at work..

--
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Re:Make it a plugin for local mail clients by znrt · 2014-10-22 08:31 · Score: 1

not at all. the content of course is disclosed, that's just ok or else it would be encrypted.
however your use of the content is private matter too. that's as safe as it could be on local storage if using a respectful client. of course this includes also your full contact list, your habits, location and probably system and device information, if not more. this is inevitably leaked with any imaginable online client, and if you also choose gmail that's an explicit statement that privacy means shit to you. note: your's and your contact's.
just saying, not wanting to argue or playing right-minded. i just can't get used to the way people boldly dismiss this issue, as if it made it nonexistent. the fact that lots of people tend to do will have have far reaching impact on society, already has. people should be made aware, not misinformed. then they can do as they please, and of course take responsibility.
Re:Make it a plugin for local mail clients by praxis · 2014-10-22 11:36 · Score: 1

You are right, that you retain the privacy of data beyond the message itself, I didn't think of that. When I think of Gmail, I think of Gmail the way I use it: as a server. I almost never use the web-interface because I dislike it (on top of the fact that I can't read my email in the web interface anyhow due to the encryption). I use a client almost exclusively.
I'm not in their demographic for their new product/service and hadn't really thought through other use-cases. That said, many (most) of my correspondents use Gmail so any unencrypted message of mine to or from them is stored and indexed by Google anyhow. That's why I feel local encryption is the best option for privacy.

Still try to do proprietary email? by thetoadwarrior · 2014-10-22 06:20 · Score: 2

Just leave email alone. It works just fine which is why no company has been able to replace it with a proprietary alternative. I know googke is desperate to control email but it won't happen.

Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by Kazoo+the+Clown · 2014-10-22 06:41 · Score: 2

I wish we could say the same about social networking and get it out of the hands of Facebook...
Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by narcc · 2014-10-22 07:15 · Score: 2

There isn't a good reason why social networking couldn't function more like email, with multiple providers inter-operating over some standard protocol. There just isn't as much money in it for the big players to be interested.

--
Required reading for internet skeptics
Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by Lilith's+Heart-shape · 2014-10-22 07:19 · Score: 1

Let's bring back forums and mailing lists. We'll party like it's 1999.

--
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by thetoadwarrior · 2014-10-22 07:22 · Score: 1

Or newsgroups. Sell them as government-proof decentralised forums for a new age twist.
Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by Lilith's+Heart-shape · 2014-10-22 07:30 · Score: 1

Hasn't USENET been overrun with spammers, though? No worries; Vlad Tepes would have known how to deal with it. Ten feet of rebar, right up the pooper. (He wouldn't use wooden stakes nowadays; steel recycles.)

--
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by Voyager529 · 2014-10-22 08:43 · Score: 2

Hasn't USENET been overrun with spammers, though?
Depends where you look. Many major topics have moderated groups. misc.legal.moderated has lots of interesting information in it. rec.arts.drwho.moderated also has some insteresting discussions. Surprisingly, misc.phone.mobile.iphone has lots of posts and barely any spam; one wouldn't normally think of iPhone users as usenet users, but apparently there's plenty. alt.os.linux.* has some great discussions in it; .mint and .ubuntu are both pretty active. There's plenty of spam to be found, don't worry - but most of it ends up in inactive groups and is generally recognizable. Conversely, much of the spamming seems to have subsided - with the relatively small number of people using it in comparison to Facebook or Kik messenger, and those that do being the kinds of people who are going to be able to download and configure Pan or Agent and find a Usenet provider, the 'intelligence floor' for getting in is generally higher than the 'gullibility ceiling' required for a spam campaign to be terribly useful.
Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by mattack2 · 2014-10-22 12:59 · Score: 1

Most of my work mailing lists would work FAR better as Usenet groups.
Re:Still try to do proprietary email? by thetoadwarrior · 2014-10-23 09:52 · Score: 1

A lot of them are but they've always been that way. I think the bigger problem is simply accessibility to newsgroups. You have to know about them and possibly buy into a service. A lot of ISPs don't bother with servers or if they do you wouldn't know it unless you went hunting through their help pages. I'm not sure why ISPs care. I would have thought the bandwidth would be better (if they exclude pirating groups) so part of me would not be surprised if the likes of Google and other companies who make a living off tracking people and selling ads are encouraging ISPs to drop newsgroups. It is a far superior way to communicate I think simply because it's like email and the data is removed from the view (as it should be). No need to worry about a website being viewable in mobile browsers and desktops. Let the application deal with that. Its downside, if you want to call it that, is a company can't own it and monetise it. Even ISPs can't honestly find a way to add a further expense on top of it. Even if they did there would be so many other choices in providers.

