Background

Usually I don't take my frustrations out regarding a product, but when it prevents me from organizing myself, then I must speak up.  Case in point: Google Mail AKA Gmail.

Note: I will be fair, by providing the pros and the cons of the programs discussed.

*Important*: The information below is not meant to be disrespectful or directed at any individual, in any way, shape or form.  The views expressed are for public discussion and are not to be a violation of the terms of service described here.  That being said, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.

Pros

  1. Modern UI (Unified design)
  2. Filter Enhancements (Popup for filter editing)
  3. Multiple Densities/Layouts (3 different layouts)
  4. HD quality Themes (Higher quality themes, as well as old ones)
  5. Better Mobile Experience (New app for Iphone and Android in production)
  6. Label Viewing Enhancements (Hover over sidebar to show more labels)
  7. Dynamic Tools (Buttons appear as needed)

Cons

  1. Filter Enhancements
    • New filter creation dialog is not optional and were not thought through
    • The old screen to add filters is not available
    • Nested labels (usually longer ones) are truncated and cannot be viewed properly
    • Autocomplete of labels has been removed (Cannot type a few letters to find a label)
    • Inconsistent Filter Dialog (Sometimes the filters can be created easily, other times not)
  2. Label Viewing Enhancements
    • Labels are hard to view in the sidebar (Longer labels should be taken into account)
  3. Better Mobile Experience
    • Gmail app is broken, nuff said
    • No Trash searching (Cannot search trash yet)

Explanation

Now that I have explained the pros and cons, you probably noticed that the three cons are also three of the pros.  The reason for this, is that Google has managed to negatively impact a great product by trying to make that same product better.

Extra Information

The reason for this whole blog, is to act as a go between for Google, so that I don't have to send them feedback that they are going to delete.  The next part of this post will describe what I was trying to do, and how you (Google) are preventing me from doing so.

Letter to Google

Dear Google,

My name is Jon Edlund and I must tell you that, I was excited when I heard that Gmail was going to be updated, but after trying to create labels today and having a heck of a time, I am leaning towards not liking Gmail's new design.  I wrote a post praising nested labels, when they first came out, because they improved my ability to organize and categorize my emails.  I was able to take mail from different companies, and sort them into nested labels.  Here is the post about Nested Labels 

I must say thank you to Google for their newest Labs feature, which I 
hope doesn't get removed because it has become an integral part of my 
daily life.  I used to have 80+ labels, but now about 10 of every 
label are sub labels. 

Example: 

I used to have the following for Account Activation, but thanks to 
nested labels, the result is this: 


Account Activation 
Account Activation/$$$ 
Account Activation/$$$/Surveys 
Account Activation/Creation 
Account Activation/Creation/Prezi 
Account Activation/EmlChange 
Account Activation/GTD 
Account Activation/GTD/Checkvist 
Account Activation/GTD/Zoho 
Account Activation/Microsoft 
Account Activation/Microsoft/Bing 
Account Activation/Mindmeister 
Account Activation/Purchases 
Account Activation/Pwds 
Account Activation/Pwds/Reset 
Account Activation/Social Media 
Account Activation/Social Media/Sircleit 
Account Activation/Social Media/Twitter 

Now I can easily organize Activations based on whether the email is to 
reset or confirm, and I have various categories for the Account 
Activation label.  However, there is a problem because I can only have 
a certain amount of characters when I create a label, for example: 

I wanted to create a label titled - Account Activation/Social Media/ 
Organization Tools/Gist  but I can only input a limited amount of 
characters, which forces me to think quickly and shorten the labels 
which can also cause confusion when I have to add more descriptive 
labels. 

I would like this lab to graduate and be kept and that is all I have 
to say. 

Thank you 

This post was made on May 6th 2010

Getting back to the letter, here is my purpose for using Nested Labels now:

I test apps on my iPod Touch 4th Generation and I keep track of the updates that are made with each new version.  Recently, I figured out a way to organize these apps, so that whenever a new version is reported, it will automatically be sent to the label Appshopper/{Name of App or Company}/{Name of App}.  By doing this, it has made it easier for me to manage what changes are made to the app.  This is important because, not every update is satisfactory, sometimes the app is broken and features are removed.  Some may say that this is counterproductive, but I believe it isn't, because it helps me achieve my desired task and is integral to my workflow.

You are probably wondering what AppShopper has to do with Gmail, well it is quite simple really. AppShopper allows users to recieve email updates whenever an app is updated or the price changes.  That is why the label has the name AppShopper.  That leads me to my next point, why it is so difficult to manage my labels now.  I am still able to create a label by typing the sub-label name in the create label box, and then type a few letters and be given suggestions as to what label I would like to nest it into.  However, with the new filter dialog box that appears when you click search arrow, I am not able to type a few letters and be given suggestions as to what label I would like to use.  Rather than have you try to figure out what I am saying, how about I provide you with a little mockup or a couple screenshots of what I mean.  Well, you can wait for me to provide that, after all, I waited 1 year for you guys to mess up Gmail.

Filter_dialog