Google is about to launch a Gmail Web Redesign(techcrunch.com)
techcrunch.com
Google is about to launch a Gmail Web Redesign
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/11/google-is-about-to-launch-a-gmail-web-redesign/
105 コメント
Can we just agree to throw wads of cash at Thunderbird so that we can have an e-mail client that isn't dependent on Google's whims (both for good and for ill)? I like some of the features of Gmail (i.e., labels), but I'd prefer that we as a society try to move back to a more provider-agnostic internet.
Feel free to put your money wherever you want. We're not stopping you from funding Thunderbird development.
...we're just gmail users because, however sadly, it's still the best damned mail client on the planet. Nobody's even come close since 2004. Everyone's had plenty of time to write a replacement - nobody has because email is a terrible technology and it's a thankless chore to work on/with.
...we're just gmail users because, however sadly, it's still the best damned mail client on the planet. Nobody's even come close since 2004. Everyone's had plenty of time to write a replacement - nobody has because email is a terrible technology and it's a thankless chore to work on/with.
FastMail's client is way zippier than Gmail's (seriously, when you scroll through a 10,000 email folder in moments without waiting for things to load, you wonder what black magic they're using to make it appear so seamless). Of course, it isn't free.
Gmail's interface hasn't significantly improved since... maybe smart labels, several years ago? I'd argue it's been surpassed, and most of it's features are par for the course today.
A much larger reason people are Gmail users is because it's incredibly hard to move providers if you have an (at)mailprovider.com email address.
Gmail's interface hasn't significantly improved since... maybe smart labels, several years ago? I'd argue it's been surpassed, and most of it's features are par for the course today.
A much larger reason people are Gmail users is because it's incredibly hard to move providers if you have an (at)mailprovider.com email address.
Also Gmail's spam filtering is still unparalleled.
I actually pipe my Fastmail through Gmail just for the spam filtering. Sigh.
Kinda wish they released their spam filtering service as a stand-alone service.
I actually pipe my Fastmail through Gmail just for the spam filtering. Sigh.
Kinda wish they released their spam filtering service as a stand-alone service.
You can customise your Fastmail spam filtering if needed, however after 15 years of Fastmail email, I still get virtual zero spam.
I barely get any spam at all on FastMail. The spam I do get is classified fairly well, but I haven't even gotten enough spam in the 18 months since I switched to FastMail to get personalized filtering enabled! (200 spam messages)
Assuming spam filtering is "good enough", which it is, I'd rather not have my mail used for helping other people's mail get filtered better. FastMail solely uses email you confirm as spam to help their spam reporting efforts, and you can even disable that setting. No accidental spam gets mined for any purpose outside your own account's benefit.
I also feel Gmail trusts it's own opinion more than yours, with regards to training behavior. I used to have receipts from some stores always marked as "promotions" or even "spam", no matter how many times I tried to teach Gmail otherwise.
Assuming spam filtering is "good enough", which it is, I'd rather not have my mail used for helping other people's mail get filtered better. FastMail solely uses email you confirm as spam to help their spam reporting efforts, and you can even disable that setting. No accidental spam gets mined for any purpose outside your own account's benefit.
I also feel Gmail trusts it's own opinion more than yours, with regards to training behavior. I used to have receipts from some stores always marked as "promotions" or even "spam", no matter how many times I tried to teach Gmail otherwise.
I'm very happy to share to and benefit from the collective emails of other users, because it yields noticeably better results for me.
With Fastmail, if I push the spam filtering too aggressively then I get constant false positives. With Gmail, there's no tweaking and I maybe get one or two false positives per year, and never anything very important.
Obviously different people have different kinds of emails/inbox volume/etc, but that's my experience.
With Fastmail, if I push the spam filtering too aggressively then I get constant false positives. With Gmail, there's no tweaking and I maybe get one or two false positives per year, and never anything very important.
Obviously different people have different kinds of emails/inbox volume/etc, but that's my experience.
The ideal case would be if the default options for spam filtering worked really well, and you could also still go tweak the levers if you wanted. It's not that Gmail doesn't have levers for adjusting spam filtering, it's just that Google has decided you shouldn't be allowed to adjust them yourself.
