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Google Launches Gmail Add-ons and Brings a Range of Business Tools To the Inbox (betanews.com)
Google today launched Gmail Add-ons after a beta testing period as a developer preview earlier in the year. From a report: Gmail Add-ons are extensions that bring a number of big-name services -- such as Trello, Wrike and Asana -- to your inbox. While there's a definite business and enterprise bias, it's something that available to everyone, starting right now. The arrival of Gmail Add-ons is Google's recognition of the fact that many people now spend a huge amount of time in their inboxes, and the company is trying to make its email service even more useful. Pleasingly, add-ons are available on both the web and on Android, and Google explains that "your inbox can contextually surface your go-to app based on messages you receive to help you get things done faster."
What are Trello, Wrike and Asana and why would I want them (either for business or personal use)?
If only Google had a service that you could type this into and get more information about it....
If only Google would spend some time making their UI better.
Delete is a trashcan icon when reading, but different when viewing the inbox. "Select all" means "select the first 50" (have to do that numerous times to actually select/delete *all* messages), "reply" is down at the bottom of "conversation" mode so that you have to scroll down many pages to reach it, "cc" and "bcc" are hidden *until* you click in the "to" line...
Many, many confusing and inconsistent interface choices, there's no overriding theme or standard that can be used to find functions you need, and many useful things are inconveniently positioned and not easy to see. I count 8 dropdown boxes for various functions on the GMail page, normal rules for "selection" (click, and see item highlighted) are different from every other program on my computer, it's just a mess.
You're forced to "guess and look" to do just about anything.
To get a feel for what I mean: deleting an item from the inbox is a very common action, so why is it hidden (until I mark a checkbox) and why does (this really common feature) take several steps? For all the bad things we say about Apple, at least they know how to make a good interface.