Really, Google?

31 points by kennethcwilbur 13 years ago | 18 comments

You had to kill the Gmail Compose page?

I value single-tasking.

There is nothing more distracting than an open email inbox.

Sometimes I have a thought I need to communicate. Sometimes it takes me a while. Sometimes it takes concentration.

That is why I had your Gmail Compose page bookmarked. I could go straight to a platform to communicate my thought without running into the biggest distraction available.

Will someone please, please, please make a reasonable Gmail facsimile that I can pay for, so that I don't have to put up with these arbitrary changes? First the "new look"... now the dead compose page... what next? Why does Gmail keep fixing things that are not broken?

jmillikin 13 years ago |

  > Will someone please, please, please make a reasonable
  > Gmail facsimile that I can pay for, so that I don't have
  > to put up with these arbitrary changes?

You can pay for Gmail, if you want to. Paying will remove the ads. Paying won't cause Google to halt all changes to the user interface forever. I expect you will have a very hard time finding any actively-maintained web service that does not periodically change parts of the user interface to better serve the majority of their audience.

If you want a bookmarkable full-screen compose page, that is still available. Go to http://mail.google.com/?ui=html , then click compose, and bookmark that page.

psweber 13 years ago | |

You are right about all UIs changing, but the OP is talking about a new version of compose that Google is testing. It removes the full screen compose page and treats compose in a similar way to gChat conversations.

http://learn.googleapps.com/new-gmail-compose/new-compose-vi...

The new design has messaging that says the old version of the compose page will go away. I agree with the OP. Freaking terrible news. I only want to see my inbox a few times a day. Not every time I compose. I am a fan of the new visual style, though.

marssaxman 13 years ago | |

> I expect you will have a very hard time finding any actively-maintained web service that does not periodically change parts of the user interface

...and this is one good reason not everything should be a web service. I like my core tools not to change until I decide to change them.

fakeer 13 years ago | |

There are some paid solutions but all them are either not accepting new users or require you to have more than one users(5 or 10 generally) like AlienCamel, ATMail an likes of Rackspace email hosting. They aren't Gmail carbon copies.

I would like to have a paid email service for just one user with beautiful web interface and IMAP. Options like FastMail &c fail at more than one.

kniht 13 years ago |

The old compose _was_ broken (at least for me). I encounter the use case where I need to reference data from another email when composing a new message all the time. This used to mean opening up a new gmail tab, with the new compose I can draft an email while jumping around through archived messages. That's a big win.

jfoster 13 years ago |

I wonder if this might be leading toward an eventual merging of Gmail into Google+. They both already have very similar chat functionality. Such a merging might not suit Google Apps users very well, though.

logn 13 years ago | |

Yuck. Google's not going to be satisfied until either Google+ is integrated into everything and is a huge success, or is integrated into everything and kills the company. Once I leave Gmail and Google search, there's not much left for me on Google.

Edit: also, I think this focus on Google+ is myopic. They want all the data Facebook has on us. You're telling me that they can't put together a good picture of my entire life and pretty much exactly what to market to me between Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google Play, Android, Google Drive, Calendar, Google Books, Google Groups, AdSense, Google DNS, and Maps? Maybe they should take all that Google+ budget and devote it to datamining their successful products. Anyhow, I hope Linus enjoys his own little social network, he's the only one I know who uses it.

joshuapayne 13 years ago |

One less than perfect alternative is to use the Shift-c shortcut which will give you a compose window in a new window. Its not the same as your bookmarked compose view but it'll block most of your inbox. I'm with you though . . .

niico 13 years ago |

I personally love the new compose page. It helps me to get over other emails if I need to while writing a new one

ChrisClark 13 years ago | |

Yeah. There is no way I could go back to the old compose view. I've been using the new one for a long time now and it has very helpful.

aiurtourist 13 years ago |

It's not gone: https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1

jamesseattle 13 years ago |

It's a problem with web apps vs apps in general. If I have an app on my laptop/tablet/phone and a new version comes out I don't have to download it if I don't like what I read about in the reviews. But with a web app I am at their mercy, forced to adapt to their every whim.

sfrechtling 13 years ago |

You can still access the old compose page (temporarily) - by clicking the little up arrow on the right hand site of the page. Hopefully they keep both choices available.

Navarr 13 years ago |

You could always click the pop-out button and full-screen that bitch.

mccolin 13 years ago |

I still use the old compose and actively opt out of the new compose whenever they try to force it on me. It smacks of something that should be a choice and not a forced-upon default.

anigbrowl 13 years ago |

I have been using this for a while but I don't care for it much. I feel like they've reinvented Desqview.

xauronx 13 years ago |

I feel like you could probably create a one page compose screen of your liking and send through SMTP.

mike-cardwell 13 years ago |

If you don't want arbitrary changes to your UI, use a desktop client.