Rumors are running around about a possible upgrade to gmail. Garett Rogers at ZDNet started the rumor mill a few days ago when it was noticed that the gmail translation page wanted translations for the phrase “Newer Version.” Not exactly conclusive, but it’s long overdue so these rumors could actually pan out. Google Operating System (an unofficial google-watching blog) continued the rumors today, speculating about some of the possible new features.
Particularly scary to me is the potential of moving more towards an “outlook-style” interface. That is exactly the wrong thing for gmail to do. My favorite part of gmail is how it isn’t Outlook-like. Folders are so 2003. Labels let you classify email into multiple logical “folders” without having to duplicate the message and work pretty much the same. They also fit better into the current paradigm of classification using tags. Tags are something that gmail needs. Suggested tags for emails and a quick tag adding cloud would be very nice. A lot of times, searching text just isn’t enough. If I remember what the email was about, but can’t remember any verbatim phrases from it, I’m in for a difficult search. If I had tagged it, though…
Another thing I’d really like to see gmail get are more sophisticated filters. Maybe I’m missing some how-to somewhere or something, but when I want to add multiple contacts into a single filter, I can’t get it to work. I’d like filters that I can just add a group of contacts (or ones I hand-select) to.
When Yahoo! released their new mail client, I gave it a try. Certainly it was well done and quite sophisticated for a web-based client. It was also slower than a wounded three-toed sloth. It’s Outlook-clone-like interface also turned me off immediately. Plus I get so much freakin spam in my inbox with Yahoo! mail anyway, I just can’t use it. I know no one’s spam filter is perfect (I read my gmail spam for false-positives, which I do find). But anyhow, Google, I beg you, do not go the way of the Outlook-dodo interface.