Yeah snooze! by DavidCBillen · 2014-10-22 06:22 · Score: 1

I'd use the *hell* out of that snooze feature...

Re:Yeah snooze! by znrt · 2014-10-22 08:55 · Score: 1

great way to self spam you!

No need for secretaries now by dysmal · 2014-10-22 06:22 · Score: 1

Now our corner office can't blame his secretary for not sifting through his emails correctly. It's the clouds fault!

A better alternative? by MagickalMyst · 2014-10-22 06:27 · Score: 0

I loved Gmail when it first came out. The best things, IMHO, are the ability to store large volumes of email and easily search them.

Google, I now believe, is evil; like many of the top tech companies (Micro$oft, Cisco, etc.) who are in bed with the NSA. I simply don't trust them. They lie.

Their motto is "don't be evil" - not "we're not evil". Don't be fooled!

I'd love to find a decent email provider to replace them.

Any suggestions?

--
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.

Re: A better alternative? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:35 · Score: 0

Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye
Re:A better alternative? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:39 · Score: 2, Informative

Almost every ISP you can sign up for in the USA, including all the big players like Comcast, provide email with your internet service.
You might not even need another provider, and certainly not google or microsoft.
Picking a different mail provider doesn't solve the NSA problem. End to end encryption solves the NSA problem, and you can use that regardless of who provides your email.
Re:A better alternative? by praxis · 2014-10-22 06:40 · Score: 1

Unless you encrypt all your mail, and your correspondents do so as well, email is basically a post card. It matters not who your provider is, really. If you want to secure your own mail server, you'll need to run your own. It's far easier though, to get an S/MIME certificate and use that for sensitive emails with key correspondents and leave the spam and junk mail as is (plain text and readable). It's just a matter of benefit for effort.
My mindset is basically email is a post card, if I want to have privacy I put my message in an S/MIME envelope sealed with my recipient's public key.

Don't they Already Have This by wisnoskij · 2014-10-22 06:27 · Score: 1

Gmail already has some category thing that turned off when it came out with it. So they are re-releasing this, with more fain-fair this time?

--
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.

Re:Don't they Already Have This by devjoe · 2014-10-22 07:55 · Score: 1

Yes. They introduced a thing several months (maybe a year now) ago which gives you five inboxes instead of one. There's one for Social that catches all the stupid emails social networking things send you. There's one for Promotions that catches commercial email (at least, whatever isn't spam-boxed instead). There's one poorly defined one called Updates which is supposed to be for receipts, statements, bills, and confirmations - email related to stuff you bought or business you are involved in, as opposed to Store X's weekly email which is in promotions. And one for Forums is meant to be email from mailing lists. There is also the Primary inbox for everything else, which is meant to be just the real email from friends and such after everything else goes into the other boxes.

This never worked well. The social filter is pretty good. But I am on one mailing list which ends up in Promotions about 2/3 of the time, despite my repeatedly telling GMail to deliver it to Forums instead, and despite the mailing list having no commercial content whatsoever. The filter for Updates is really whacked; anything can end up in here, and the stuff that should go here can end up in Forums, Promotions, or Primary instead.

The new thing sounds similar, but on steroids. More like using labels (which are GMail's equivalent of folders to file email into, except that emails can have more than one label and so the folders aren't exclusive), but letting Google determine the labels by itself. We'll see how good that works.

I might have to give it a try by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:34 · Score: -1

This might be useful in our organization to help organize our email for a Nazi political organization we're starting up.
Until it gets up and running check this site out http://www.dailystormer.com

Never never never ever ever by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:38 · Score: 0

I would never, under any circumstances *whatsoever*, up to and including not using email at all, put my personal email into Google's hands.

