Social Media Blog

The revamped Gmail for desktop is slowly rolling out to users, and like its Google Reader and Gmail app for iOS cousins,

it has a few problems.

Aside from aesthetic complaints about the fields of empty white space, the new Gmail has some functional problems, too: Some things are distracting; some are annoying; and some just don’t make sense.

Below are complaints about the new Gmail. 

• Icons Without Labels - In the old Gmail, there were five basic options above each email message: “Archive,” “Spam,” “Delete,” “Move To” or “Label.” Messages in the new Gmail have the same options, except they’ve been replaced by icons. Unless you have memorized the order and function of the buttons above Gmail messages, you have to mouse over each icon to find out what each one of them does. Each time I see those buttons, I think: “There’s no words on it!”

• Advertisement Between Message And Mystery Buttons- In between the “No Words On It” buttons and your email message, you can now expect to see an advertisement every time you open a piece of mail. Google has squeezed in a little ad bar between message and function buttons for maximum commercial exposure, and while this may help their bottom line, the pesky little thing is always distracting and seemingly out-of-place.This advertising bar also lives above your inbox. It’s a worthless gray cloud raining down skin cream discounts on your each and every message. Annoying.

• New Reply Field, Cursor-Less - The reply field on Gmail messages used to be super intuitive, with a text cursor appearing where you could click to enter text. Now, it stays as a pointer when you mouse over. It’s a small but annoying change that always leaves me concerned I’ve pushed an incorrect button whenever I’m replying, replying all or forwarding any message. Bring back the text cursor, Gmail!

• No Chat And Labels At The Same Time- When setting your Gmail into the new “Comfortable” mode, you’ve got to make an unfortunate compromise between chat and labels: You can either see your chat list, or you can see your labels. Wanna see both? Too bad.Now, you can move your chat list over to the right sidebar (which always made me uncomfortable) or you can change the spacing setting in your Gmail to “Compact” or “Cozy” (both of which give me a crick in my neck just thinking about). But if you want a view of your email labels and your online G-buddies, you’re out of luck for the time being. Why? Well…

• Disappearing Chat Bar- Pop quiz: Can you name the seven primary email folders in Gmail without looking?(Time’s up: Those would be Inbox, Buzz (R.I.P.), Important, Chats, Sent Mail, Drafts, All Mail, and Spam. How’d you do?)
  Anywho, whenever you put your cursor over any of those seven primary email folders in the new Gmail, the chat list disappears whether you want it to or not. If there’s an easy way to lock the chat sidebar so that it’s always visible, I’m not seeing it.

Related articles

• A New Look for Gmail (googlesystem.blogspot.com)
• Gmail’s New Look, Now Available (mt-soft.com.ar)