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Gmail to Add 'Normal E-mail' Option for 'Conversation' Haters
One of Gmail's most polarizing features is its 'Conversations' format, which groups long e-mail exchanges under the same, single subject line. Some users prefer the format to traditional e-mail displays, and even point to it as Gmail's defining feature. Others, meanwhile, have long insisted that the message grouping only makes it easier to miss new e-mails [Ed. Note: Those people are crazy!]. Now, it appears that Google has finally listened to its Gmail naysayers, and, as BusinessInsider reports, is planning on unveiling a new 'Normal E-mail' option in order to appease them. The company recently gave control over its Gmail service to VP Vic Gundotra, who, according to sources, has referred to his company's attitude toward the 'Conversations' issue "tone deaf." Now that he's taken the reins, though, we should expect to see a new option for disgruntled users within the next two months. The news comes just a day after Google announced its plans to allow users to personalize their own search pages, suggesting that enhancing user autonomy may be at the center of any future format changes.
We've always loved the 'Conversations' format, primarily because it goes a long way toward streamlining our otherwise disheveled inboxes. But if there really is a sizable percentage of users who loathe the service [Ed. Note: Once again, those people are crazy!], it's probably in Google's best interest to give them the choice to opt-out. [From: BusinessInsider]
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Comments
18
Subscribe to commentsGlock23Jun 4th 2010 12:23PM
I work with an office full of people who hate Gmail conversations. Out of 10 people in my area, 9 out of 10 hate conversations.
I guess we are all crazy.
KoleckaiJun 4th 2010 12:41PM
Thank the Gods. Maybe gmail will finally be usable.
Thomas HoustonJun 4th 2010 1:21PM
Only problem with it now is speed...
bastion78Jun 4th 2010 2:21PM
the whole conversations nonsense is one of the biggest reasons why i have refused to use google mail at all...the next reason being that i don't really trust the company
Thomas HoustonJun 4th 2010 2:40PM
@bastion78 why don't you like conversations format?
PoetrygrlJun 4th 2010 2:32PM
I'm not going to say the people are crazy but I don't see why people don't like it. Why would you want to scroll through a larger email box to find a particular email when you can just click one and see all the emails you and the other person sent to each other? I prefer the conversations. That way I can just click one and scroll through the entire conversation instead of having to go look for the particular day and time. That's too much work. If others prefer the old, time-consuming way, more power to you.
Glock23Jun 4th 2010 2:59PM
You obviously don't work with large email distributions in a business environment. If you send out an email to 100's of people and many respond, it's easy to miss multiple responses received in a short amount of time. On more than one occasion, I didn't "scroll" enough in the thread back up and missed several responses.
Also conversations make it hard to determine what responses were received from specific people and who they cc:ed in the process. Since Gmail doesn't auto expand the threads and contact details, I'm constantly having to click and open things within conversations which is a huge waste of time. Once again, if you are not using Gmail in a business environment you won't see problems like this.
Now conversations would be useful for archiving purposes once a topic as been completed and it would make grouping them together easy. But it needs the ability to turn on/off and use when it's convenient.
robertahutchingsJun 4th 2010 2:53PM
It's about time! Right now, if I'm looking for a specific conversation, I have to search and search, and sometimes I can't find it. Unfortunately, this is my work email, so right now I'm stuck with gmail...regular email will make my work life MUCH easier!
gmf9053Jun 4th 2010 3:09PM
I view e-mail as a phone call. Read or hear it once and delete. Save it if you must, but most of it should disapear like water vapor and is not important.
blindhrtdJun 4th 2010 4:59PM
I am excited to try out Gmail without conversation mode!
I primarily check email on my Blackberry, and the annoying thing about Gmail is I get a new message every time I send an email - then I just have to delete it and wait for a reply! I appreciate conversation mode for the seldom occasions I check email in a browser, but for my Blackberry this will be great.
momofwingsJun 4th 2010 5:29PM
THE ONLY ONES WHO USE GMAIL ARE THE DAM
SCAM ARTISTS.. I GUESS THEIR SERVICE IS OPEN
TO ANY ONE OR ANY THING.
HOPEFULLY THIS WILL CLEAN THEM UP
dickn2000bJun 4th 2010 7:07PM
Apparently AOL's attempt at regulating the content of the comments made is one sided. Apparently it's OK with AOL to allow editors to call the readers crazy, while similar comments by the readers are subject to censorship and elimination. As usual, AOL SUCKS!
lschallenJun 5th 2010 12:14AM
I'm one of those 'crazy' people and I loathe the 'conversation' mode. We have a gmail for our sports team and when a youth registers using paypal it generates an email with the same title, 179 times. Unfortunately, some payments were missed because they were all lumped together. If the gmail account had not been forwarded to an outside account that used normal email, those payments would not have been caught and parents would have been hassled for payment when they had already paid.
laneybriJun 4th 2010 7:36PM
i love the conversation feature. it's the main reason i use gmail instead of anything else.
coleJun 4th 2010 10:29PM
I liked the idea of conversations but they only work well with other Gmail users. Services that ad "re" and such to subjects tend to mess up the conversations so Gmail doesn't catch them all, anyway. It also adds one more step/click to find a specific message and wastes a lot of space above the message (if your messages are long).
I gave up on Gmail years ago but this seems like a good move. Options are always nice.
MattJun 6th 2010 7:50AM
I find the conversation method in Gmail pretty handy, prefer it over the "normal" way, especially when someone replies to your email without including the previous email text
DesignerZakJun 7th 2010 1:42PM
This is fantastic news. Conversations simply don't work for me. I use folder rules and THAT keeps my "otherwise disheveled" inbox from being hard to use. My brain works in that it knows _when_ I received an email, not what the subject line of that email was. Also, I we bill our time in our studio and email time stamps go a long way to helping us figure out what we did on a given day.
I'm glad they are giving the users a choice in how they want to see their email. Hopefully we can switch back and forth with a simple click. I do see the value in conversations, it simply hinders more than it helps most of the time.
Thomas HoustonJun 7th 2010 6:27PM
labels are enormously useful though, and offer a bit more flexibility than folders