05
Jul 07

10 points Gmail doesn’t buy me


GmailThis is in response to Mayank’s post on “10 reasons why I like gmail” and in support to Nirmal’s view on “3 reasons why I don’t like gmail“. I’m a fan of Yahoo Mail till now and not used with Gmail yet. I use Gmail as secondary though. I might be little defending on this post. I wanted to try writing a defending post. Mayank was my first victim (hope you don’t take it personally, as you’re my guru) . Let me see how this works out. Please leave your comments!

1. User Interface Customization

UI customization is really important when it comes to an end user application. Everyone end user will have their own preference when it comes to color scheme selection. I may love blue as Google but there are people out there who loves black, green etc., It would have been great if Gmail allowed me to play with my own color schemes rather than having a same blue interface every where around Google Apps. I either didn’t see any changes to the UI much after initial release.

2. Labels instead of Folders

Labels are indeed nice concept but it can’t win by itself. Lets consider analogy in bloggers term, if Folders are for Categories then Labels are for tags. If both worked together would look great but tag alone will look awkward. I love folders since I can define the hierarchy by the way I want. It makes organizing emails much easier.

3. Usability

I believe when it comes to usability drag and drop is a great feature. You can’t expect all users to be advanced user; there will be definitely novice users who will look for drag and drop feature. Only advanced users would be able to play well with shortcut.

4. POP / SMTP support

Well, when people talk Gmail as web mail system, I don’t buy why they need a POP /
SMTP support. POP / SMTP can’t be used well with Web email system. If Gmail had IMAP support then it is truly a great feature. IMAP will allow me to work parallel with both email client and web email. Even if POP/ SMTP is important to you, Gmail is not only product that supports POP.

5. Multiple Accounts

If I’m completely satisfied with Gmail, it doesn’t demand me adding more accounts. I don’t have much to comment on this, I leave it to you J

6. Messenger Integration

Messenger integration with email system is cool. But think about this scenario, if I don’t have friends in Google Talk (say if I use AIM); what is the use of having it integrated? This can’t be a buying point again. It is a negative when I think about my productivity 🙂

7. Advertisement

Wow, everyone needs to learn from Google on it advertising strategy. It might have not have banner ads in the top. It covers the left side of all messages with text ads. More over it had the clip ads in the top. Google places more and more self-promotion wherever possible. Do you still have room for more ads?

8. Google Office Integration

Again, I hate this self-promotion campaign. I’m a fan of ZOHO office. How do I open the document then ZOHO office? I would personally prefer to download the document and view in client rather than using Google office.

9. Spam Control

Honestly, do you think Gmail controls all spam? I would not agree, I receive SPAM emails in my Inbox but not high number as I get in SPAM box. There is no service till date comes with complete control for SPAM. They are improving a lot though.

10. UNDO Feature

Sound interesting idea, but does it really work? Was this feature missing in other email providers? Very well No, this feature is available with all service. But they don’t have button to click on, you need to go find the deleted items in Trash box. This is really good point to consider in usability, but not a buying point.

Do you really have these as your buying points?

BTW, did I miss to tell you Gmail really rocks though 🙂

Disclaimer : I’m a big fan of Yahoo Mail. All my opinions are self biased. Moreover I would be positively toned on Nirmal’s view and negatively toned on Mayank’s thoughts.

If you like this post, buy me a coffee.