I definitely think FastMail's default spam filtering settings are good enough as is, but you're definitely right, different people have different experiences. The email address I currently use is only three years old, give or take, so it likely hasn't ended up on nearly as many spam lists (yet) as the average Gmail-user-since-2006.
I definitely think FastMail's default spam filtering settings are good enough as is, but you're definitely right, different people have different experiences. The email address I currently use is only three years old, give or take, so it likely hasn't ended up on nearly as many spam lists (yet) as the average Gmail-user-since-2006.
Yea, my goes-to-gmail email is my "public" email that has been around since forever and is in plaintext on a bunch of websites and every commit etc.
Huh? Incorrect spam filtering is one of the main reasons I'm moving away from gmail. I routinely have to check my spam 'folder' to restore messages that aren't spam.
The only reason Gmail's spam filtering is so good is because they have market dominance, and have much more data than anyone else.
If you give me all emails of 2 billion people, I can build you such a good spam filter as well.
If you give me all emails of 2 billion people, I can build you such a good spam filter as well.
> seriously, when you scroll through a 10,000 email folder in moments
Err, no. Scrolling through 10k emails is a UX disaster. There's a reason why Search exists, and it's this use case. If your email is properly categorized, you rarely end up with folders that large anyway.
I've yet to see anyone handle email categorization and filtering anywhere close to as sanely as Gmail, and I seem to try everything about once a year, get pissed that nobody else can figure it out, and go right back to Gmail. It's especially important to someone like me who's on dozens of open source mailing lists and needs to cross-correlate conversations between lists ("[List Y] Hey I need to update X to make Y work again." "Go talk to someone on list X and file a bug on X's tracker..." "[Bugtracker X] Bug for making Y work again" is an incredibly common email workflow in OSS-land).
My biggest pain in email these days is that Gmail hasn't implemented any kind of smart filter for idiots that can't figure out their own email address - (namely, people signing up for email lists and using services thinking they have my email address... I keep getting incredibly absurd why-the-hell-are-you-even-emailing-this email including medical records, police reports, travel documents, confidential legal communications, etc. from people who share my particular first-letter-last-name pair).
Err, no. Scrolling through 10k emails is a UX disaster. There's a reason why Search exists, and it's this use case. If your email is properly categorized, you rarely end up with folders that large anyway.
I've yet to see anyone handle email categorization and filtering anywhere close to as sanely as Gmail, and I seem to try everything about once a year, get pissed that nobody else can figure it out, and go right back to Gmail. It's especially important to someone like me who's on dozens of open source mailing lists and needs to cross-correlate conversations between lists ("[List Y] Hey I need to update X to make Y work again." "Go talk to someone on list X and file a bug on X's tracker..." "[Bugtracker X] Bug for making Y work again" is an incredibly common email workflow in OSS-land).
My biggest pain in email these days is that Gmail hasn't implemented any kind of smart filter for idiots that can't figure out their own email address - (namely, people signing up for email lists and using services thinking they have my email address... I keep getting incredibly absurd why-the-hell-are-you-even-emailing-this email including medical records, police reports, travel documents, confidential legal communications, etc. from people who share my particular first-letter-last-name pair).
I certainly don't scroll through a 10,000 email folder while looking for something, but my point is that the UI can handle it, and does so with incredible speed.
I more or less feel Gmail's filtering thinks it's smarter than it is, it doesn't value my opinion much: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16813203
I more or less feel Gmail's filtering thinks it's smarter than it is, it doesn't value my opinion much: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16813203
I’ve always used Mail.app with almost no issues, what makes Gmails web app superior?
Search.
Mail.app works fine, but doesn't provide the underlying service and quality Gmail does. It's just a client (which I guess is the current topic).
I'd say the Mail.app is better than Gmail because of it's design and UX, but it often freaks out on "large" actions like bulk deletes or moves. Gmail the app only reads what it needs, allows easily selecting many emails (>50 at a time), and filtering. You can obviously search, filter, and do bulk actions in Mail.app too, but I find the versions in Gmail to be way better because they're either faster or more reliable.
Mail.app also doesn't totally understand Gmail's tags and that an email appears in multiple folders. I'm always afraid of moving emails around in Mail.app.