What an unbelievably terrible name by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:39 · Score: 1

You would think that Google developers would recognize the importance of giving your product a name that is Googleable.

Dat video by rosencreuz · 2014-10-22 06:42 · Score: 1

WTF are those people doing in the video and what it has to do with the inbox?

Looks like Facebook by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:42 · Score: 0

Seems like an enhanced (highlighting content) Timeline for your email. Might be useful for someone who doesn't want to use filters and likes to enable all those notifications on various sites and services.

I'm not sure who this is helping by Vokkyt · 2014-10-22 06:43 · Score: 1

Email users tend to fall into two distinct categories of usage; heavy and "guess I have to use email", and you can trace the distinction almost straight along generation gaps. From my experience, most of the heavy users of email tend to customize systems to what works best for them -- in my work at University IT, the heaviest users usually have very nuanced inboxes with dozed of folders and filters they constructed to suit their needs, disabling any and all auto-sorting for fear of missing an email. Our biggest complaint from users tends to come from the fear that we did something on our Google Apps for Education filter settings which is preventing email from reaching them (even though we run a "virtually" vanilla set up with our Google Apps domain).

The rest of the users just thrive in the chaos of an inbox and either reluctantly use the auto-sorting provided by Gmail or quickly search how to disable it. (The fuss when "Important" messages came into existence was absolutely balloons; users rightfully complained that they had no idea why there was a yellow indicator next to every message in their inbox, since the google filter was marking every message as important). Most people don't really get that much email, at least not the same way that Google seems to think. The inbox search is so good that many users just seem to be content remembering a few key words and then searching for the email when they need it. I constantly see inboxes with thousands of unread messages since the users just ignore any email they don't want to read.

Watching the video and reading the associated blog post, at best it looks like a dedicated app that does what the tabs already do, as well as a few extensions which monitor the contents of email. Some of the features, like the live flight updates, would probably be pretty cool, but I'm curious how well it can interpret itineraries that fly under other airlines for part of the itinerary. (e.g., last international flight I took was on Finnair, and I traveled American Airlines for part of the flight as part of the Oneworld flight alliance; so the actual AA flight was numbered differently than the Finnair listing as I received it, AA#### as opposed to AY###)

I really doubt that this is going to do anything except eat up more space on the Android default home screen as one of the many apps that phones have to ship with, but hopefully a few of the informational features will leak over to Gmail proper.

Re:I'm not sure who this is helping by PPH · 2014-10-22 06:57 · Score: 1

It's helping Google. Because people that manage their own folders and filters end up shit-canning all the sponsored e-mail that Google wants you to see.

--
Have gnu, will travel.
Re:I'm not sure who this is helping by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:01 · Score: 0

I use Gmail's Priority Inbox feature and a lot of custom filters. I see way less sponsored spam type email than if I just used a regular mail client.

Bad PSNR by mlkj · 2014-10-22 06:45 · Score: 1

It seems like I'm going to get even more irrelevant spam than with email. GMail does a god job of keeping the important mail in the main tab.

But what the video is highlighting is "Promotion", "Purchases", "Social" (Sarah repinned your pin on Pinterest!, Miracles of modern science on Youtube!) and other "News".
All I'm seeing on that phone interface is just noise and spam, there's very little actual information.
I don't need more of that.

DO NOT WANT. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 06:50 · Score: 0

DO NOT WANT.

private mail domain by bkr1_2k · 2014-10-22 06:52 · Score: 0

One more reason I'm dumping gmail and moving to a private mail domain. F them, their snooping, and their "we know what you want" attitude.

--
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."

I read that as by Torp · 2014-10-22 07:17 · Score: 2

We know better than you how to organize your mail.
They can keep it.

--
I apologize for the lack of a signature.

Great name! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 07:24 · Score: 0

Hopefully, when Google's self-driving car goes on sale, it will be branded as "Car" to keep things simple and avoid confusion.

How does that work? by ArcadeMan · 2014-10-22 07:38 · Score: 1

Inbox is invite-only right now, and you can email inbox@google.com to request an invite.

