If you want to be cured of your addiction to e-mail, or desire to use it whatsoever for that matter, then by all means switch over to use Google's new "Inbox" to manage your e-mail. You will NEVER want to go into your e-mail again. Addiction cured.
Okay, I'm being harsh. The "bundling" feature is kind of nice and I can see tweaking it to make it work for me. However, dealing with my e-mail inbox as put together by designers who would most likely come into my house and sort my books by height and color… umm… no thank you Inbox. I find it hideous to look at and move around in the Inbox interface (especially on a small mobile screen not built for billboard acreage of white space).
Do you like to delete any e-mails? Yes? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?! Google will be sending a team of Inbox programmers to your house straight away to throw you in a deep dungeon with a limitless amount of cells below the Google complex. What were you even thinking? You should keep all ten zillion CRON notifications that are mailed to you. Also, you never know when your server "BACKUP COMPLETE" messages will be useful from last year, right?!
Yes, yes, Google, you can delete e-mails. Just select them one by one for a night of good fun. Do a search and there is NO WAY to select all the results of your search. I think I found a way to take all the offending messages and bundle them by type and then go to that bundle and select "move to trash" from a drop-down menu (heaven forbid you put the trash where someone could see it top level). Then you can get rid of the bundle. I think that might work. Or, you can just log back into your Gmail account to perform any blasphemous actions like this.
Seriously, I haven't wished for Yahoo mail in a decade. I didn't even wish for Yahoo mail when I HAD YAHOO MAIL! But… maybe they don't mind if I delete my own mail. I'll have to go check that out. Perhaps a Hotmail account would be in order since I'm waxing nostalgic and Google has sided themselves with stupid tech in my mind after wasting a couple days with Inbox.
Seriously, I will stick with my regular Gmail. Inbox maybe will improve (cough die cough cough).
One man's rant. I'd say review, but really I'm just telling you that I don't care for this new Google product from just a few visceral reactions that it caused me.
Go try it out. I've got a few invites left if you haven't anything better to do. Like cleaning your toilets… trimming your cat's toe nails while giving it a bath… or anything much more fun than being teased by what you hoped would be a great new way to handle your e-mail.?
Google Inbox vs. Gmail
If you want to be cured of your addiction to e-mail, or desire to use it whatsoever for that matter, then by all means switch over to use Google’s new “Inbox” to manage your e-mail. You will NEVER want to go into your e-mail again. Addiction cured.
Okay, I’m being harsh. The “bundling” feature is kind of nice and I can see tweaking it to make it work for me. However, dealing with my e-mail inbox as put together by designers who would most likely come into my house and sort my books by height and color… umm… no thank you Inbox. I find it hideous to look at and move around in the Inbox interface (especially on a small mobile screen not built for billboard acreage of white space).
Do you like to delete any e-mails? Yes? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! Google will be sending a team of Inbox programmers to your house straight away to throw you in a deep dungeon with a limitless amount of cells below the Google complex. What were you even thinking? You should keep all ten zillion CRON notifications that are mailed to you. Also, you never know when your server “BACKUP COMPLETE” messages will be useful from last year, right?!
Yes, yes, Google, you can delete e-mails. Just select them one by one for a night of good fun. Do a search and there is NO WAY to select all the results of your search. I think I found a way to take all the offending messages and bundle them by type and then go to that bundle and select “move to trash” from a drop-down menu (heaven forbid you put the trash where someone could see it top level). Then you can get rid of the bundle. I think that might work. Or, you can just log back into your Gmail account to perform any blasphemous actions like this.
Seriously, I haven’t wished for Yahoo mail in a decade. I didn’t even wish for Yahoo mail when I HAD YAHOO MAIL! But… maybe they don’t mind if I delete my own mail. I’ll have to go check that out. Perhaps a Hotmail account would be in order since I’m waxing nostalgic and Google has sided themselves with stupid tech in my mind after wasting a couple days with Inbox.
Seriously, I will stick with my regular Gmail. Inbox maybe will improve (cough die cough cough).
One man’s rant. I’d say review, but really I’m just telling you that I don’t care for this new Google product from just a few visceral reactions that it caused me.
Go try it out. I’ve got a few invites left if you haven’t anything better to do. Like cleaning your toilets… trimming your cat’s toe nails while giving it a bath… or anything much more fun than being teased by what you hoped would be a great new way to handle your e-mail.?
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XD @ Trimming cat's nails while giving it a bath.
So…. you love Inbox? With Floaty Hearts?
lol. I'd hate to see what you're like when you really hate something 😀
Meh. I don't even use Gmail via web (IMAP-only, baby) because I found its interface to be on the "losing" end of the productivity spectrum. Can't imagine that Inbox would make me want to stop running my own SMTP/IMAP solution.
The whole deleting thing is a serious pain in the ass. Other than that I don;t have many other problems but then again there isnt a lot I use email for either.