I'd say the Mail.app is better than Gmail because of it's design and UX, but it often freaks out on "large" actions like bulk deletes or moves. Gmail the app only reads what it needs, allows easily selecting many emails (>50 at a time), and filtering. You can obviously search, filter, and do bulk actions in Mail.app too, but I find the versions in Gmail to be way better because they're either faster or more reliable.
Mail.app also doesn't totally understand Gmail's tags and that an email appears in multiple folders. I'm always afraid of moving emails around in Mail.app.
1) I'm not always on a Mac. In fact, I'm most frequently not on a Mac. And even on my Mac laptop, I spend my day in Linux VMs and interact with few pieces of Apple-native software. An email client I use must be portable, and web software is preferred since, well, nobody wants to write Linux client software anymore (or if they do, it's just an Electron app, which at that point I'm better off using a web version anyway).
2) Filtering and categories are still unparalleled, a decade on. Nobody's even come close to the power of Gmail's tagging and filtering. (Seriously, if you want to see just how bad the competition is, fire up Outlook Web Access and try to create some, even really basic, filters. You'll commonly end up with multiple copies of emails or broken read-state tracking, broken threading, etc. I'm forced to use OWA at work and it's excruciating to the point where I simply don't use their filters at all and deal with Inbox Hell by searching alone.)
3) Searching. Gmail's search engine doesn't seem to have suffered as badly as Google's main search has over the years, and as so it still remains incredibly powerful for "power users" like myself. By comparison, OWA's searching feels like something a CS student would implement in class to check a box on a requirement list.
2) Filtering and categories are still unparalleled, a decade on. Nobody's even come close to the power of Gmail's tagging and filtering. (Seriously, if you want to see just how bad the competition is, fire up Outlook Web Access and try to create some, even really basic, filters. You'll commonly end up with multiple copies of emails or broken read-state tracking, broken threading, etc. I'm forced to use OWA at work and it's excruciating to the point where I simply don't use their filters at all and deal with Inbox Hell by searching alone.)
3) Searching. Gmail's search engine doesn't seem to have suffered as badly as Google's main search has over the years, and as so it still remains incredibly powerful for "power users" like myself. By comparison, OWA's searching feels like something a CS student would implement in class to check a box on a requirement list.
The first item makes your point clear. But personally I don't understand why people would use web Gmail over something like Airmail, Spark, etc — modern clients with advanced features and search. And you can still set up filters in the web version if you need any additional.
I got excited and googled the email clients you mentioned...and then learned they are Mac/iPhone/iPad only.
And that's why I'm on Gmail.
And that's why I'm on Gmail.
the best damned mail client
If they make me switch to inbox full time I'm done. It's a genuinely terrible design.
..web client. With Apple Mail, I can’t remember the last time I went to an actual webpage to check email.
> Can we just agree to throw wads of cash at Thunderbird
No, but go ahead and throw wads of your cash at Thunderbird.
No, but go ahead and throw wads of your cash at Thunderbird.
I can't. I converted all my cash to a proof-of-work based altcoin called TBirdCoin, development stagnated, and now I'm broke.
At least it scales well.
I like nmh, FWIW.
Very excited for this. When "Inbox" came out I was excited for a lot of the modern amenities but it was so dumbed down from gmail and missing a lot of core features, that ultimately switched back to using the classic Gmail interface, even though it hasn't received much love in a while.
Since they have a separate Inbox product, hopefully they will be able to refresh it with all the new modern bits, without removing any of the advanced power user functionality we have all come to love and relay on.
Since they have a separate Inbox product, hopefully they will be able to refresh it with all the new modern bits, without removing any of the advanced power user functionality we have all come to love and relay on.
I'm betting themes goes away, since Gmail is the only Google interface that's unevolved enough to let users actually pick the way they want their client to look.
RIP dark themes.
RIP dark themes.
Ugh, I need themes to differentiate different personal mailboxes or various work related inboxes. There are days I might have 5 or 6 google inboxes open at any given time.
In that case you can still use custom CSS / user styles.
I did this for a while to cope with some of Google+'s redesigns, and came to realize that you end up in a constant battle of dealing with your custom CSS being broken by updates and changes to the website, and that you are better off just suffering through what a given website wants you to use, if you're going to use it at all.