I'm sending an email right now to cutegirlfriend@google.com

--
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins

fibers over a manifold by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 07:38 · Score: 0

Bundles? I want my messages to be fibers over a manifold!

Why do I still read these comments by Mikelikus · 2014-10-22 07:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

The level of naysayers, resistance to change in Slashdot is the most I have seen in forever and I have been reading Slashdot for quite a while now.
Could you please, please, try it before saying that it is just like [insert failed google product here] or [insert very successful google product that you don't like here].

I know this is quite a culture shift for Slashdot, but sometimes it's too much.

--
-- Would it be acceptable to just put my name on my sig?

Re:Why do I still read these comments by DavidCBillen · 2014-10-22 08:19 · Score: 1

If I had mod points I'd give you one. As far as I can see I posted the only positive comment on the thread. I think the snooze feature sounds like just what I need.
Re:Why do I still read these comments by omems · 2014-10-22 09:50 · Score: 1

But email has been working for us for _(many)_ years. What do we need (or want) email to do that it doesn't already?
Bundles? I already successfully, with minimal effort, manage personal, business and sales-related emails. I don't need an algorithm to do that less well than I already do.
Highlights? Ok, maybe. I have a decent working memory, but maybe finding and scrolling down to the email from Delta and then tapping it open is too much for some people. Not me.
If the Assists bot is as "good" as google maps's, no fucking way do I want it trying to find me a phone number or tell me business hours. I already have emails to myself (don't worry, I save them as drafts; they aren't sent) and google calendars (and OMG I hear some people actually use post-it notes!). What functional difference does the snooze/reminders service offer? I'm very good at ignoring an email until such time as it needs my attention.

In other words, this is a solution (maybe) to a problem that doesn't exist for many of us. There may be some people who have a thousand emails a day and they can't manage it. I'm not convinced this is will solve their problems, but for the rest of us, it's just a non-event. Moreover, it's not because I'm opposed to innovation, but many earlier efforts that were hailed as game changers or amazing advances in AI and big data (or bloody political Change) turned out to be little more than marketing hype and hyperbole.

The current solution works, and until something can demonstrably improve upon that solution, it will be met with the doubt and incredulity it deserves.
Re:Why do I still read these comments by TubeSteak · 2014-10-22 10:13 · Score: 1

The level of naysayers, resistance to change in Slashdot is the most I have seen in forever and I have been reading Slashdot for quite a while now.
Bundles: stay organized automatically
It's like Folders! With keyword filtering!
But we do it automatically for you!
Highlights: the important info at a glance
They're like Subject lines! But with more information!

Reminders, Assists, and Snooze: your to-doâ(TM)s on your own terms
Calendar and Alarm integration! In your e-mail!
Because we were already reading your e-mail, we used some Google Search magic to pre-fetch information you might want. Gmailâ(TM)s still there for you, but Inbox is something new. Itâ(TM)s a better way to get back to what matters, and we canâ(TM)t wait to share it with you.
/This sounds like really cool stuff, too bad I don't have an Android phone.

--
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Re:Why do I still read these comments by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 10:32 · Score: 0

How can you know if anything demonstrably improves upon a solution if you are too busy meeting every change with apparently well deserved doubt and incredulity?
GP nailed it.
Re:Why do I still read these comments by DerekLyons · 2014-10-22 13:11 · Score: 1, Interesting

Could you please, please, try it before saying that it is just like [insert failed google product here] or [insert very successful google product that you don't like here]. I know this is quite a culture shift for Slashdot, but sometimes it's too much.
Why? Given Google's track record at UI and UX (generally pretty poor), their track record of 'fixing' what isn't broken (pretty good, I.E. they do it more often than not), their track record of benign neglect of their products (pretty good in the same sense as previous)... etc. etc., we have every reason in the world to be skeptical. We've been burned so many times before.
You cheerlead, I'll go with the odds.
Re:Why do I still read these comments by AbRASiON · 2014-10-22 13:12 · Score: 1