I've got an archive in my Gmail going back to the nineties so I'm probably not the best person to judge… I'm enjoying it although it would be nice if it attached signatures. I've been an Inbox zero person for years so the way it organizes and reminds me is perfect for my workflow… To each their own though. Since it's still beta in guessing they will add more and more features back in…
I tried it briefly and while it has some interesting features, I just can't work it out. Deletion as you say is annoying… I really don't think Google is into deletion… archive everything! Â It's like my attic with my commodore 64 and broken atari 2600… i just might need to pull that out some day……
Now you've made me want to go find a copy of Eudora…. or PINE…
Why don't you tell us how you really feel ?
Just kidding …your rant made me giggle..a lot 🙂
Interesting to read your thoughts. Â I was actually surprised that I DO like Inbox from the phone. Â It is far faster than gmail so for that I am happy. Â I will be watching to see what improvements can/will be made for the Inbox app. Â Tired of dialogue boxes and tips coming up for things that are obvious and no help for the mysteries like deleting from Inbox.
+Mellie B?, big pink floaty hearts with rainbows and dancing Thors.
+Meirav M.?, you so totally wanna know! 😉
+Thomas Jones?, Gmail interface has gone downhill with all the "upgrades". I seriously think they are trying to break what us original e-mail users defined as e-mail. They want streams of data they organize and serve as they see fit. Pretty sure this is how the Borg started. All Nyan cats and then suddenly Locutus. O.o
Thomas, part deux, only thing is I live and die going back and forth from mobile to laptop to disparate desktops.
+Jason Longwith?, if I was a more casual e-mail user, I'm sure I'd be a little less RAWR about it. But then… I'd still have no reason to switch from Gmail proper.
+Charlie Hoover?, Inbox zero? Is that, like, patient zero? Should we be quarantining you? Nukes? Seriously, I do like the idea of some of the organization, but it's like just built slightly wrong for my DNA and mutates me into anti-Google-fanboy (complete with deleting karate action, batteries not included).
+John Kramer?, totally not into deletion. Plus now they are going to come take your old consoles because they don't hook up to Google Play. Silly boy. P.s., you spell your name funny. 😉 p.s.s., Pine and Eudora! Lol!!!
+Isabelle Fortin?, you just made the whole ordeal worthwhile. 🙂
+Charlie Hoover: my primary use of GMail has been as secondary long-term storage of emails (IMAP transfer works great). Don't really need a workflow, just a good search capability.
I like be Inbox. But I also loved Mailbox and Boxer. I attack email in triage mode. Plow through and handle it. Messages are either something I need to take action on or swipe it from my sight. Delete or archive makes no difference.
But Inbox alone can't do everything. The Gmail app and web take care of edge cases like bulk message handling or filters for chatty, disposable messages. Gmail and Inbox work great together.
I've switched full time to Inbox. I think it's awesome. The snooze feature alone is worth it. It took me a bit to get used to the bundles, but once I figured them out, they are very powerful and fast. I agree that the one major complaint I have is that delete should be a single click icon, not a drop down menu. I hope they fix this during the beta. Since Gmail was in beta for four years, I wonder how long Inbox will be in beta. The integration of reminders, snoozing to a date/time, or especially snoozing to a location make Inbox a winner.
Guess I was spoiled by decades of Procmail use. Still haven't found anything quite so powerful.
I want to like Inbox. I want bundles and snoozes. I want those sitting on top of my GMAIL!
Bundles are cool. I can collect the semi-spammy mail I get into a bundle, and then tell Inbox not to notify me about any new mail in that bundle until a certain time. This way, I don't have to deal with unimportant mail until after I have dealt with my important mail in the morning. I'm in control of when I get notified, not the sender. I don't want to wake up to an inbox filled with semi-spam that was sent overnight. That junk can wait until after breakfast.
And more, Inbox has made email feel lightweight. It has almost an instant message feel to it. Quick, informal, lightweight. I can keep the formality of email if I want, or I can treat it like a group chat. The nature of interacting with email has been fundamentally changed.
See this is why they made it it's own app… I use Google as a Swiss army knife for clients… It can be shaped to do almost anything… This thing definitely isn't for everyone but I think most normal people would find it useful… Those of us who live technology don't really rate!
Eef. Making mail more like group chat. No thanks. I don't care to encourage the blurring of boundaries between communication modes. Bad enough that people no longer understand the difference between formal and  informal writing in long-form communications like proposals, after action reports, etc, I don't need to start receiving "RU Ther" emails.
#GetOffMyLawn Â
Wow, that's a lot of anger.
I never ever deletes any emails so that aspect won't be a problem for me. However, since I am an Google Apps user I don't even get the option to enable Inbox for my domain. So much for getting a simulated cat-nail-clipping experience.
+Thomas Jones it all depends on my audience. I'm very conscious of who I am addressing.
Unfortunately, that would make you a fairly rare exception.
Needs "Mark as Unread" so I can act on it later without "pinning" it, which also marks it as read in gmail.