We use G Suite at work and I'm not a fan of the new calendar design. Material design works nicely on a tiny phone screen but on a 32" 4k display it just seems like there's a lot of unused space. That's probably the ridiculous size of the panel, to some degree, but frankly, I just don't think Google's done a great job of designing desktop user interfaces that aren't search.
For folks interested in avoiding your email provider also being an advertising company, I switched to Fastmail* last year. They've got gmail import and full IMAP push support (something gmail canned years ago).
I'd also love to see other hosted alternatives to gmail. I looked into rolling my own on EC2 but decided I didn't have the expertise to do it "right"
* https://www.fastmail.com/
For folks interested in avoiding your email provider also being an advertising company, I switched to Fastmail* last year. They've got gmail import and full IMAP push support (something gmail canned years ago).
I'd also love to see other hosted alternatives to gmail. I looked into rolling my own on EC2 but decided I didn't have the expertise to do it "right"
* https://www.fastmail.com/
What is fastmail's sell other than their webmail interface? Seems very expensive to me. I pay $15 a year at mxroute for unlimited domains and users.
I don't ever use their webmail, to be honest. I've got native mail clients on my devices that I connect to Fastmail with IMAP. To compare apples to apples it seems most relevant to compare storage tiers, MXroute is 5/month for 20gb, Fastmail's 5/month plan is 25gb (but single-user only).
I personally don't really want to deal with cPanel, too. Not because cPanel isn't cool, but because I explicitly wanted to pay somebody to do the management for me so I didn't have to get too in-the-weeds. I'm certain I'd misconfigure something somewhere and I just don't want to deal with that.
EOD it seems mostly like personal preference and how much you want to tinker. Value for both seem close to the same.
I personally don't really want to deal with cPanel, too. Not because cPanel isn't cool, but because I explicitly wanted to pay somebody to do the management for me so I didn't have to get too in-the-weeds. I'm certain I'd misconfigure something somewhere and I just don't want to deal with that.
EOD it seems mostly like personal preference and how much you want to tinker. Value for both seem close to the same.
Ah, maybe I have a pretty hot promo deal then, I've got unlimited at mxroute.
I've also read mxroute's writeup on why they use cpanel, and apparently it just made sense to use it for user configuration, and that under the hood it's all a very unusual setup (I don't understand enough about email to be honest).
I've also read mxroute's writeup on why they use cpanel, and apparently it just made sense to use it for user configuration, and that under the hood it's all a very unusual setup (I don't understand enough about email to be honest).
I used MXRoute for a bit. It's alright but also shite. The search is useless.
I think they're looking at vastly different models. MXRoute looks to be like ordering web hosting (but mostly just for the mail portion), whereas FastMail is more equivalent to a user-based account service, like G Suite or Office 365.
I wouldn't knock MXRoute, if you're happy with it, that's awesome. I'm a pretty happy FastMail user, personally, but I will say the account-based pricing has sniped me: I wanted a separate mail account on my domain for a very low usage, text only email handling piece of software... and it would double my bill to do that. I'd at least like to be able to have my different user accounts on different user tiers, pricing-wise, and currently that isn't available.
I wouldn't knock MXRoute, if you're happy with it, that's awesome. I'm a pretty happy FastMail user, personally, but I will say the account-based pricing has sniped me: I wanted a separate mail account on my domain for a very low usage, text only email handling piece of software... and it would double my bill to do that. I'd at least like to be able to have my different user accounts on different user tiers, pricing-wise, and currently that isn't available.
I use FastMail and quite like it, the main selling point for me was that it wasn't Google (I care less about that now though.)
The billing is awful (they may have changed it and I may have not noticed) but I login every three months or so to manually renew a three month subscription, I don't think there's recurring monthly billing.
The billing is awful (they may have changed it and I may have not noticed) but I login every three months or so to manually renew a three month subscription, I don't think there's recurring monthly billing.
I like FastMail too. I like their philosophy, that I can route and apply sorting rules to multiple domains easily, and I like their web interface.
There is recurring monthly billing and I've never experienced any issues with their billing. Reference image: https://piqdd.com/fastmail.billing.screen.png
There is recurring monthly billing and I've never experienced any issues with their billing. Reference image: https://piqdd.com/fastmail.billing.screen.png
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how did you get $15 a year? The lowest prices I see are $30?