Have you SEEN the fucking changes google have made? Holy your damned horses sonny.
Google Maps is now a complete and utter abortion, it's slower and lacking some seriously fantastic features of the old one.
The google introduction of the "priority inbox" auto filtering my email was great. THEN the dipshits decided to split my email into 4 tabs? Why? Who the hell wants that. I now have to run in 'legacy' mode to disable the 4 tabbed inboxes. I had no issues with the priority inbox which was,.. change!
We're only resistant to unnecessary change, for the sake of change. Which google feels compelled to do.
They need to do this because they can't just fire their UI people and the UI people need to "look busy" and "innovate". Fact is email is virtually an "appliance" now and it shouldn't be damn well fiddled with.
Re:Why do I still read these comments by Anubis+IV · 2014-10-22 14:32 · Score: 1

I tried it back when it was called Mailbox. I stopped using it because it didn't work with anything other than Gmail, and I was migrating away from Gmail to FastMail (they've since added support for Yahoo!, but still no general IMAP support, which is what I'm eagerly waiting for).
Granted, I won't be using this feature either, since, as I just said, I migrated away from Gmail, but the fact is, I've already seen it implemented better elsewhere. The one shown in the videos wasn't nearly as understandable or pleasant to view as the competing products.
Re:Why do I still read these comments by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 22:56 · Score: 0

What track record would that be?
Sure, Google stumbles a lot, but that's also because they're not afraid to try out new ideas.
You're most likely suffering from confirmation bias, but try to look at all the positive contributions the company made in the recent years: Gmail, Android, Chrome, Maps (even if the recent UX update may be contentious), Street View, Chromecast, and whatever else they've been working on.
I say bring on the new ideas. If this inbox thing is useful, we'll use it and it may even really end up changing how we use email. If not, then it'll be relegated as another potential idea which didn't pan out, like Google Wave, and countless other projects.
Re:Why do I still read these comments by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 00:20 · Score: 0

reliability and stability is something most of us here crave above all else, other than perhaps the touch of a woman.. any woman, heck, even mom if she ever came downstairs.
when a developer changes how something works, or an application's interface, it is i.t. professionals who will bitch the most, while tearing apart every little change.. the sheeple will just whine a bit if they cant figure it out, then muddle on (correctly or otherwise)....
so yes, when slashdot beta is fucked in the head, you will get some bitching.... when microsoft deletes the start menu from windows, you will see some bitching... when osx gets clobbered with an ugly stick..... you get the idea... and when google fucks around with gmail, youtube, or search.... yup, people here will bitch, regardless of whether it is a good change or not......
imho, inbox sorting is just a way for google to continue to justify the privacy invasion of reading and indexing your email, and storing it forever.... while other services bash them for doing just that.

Here's A Novel Suggestion For Mail by tgeek · 2014-10-22 08:09 · Score: 1

Why not try doing like the US Postal Service has been doing for approximately the past 230 years? Put the damn mail in the users inbox and leave it the fuck alone! Don't try to sort it . . . don't try to organize it . . . and certainly don't open it to see what kind of other mail the recipient might like to receive!!!!!

Ep!?! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 08:15 · Score: -1

server 3rash3s

Just stop by Dracos · 2014-10-22 08:21 · Score: 1

Every time Google messes with Gmail, the interface gets worse. The Gmail product management needs to be flogged every time they try to be too clever. By now they're owed at least a dozen floggings.

Sigh! by jason.sweet · 2014-10-22 08:51 · Score: 3, Insightful

Please don't tell me you are one of those MORONS who relies on software for real-time instructions

Since this is slashdot, I shouldn't have to remind you of the things in the modern world that depends on real-time instructions from software. But I will say this: If software running on 1960's technology could get humans to the moon and back, it is not unreasonable for me to expect my phone to tell me how to get to ikea.