Well, I really like it, but then I just ignore emails instead of deleting… can't be bothered to even erase them. 😛
Love the comments and insights into usage. I still want to like it. But I also want to have all the benefits of spinach but have it taste like chocolate. So… there is that. 😉
I'm going to play with bundling a bit more when my blood pressure comes back down and I no longer hear nails on a blackboard. I may also try this foreign concept of not deleting anything (at least via Inbox) and collect junk to be purged and destroyed with malice and forethought via Gmail. In the end I think only a hybrid solution will work for my eclec-tech tastes. Just coined that, btw. 😉
Experience the rush of opening Promos, sweeping a languid eye and hitting DONE mdfas!! Lovely.
I'd be happy with a "messages in [bundled folder] where I click done expire and are deleted in [user set days]" that I could set per folder.
I just do not see the point of keeping every bit of electronic flotsam and jetsam. Clutters search results, makes it easier to bury something in clutter you may actually want/need deleted for privacy concerns, and heaven forbid I ever want to migrate away and take my actual/desired messages with me.
Inbox/Gmail, turning users into electronic hoarders to keep them in one place PLUS try and leverage patterns on your data with background algorithms. Or… Just the way they think. Or… They truly think bits are alive and every deleted email is MURDER!!! /Tron
+Scott Cramer??? using Inbox, I have been able to delete massive groups of messages faster than I can in Gmail. And in Gmail I use the keyboard shortcuts to quickly select and delete large groups of messages because it's faster than the mouse (Shift-*, u, Shift-#). But Inbox is still faster, and will be even faster once they make delete into a direct shortcut.?
I can actually achieve inbox zero using Inbox. I can't do that with Gmail. I've had messages cluttering up my Gmail for months, because I hadn't dealt with them yet. With Inbox I just snooze those to "Someday", and they're gone, but not forgotten. It's Gmail that makes me feel like an email hoarder, not Inbox.
+Scott Cramer? Inbox is an alternative option for people. Not a replacement you moron. That simple.
+Pete Murphy?, I never said it was. I also gave my opinion and reasons and have been obviously toungue in cheek in discussing it. Uncircle me and/or block me and gtf out of my stream if you can't be respectful.
+Jim Gomes??, how have you been able to do mass deletes? I tried to purge out a search of cron notifications and could not. I also tried going into the folder where the messages are filtered via Gmail setup and could not delete them en masse. I'm picking large scale examples for the sake of conversation.
+Scott Cramer? two different ways. If I've opened the bundle, and I'm viewing the list of messages in that bundle, selecting delete will delete all messages in that bundle except those that are pinned. No need to select individual messages at all. If the bundle is closed (i.e., I'm at the main Inbox view), then long press the bundle to select it, and then select other bundles, and select delete (or snooze, or done). They will all be bulk deleted, snoozed, or marked as done. Again, selecting delete will not affect pinned messages.
Hm. I need to play with a combination of bundling all my low priority notification type folders (things I only want to keep for a while and then delete) and how Inbox notifies me, because I don't want those messages in front of my face (filter in Gmail skips inbox, marks as read, and files).
Have you ever searched on one particular sender or topic and wanted to delete all messages that are in the result? Can't do it in Inbox; this may be where hybrid use of Inbox/Gmail factors in.
Look and feel of Inbox not to my taste still. Would like to turn off the attachment preview in favor of screen real estate. Plus, using my mail in office environments with people over my shoulder, I prefer private attachments not previewing; I save goofy friend messages with sometimes NSFW attaches for not at work viewing.
So for your cron job messages, train Inbox to put those into a separate bundle, and you should be ready to rock.
I'm reserving judgement until they get out of the invite only stage… The final version is likely going to be different than this…
+Scott Cramer that's where snooze to location really shines. Select those NSFW bundles and snooze to home. As soon as you pull into your driveway, they get automatically redelivered. Likewise, you can snooze to work for things you can only deal with there.
What's coming up from the Inbox development team: http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwqJOA5xo
+Jim Gomes?, Good article. Not a Gmail replacement – yet. That was a very telling statement. I wouldn't expect development beyond "keeping it running" on the Gmail side from this point forward.
After using Inbox and then switching back to Gmail, I must admit that I find myself in a weird place. I'm now extra dissatisfied with Gmail; and, it's not ever going to truly improve now that Inbox is heir apparent.
I haven't been this tech torn since I had to give up on Netscape when it mutated into oblivion.
I shall dive back in again this week and see if I can carve something acceptable out of Inbox and Gmail together.
+Scott Cramer dealing with disruptive tech is difficult, but I think Google's intention of moving email forward is a good one. They've been trying to do it for years, first with Gmail itself and labels, then with Wave (which I thought was awesome), then with Google+, and now with Inbox. The one thing I've kind of given up as I switched to Inbox is setting multiple labels on messages. This was probably the most difficult part for me, but after switching to the Inbox style, I haven't missed it yet. Bundles are just too powerful. Google does need to improve their desktop Inbox client, because it uses waaay too much RAM. It's a memory hog.
Oy! No multiple labels? Sigh. I hadn't gotten that far; that bites.
If they added a snooze button with the location and time thing to regular Gmail I think I'd have all the tools I need…