Must have been a limited deal. I'm $15 a year "unlimited" storage.
edit: looks like they have a deal at $60 for 2 years with 40GB, still unlimited domains and users, which to me is the main draw.
edit: looks like they have a deal at $60 for 2 years with 40GB, still unlimited domains and users, which to me is the main draw.
SOGo could be an interesting open-source option as a groupware.
https://sogo.nu/
They offer a demo here http://demo.sogo.nu/SOGo/
The account sogo1, sogo2, sogo3 are available to login and see what it looks like.
https://sogo.nu/
They offer a demo here http://demo.sogo.nu/SOGo/
The account sogo1, sogo2, sogo3 are available to login and see what it looks like.
Sorting columns would be nice! That's about the only missed feature.
I hope they don't add more dead white space like they did when rebranding from the old blue design to the current red.
Edit: oh god, I read on that article they want to merge Gmail and Inbox and the white space in Inbox is freeking horrible. Why? Why do this? I had looked at Inbox briefly and thought to myself no way. I can see 8 email in Inbox and 21 in Gmail today. One email in inbox has embedded spammy ad pictures that absorbs 3x the normal amount of space.
https://inbox.google.com/
I hope they don't add more dead white space like they did when rebranding from the old blue design to the current red.
Edit: oh god, I read on that article they want to merge Gmail and Inbox and the white space in Inbox is freeking horrible. Why? Why do this? I had looked at Inbox briefly and thought to myself no way. I can see 8 email in Inbox and 21 in Gmail today. One email in inbox has embedded spammy ad pictures that absorbs 3x the normal amount of space.
https://inbox.google.com/
Further edit to the edit:
Ran across an article with better images of the redesigned GUI. First glance, it looks good. Compact display of information, balanced interface controls, better coloring scheme. That all said, proof will be in the pudding~
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/gmail-com-redesign-l...
Ran across an article with better images of the redesigned GUI. First glance, it looks good. Compact display of information, balanced interface controls, better coloring scheme. That all said, proof will be in the pudding~
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/gmail-com-redesign-l...
I'm excited to discover which current Gmail features Google will deem surplus in this re"design". That seems to be the trend when a new look is rolled out.
I'll bust out the popcorn when threads like this [1] start popping up and people complain until Google locks down posting.
[1] https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/calendar/xd-5...
[1] https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/calendar/xd-5...
I never knew that feature existed, and now I wish I'd have used it :/
I'm looking forward to the redesign, but if you're a power user and want vim/emacs-like productivity in email, it's going to be very hard for Gmail to beat Superhuman (https://superhuman.com). Ping me if you'd like to get bumped to the top of the access queue. Email in profile. Not affiliated with them; just a happy user.
That page somehow neglects to say what the product is (email client? web service?) and also makes impossible claims (‘Undo Send’).
"Undo Send" features are pretty common (Gmail offers it as well), and essentially it just delays sending your emails for x minutes, so you can cancel an outgoing mail if you're prone to "oh shoot" the moment after you click the button.
We're an email client (currently web, macOS, iOS) to help you do your email twice as fast :)
Thanks, that might actually be interesting. (I fear I'll have to retire Eudora eventually.)
thanks for the shoutout Anurag :)
Love the support :)
If this is true I wonder whether this kills Inbox. I prefer Inbox over the Gmail interface and use it exclusively. I have an iPhone X and 5 months later, the Inbox app has not been updated for the iPhone X screen, I think it's the only Google app I have that hasn't been.
I'd place a lot of money on a bet that this kills Inbox. Inbox on iOS still doesn't support iPhone X, 6 months later. This tells me that engineers aren't doing any new work on it. (It has had updates every couple weeks with "bug fixes").
Inbox is going to be Google's sandbox to test new ideas about email, with the most successful features graduating to gmail itself.
So progressive enhancement/alteration for now, not a product shutdown
So progressive enhancement/alteration for now, not a product shutdown
Since Inbox was a failed attempt at a Gmail redesign, my guess is that it will go away if the new one doesn't send people running and screaming for the hills.
I think Inbox is great, why do you say it's a failed attempt? I don't think it tried to replace Gmail, it's it's own thing.