Re:Sigh! by bhcompy · 2014-10-22 09:36 · Score: 1

Sure, but a phone is not a dedicated tool. Those 60s era technologies were specifically designed for the specific purpose they served. Your phone doesn't store local maps and it has a low grade GPS receiver. A dedicated GPS unit has the maps stored on it and has a better GPS receiver, so there is much less delay.
Re:Sigh! by Sloppy · 2014-10-22 11:01 · Score: 3, Insightful

I shouldn't have to remind you of the things in the modern world that depends on real-time instructions from software.
You are not one of those things! You GIVE orders to computers, not take! The computer is supposed to be your bitch. Thirty years ago people worried about Terminators, and now I find out that all Skynet has to do, is nicely tell people to jump off cliffs. I can't wait until Google Surgeon, when everyone thinks they should just blindly do what they're told, preferably with impatience and in real time.
Google Surgeon [speaking slowly]: "Snip the art--"
Doctor: [snip] "Yeahyeah doesanyoneknowhow tospeedupthisthing'sspeech?"
Google Surgeon: "--ery, but first, clamp off the blood supply so the patient doesn't bleed to death."

--
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Re:Sigh! by wasteofspace77 · 2014-10-22 16:04 · Score: 1

Your phone doesn't store local maps and it has a low grade GPS receiver. A dedicated GPS unit has the maps stored on it and has a better GPS receiver, so there is much less delay.
My phone has locally stored maps. At least for the places I am in. But I agree the GPS could be a bit faster. Or I guess I could drive a bit slower.

Pine by Liquid+Len · 2014-10-22 08:54 · Score: 1

Man, when I read this kind of thing, I miss the days when I was using Pine in a terminal. No fluff, no crap, no nothing... Geez I'm getting old...

Re:Pine by CronoCloud · 2014-10-22 09:57 · Score: 1

sudo yum install alpine
Re:Pine by mattack2 · 2014-10-22 13:07 · Score: 1

Why do you "miss" anything?
Alpine's running in the Terminal window next to this one (along with Mail). I use it all the time.

Please give us the option by Russ1642 · 2014-10-22 09:00 · Score: 1

We must have the option of turning this stuff off. Google already does a fantastic job of keeping spam out of my inbox, and I unsubscribe from bulk emails I don't want. The result is that I get only a couple emails per day. I don't need fancy features to organize them as I just use search to find what I want. I'm sure this will help people with email clutter problems but I just like it the way it currently is. So please let me turn it off, just like Gmail's last attempt at automatic sorting.

I hope it has decent UI by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 09:08 · Score: 0

I never been impressed with Google's UI, so I hope it's not similar to gmail. That would be so annoying.

April Fools? by pubwvj · 2014-10-22 09:29 · Score: 1

This sounds like an April Fools joke. What's the date... October 22nd... Hmm... They've mixed up their calendar.

Requested Invite but my email is a mess! by dasacc22 · 2014-10-22 10:14 · Score: 2

How can I make sure I don't miss their important response?!

Could you please, please, try it... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-22 10:22 · Score: 0

If only I could.

Request an invite??? by smithcl8 · 2014-10-22 13:58 · Score: 1

Really? What year is this again? That train has sailed......come back to me when you're ready to roll something out that's production-ready and don't think that I'm all excited to do your beta testing anymore.

Email is broken again? by Imazalil · 2014-10-23 02:55 · Score: 1

I'm probably just getting old, but what is up with all the youngsters these days always talking about how email is broken?

irony by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-23 16:07 · Score: 0

Here they are announcing a big new email inbox and they can't even automate the request invite email. And then email address leads a broken address anyways. Not putting your best foot forward.

More changes I don't want ... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-24 02:50 · Score: 0

Android is inept at simple multi-tasking new gmail's system is a UX cluster fuck.

Why do I still read these comments by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-24 03:04 · Score: 0

Because google has a nice way of fucking perfectly fine shit up? Android and there asshole venders come to mind. Gmails fucked up compose system with the fucking # system that stoped being cool with #ADDwithfuckwitsontwitter and n0 eye don't lyk tw33t fucking sp33k either I have good 'n working keyboard thanks.
I just want a inbox that works if it can # my shit and piss and send that to AssKroft, Dr Methuela, Skull or AS, cool let them see I love me some popyseed tee, and I enjoy bagles and schmeere. I'm glad there that fucking bord

Google Is Not What It Seems by iq145 · 2014-10-26 10:16 · Score: 1

http://search.slashdot.org/sto...

Slashdot Mirror

Google Announces Inbox, a New Take On Email Organization

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