It was intended to replace Gmail, and they halted doing so because even their own employees revolted: https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/16/why-did-google-decide-to-s...
This is probably why Gmail is nearly the last Google product that looks like it did in the 2000s: they had to start over.
This is probably why Gmail is nearly the last Google product that looks like it did in the 2000s: they had to start over.
Update: A Google spokesperson has provided the following statement (emphasis included): “We’re working on some major updates to Gmail (they’re still in <b>draft</b> phase). We need a bit more time to <b>compose</b> ourselves, so can’t share anything yet—<b>archive</b> this for now, and we’ll let you know when it’s time to hit <b>send</b>.”
As quoted on: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/11/google-is-about-to-launch-...
As quoted on: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/11/google-is-about-to-launch-...
The first three items in your inbox will now be "Sponsored Email Placements", with organic email showing up underneath.
I wonder if they will keep the "Basic HTML" view.
Just when I needed just a slight push to finally migrate away from Gmail to own mail server. Thanks Google! :)
On a brighter side, basic HTML version still works very well in Gmail, hopefully that won't be broken with the redesign.
On a brighter side, basic HTML version still works very well in Gmail, hopefully that won't be broken with the redesign.
I really hope they don't get rid of the option to turn conversation view off. For me, conversation view adds in a lot of clutter that makes it difficult to see the message, plus lots of inline and collapsed-by-default content.
I'd really like the ability to see what emails I've replied to (with conversation mode off), but pessimistically I'd expect we're getting mostly unneeded aesthetic changes and functionality regressions.
I'd really like the ability to see what emails I've replied to (with conversation mode off), but pessimistically I'd expect we're getting mostly unneeded aesthetic changes and functionality regressions.
The options around conversation view are not only staying, but they're being built into the phone apps as well.
I wonder what Inbox would do? I have been using Inbox though it is not doing great! Sometimes i need to switch to the Gmail in order to get things done.
For me the only thing that needs to be fixed is that when my mouse ever so briefly glances over a contact in the Hangouts pane as the cursor traverses to the other monitor, that contact's card pops up and stays up indefinitely, looking at me. If it could never do that I'd be happy.
Otherwise the gmail interface doesn't really need any improvement. It's email. there's not much special about it.
Otherwise the gmail interface doesn't really need any improvement. It's email. there's not much special about it.
Very interested in this. I use inbox for personal emails but find it lacking in many areas- most of all is lag and slow response.
Let me guess, it will follow the Google tradition of making it painfully slow or resource intensive to use on Firefox.
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oh god please no.
anyway airmail (app) is decent so maybe time to go back to a local client.
anyway airmail (app) is decent so maybe time to go back to a local client.
I wonder if this also has something to do with their planned support for AMP in Gmail. If yes, then this might get tricky ...
Gmail already does dynamic content over email in the case of a first party service: Google+. It's unlikely a design refresh has anything to do with Google's intention to proprietarize email.
hopefully not as bad as the last one... reverting back would be an upgrade...
Maybe this time they will decide to hide the TO field?
Maybe this time they will decide to hide the TO field?
Prepare yourselves for even more whitespace and even larger typefaces. It's the Material Design Way.
(Let's not forget the current Gmail had a big design update that added lots of whitespace a few years ago.)
That update from a reader who witnessed a Googler dogfooding the new UI was interesting:
'“It was a hybrid of Gmail and Inbox,” he told me. “The left-side column was more like inbox.google.com and the right side was an enlarged version of Gmail.'
Let's just hope they don't repeat the Google News redesign; forcing the content column to be fixed width. I'm looking at the new Material Design Google News right on a 40" 4k screen, the column with actual news items is like 30% of the width of the screen:
https://imgur.com/a/EQY8Q
Edit: Eeek. I just tried inbox.google.com. It behaves pretty much like the new Google News in terms of layout. I think this is what we can expect.
(Let's not forget the current Gmail had a big design update that added lots of whitespace a few years ago.)
That update from a reader who witnessed a Googler dogfooding the new UI was interesting:
'“It was a hybrid of Gmail and Inbox,” he told me. “The left-side column was more like inbox.google.com and the right side was an enlarged version of Gmail.'
Let's just hope they don't repeat the Google News redesign; forcing the content column to be fixed width. I'm looking at the new Material Design Google News right on a 40" 4k screen, the column with actual news items is like 30% of the width of the screen:
https://imgur.com/a/EQY8Q
Edit: Eeek. I just tried inbox.google.com. It behaves pretty much like the new Google News in terms of layout. I think this is what we can expect.
Yeah, my biggest fear is that they will take away the "compact" display settings in favor of something more design'y.
The first thing I do on any new phone is make the text size as small as possible so I don't have to scroll so damn much.
The first thing I do on any new phone is make the text size as small as possible so I don't have to scroll so damn much.
These redesigns always scare me because the come with a loss of functionality
I distinctly remember when Google Maps underwent Material Redesign. I traveled around Scotland for over a week pre materialization and Google Maps was a fantastic tool for navigation. Post materialization I went on a trip to Ireland and it was a train wreck.
The scale was gone so your navigator was unable to give you helpful instructions like "the next turn is in 300 yards". Eventually they added it back, first only when zooming and later with an option to make it persist always.
The old Google Maps had inertial compensation so if you lost a GPS lock briefly it would continue to update your travel along a route using your last recorded speed. This was useful when driving in the mountains or city. Now if you momentarily lose your GPS lock it just freezes your position on the route until it reacquires a lock. It's incredibly frustrating because there's no indicator so you have no idea when glancing at the screen driving down the street. I can't tell you how many turns I've missed because of this.
The old Google Maps had some rejection logic so if you were following a route and GPS reported your position radically different from the last update it would be ignored. Now if you're driving through areas with sketchy GPS you jump around and Maps is constantly calculating a new route.
They removed elevation data which complicates trip planning. It's not so much a problem with driving, though it can be. For hiking though it's a pain because you can't see how difficult the terrain is going to be.
I distinctly remember when Google Maps underwent Material Redesign. I traveled around Scotland for over a week pre materialization and Google Maps was a fantastic tool for navigation. Post materialization I went on a trip to Ireland and it was a train wreck.
The scale was gone so your navigator was unable to give you helpful instructions like "the next turn is in 300 yards". Eventually they added it back, first only when zooming and later with an option to make it persist always.
The old Google Maps had inertial compensation so if you lost a GPS lock briefly it would continue to update your travel along a route using your last recorded speed. This was useful when driving in the mountains or city. Now if you momentarily lose your GPS lock it just freezes your position on the route until it reacquires a lock. It's incredibly frustrating because there's no indicator so you have no idea when glancing at the screen driving down the street. I can't tell you how many turns I've missed because of this.
The old Google Maps had some rejection logic so if you were following a route and GPS reported your position radically different from the last update it would be ignored. Now if you're driving through areas with sketchy GPS you jump around and Maps is constantly calculating a new route.
They removed elevation data which complicates trip planning. It's not so much a problem with driving, though it can be. For hiking though it's a pain because you can't see how difficult the terrain is going to be.
I definitely can second the feeling that Google Maps has gotten "dumber" over time. My city has a major highway that runs over municipal streets and Maps always thinks I've somehow warped from the highway to the street when I drive over it, recalculating and telling me to take a left from the freeway. I'm going 60 and have been on the interstate for the last 20 minutes, how could I suddenly be on the a surface street? I don't understand how I should be comfortable with Google collecting vast amounts of data about my travel habits if it can't even make the experience marginally better with them.
And the Maps webapp still doesn't have a compass. The most popular online map in 2018 can't show you magnetic north, which I guess is because you can't rotate the map at all. That feature was cut in some distant redesign.[0]
[0]http://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=31194&p=199273
And the Maps webapp still doesn't have a compass. The most popular online map in 2018 can't show you magnetic north, which I guess is because you can't rotate the map at all. That feature was cut in some distant redesign.[0]
[0]http://guides.library.cornell.edu/c.php?g=31194&p=199273
Has anyone else noticed that Google Maps no longer says street names? It used to say "Turn left on Drury Lane". Now it says "Turn left in 1000 feet", and I have no idea if I'm turning onto the correct road or not.
On Android, anyway.
On Android, anyway.
It's frustrating when using it as a map these day, you have to zoom right in for the street names to be visible, even highways a lot of the time. By the time I zoom in to see a street and zoom back out I've lost context of where I'm looking.
Open street map is a bit better in this regard.
Open street map is a bit better in this regard.
That's cos your cell provider is poor.
The street names are "pronounced" by a Google server. If the phone can't download the audio within a few hundred milliseconds, it falls back to a prerecorded audio clip made locally on the phone.
Get a better cell provider, and you'll get back to full functionality.
The street names are "pronounced" by a Google server. If the phone can't download the audio within a few hundred milliseconds, it falls back to a prerecorded audio clip made locally on the phone.
Get a better cell provider, and you'll get back to full functionality.
Probably more useful. Not many people can remember street names, especially for places not frequently visited.
Also, Japan doesn't even have street names so we've always had 'turn left in xxx metres' since ever.
Also, Japan doesn't even have street names so we've always had 'turn left in xxx metres' since ever.
Still works for me? At least in Australia on Android.
> Yeah, my biggest fear is that they will take away the "compact" display settings in favor of something more design'y.
Reminds me how happy I should be to have a designer on my team who isn't obsessed with removing every nifty feature.
He'll be replaced soon and the new designer seems to be great too: I know she's already tried to get a basic dev environment up and running which is something I really don't expect from the designer camp.
Reminds me how happy I should be to have a designer on my team who isn't obsessed with removing every nifty feature.
He'll be replaced soon and the new designer seems to be great too: I know she's already tried to get a basic dev environment up and running which is something I really don't expect from the designer camp.
Ooh I strongly dislike that effect on large monitors. It’s basically a waste where we distill the design down the lowest common denominator for 1024x768 screens (or whatever is current).
Facebook does the same thing. I don’t know why companies prefer the fixed width design. The original timeline design was SO compelling with photos filling the entire width of the screen.
Facebook does the same thing. I don’t know why companies prefer the fixed width design. The original timeline design was SO compelling with photos filling the entire width of the screen.
Google News has become unusable for me. It used to be great to find a variety of sources about a certain topic. But now it’s become really hard to browse beyond the 2-3 articles that are privileged.
I guess it fits in with the Google Search motivations of becoming an answer engine, instead of a search engine by providing a single specific answer instead of a breadth of resources to explore on your own.
I guess it fits in with the Google Search motivations of becoming an answer engine, instead of a search engine by providing a single specific answer instead of a breadth of resources to explore on your own.
I totaly agree. I started to use bing news at the time. Even if they don't offer multiple sources for each story, they offer sources that are more diverse (ie, not just the biggest news provider).
This worry makes me glad I am with FastMail now. They seem to have the information density spot on.
The reason I like mailbox.org is that they basically like to be the host and leave you to read your mail the way you want it even though they do have a web UI - Open-Xchange. Not my favourite, but I don't find it jarring whatever few time I've to use it. Otherwise it's just IMAP for me.
Also, they have a very different take on 2FA. 2FA access is PIN+OTP and even though someone figures out PIN and OTP the OTP always changes and PIN is useless w/o it and one can access IMAP with the normal password.
Also, they have a very different take on 2FA. 2FA access is PIN+OTP and even though someone figures out PIN and OTP the OTP always changes and PIN is useless w/o it and one can access IMAP with the normal password.
Maybe the modern-time Google geniuses will eventually launch "G Suite Pro", "with groundbreaking information density"? Of course for $5/user/month extra. Oh and they will also get an exclusive dark app skin to show that they are Pro Users, and not, like, casuals.
If it was wider the measure would not be optimal and it would look bad and be harder to read.
If they increased the text size and image size to make up for it then the amount of items per page would go down.
I don't see what they could do that would work very well on larger screens aside from adding more columns.
If they increased the text size and image size to make up for it then the amount of items per page would go down.
I don't see what they could do that would work very well on larger screens aside from adding more columns.
i'm betting they remove the chat
That would reduce the number of chat options at Google, which seems out of character. I suspect they may introduce a brand new, convenient Gmail Chat or the like just unique to the Gmail client.
Why? Pretty use to how Gmail is today and not really looking for a new redesign and learning the new way.
They just redesigned the entire agenda web app, makes sense that mail was going to receive the same treatment.