In a nutshell, using FF 3.6.12 on Ubuntu 10.04 x64, with all addons disabled, gmail will only load the backup HTML-only version. No ajaxy goodness. Even if I manually select the standard interface, it refuses to use it and references the browser upgrade recommendation page.
It is interesting to see GMail advocates saving a few seconds a day by using this and that features of GMail, while itself getting slower and slower over the time. I find myself stupid to wait 10 seconds just to load up GMail to quickly look up something. Why I am wasting these 10 seconds loading up a webapp when 99.9% of the time I am using my own computer?
You say running a desktop email client with GMail IMAP? The fact is I got tired of GMail's way of doing IMAP. I cannot remember how many times I try to make the `delete` key to actually trash an email in Mail.app. It's an even bigger mistake with its Push Email on iPhone. So half-baked IMAP and half-baked Exchange.
Finally, I could not stand it any more and moved over to MobileMe and cannot be happier. I still use the same GMail address and simply have GMail forward everything to my MobileMe account. This way, I get to keep my email address and take advantage of GMail's nice spam filter. I know GMail has IMAP and can do Push email and this and that, and after you configure this and that, it will work; but I am not a fancy person and just want to read, delete and send email, from my three Macs, an very old iPhone and an iPad. My days of messing around with kernel modules are over, and I guess I am old enough to start enjoying the almost-zero-configuration of MobileMe on all my computing devices.
Gmail loads within 1-3 seconds for me. Not only that, I VERY, VERY rarely close my browser, not even once a day if I can help it. So my mail is always available for me. Priority Inbox is amazing, as well.
In regards to iPhone: Simply get an Android phone. Flawless Gmail/GoogleApps integration; native support for colored labels, calendar, etc. I wouldn't clal it half-baked IMAP, more of, half-baked clients that don't support Gmail properly. Remember that traditional email uses folders; Gmail uses labels. They are FAR superior in every way. If a client doesn't support it, find a new client.
And I've never used MobileMe, but why add another point of failure to email? It's something that is typically very important to people, even more so probably the people who visit Hacker News.
"Simply get an Android phone".. In your reply replace Gmail with Exchange and Android phone with Outlook and we would bring out the pitchforks decrying vendor lock-in. Exchange works fine for my work email, IMAP works fine for my Yahoo account and somehow it is the client's fault it doesn't "support Gmail properly". Of course, this data is equally meaningless as yours as the sample size is 1.
When you change the way IMAP works for the better (a feature), then yes, the client should support it. If it doesn't, it's not a fault of the service, it's a fault of the client.
I mean, have you ever used labels? I mean, REALLY used labels?
Not only that, I VERY, VERY rarely close my browser.
I actually keep Chrome running all the time just for GMail. My main web browser is Opera. Chrome's drag & drop support for attachments also helps. I used to use Firefox with Gears specifically for GMail, but that doesn't seem to work very well anymore (and Google have abandoned it with no replacement as yet).
Priority seems to be messing up messages over IMAP. One inbox gets the original message in formatted goodness, and one gets the message's raw content as text (including meta-content, like attachments, separators, etc). Changes which one it comes into, too; I think it's whichever was pulled first.
Do you know how large 2% of Gmail's userbase is? I think the article said 4 million... Even if it became a trend on Twitter, it could still be a small percentage of users. So I think your claim here is just out of frustration.
Like Michael, neither have I ever experienced any speed issues, although I don't sort or filter things. Gmail loads in less than a second, and opening an email appears effectively instantaneous.
On the topic of filters: I have over 200. It's more reliable than spam filtering (in the sense that I know I wont ever get an email from them again, and I don't have to worry about if that link is going to put my email on some "verified" to-spam list). So I doubt filters have anything to do with it ;) That's all handled on Google's backend.
On a side note, I do recall a few theories that were related to account age. Accounts opened around the same time seemed to be affected (as I read, anyway). This is a possible situation, however, it's almost impossible to know for sure.
I don't seem to have any reliability issues, however, it's probably because I'm a Google Apps premier user. If I'm not mistaken those accounts have higher uptime and reliability.
I think "reach out to" as a weird, touchy-feely synonym for "contact" is my least favorite business buzzword. I can't take anyone who says it seriously. I immediately assume they are full of shit.
I hadn't realized until really recently that it had accumulated this buzzwordy usage, so I used to assume the person writing just wasn't very good at English and had misunderstood the connotations of the phrase.
Unless I've been completely wrong about its meaning for years, "reach out to" implies more of a process, rather than simply asking a question. If you say you plan to "reach out to the city's troubled youth", people would assume you meant something more than just asking some troubled youth a few questions.
In this case, I don't see what's wrong with saying: we asked Google why Gmail has been slow, and this was their response. "Reached out ... with the following statement" feels sorta like an oxymoron.
>If you say you plan to "reach out to the city's troubled youth", people would assume you meant something more than just asking some troubled youth a few questions.
I agree. That's an example of its original usage which was meaningful, though vague.
Ok, some of you dont like Gmail, but i guess lots of people would be happy to hear and try a good alternative, with same features or more (custom filters, labels, powerful search, beautiful clever spam filter, accessible from any computer, phone sync, contacts manager, chat, etc).
Really, I cant see me working with another email provider, and being enclosed to one is not usually a good choice, it would be nice to try other alternatives
Not so much so. Still takes me about 10 seconds to login via the web on a fast connection. I rarely use the web interface so I don't really care but I can see how this is an issue for some people. Google Notifier is probably the best solution for now.
I think it further proves the point that when you are no longer the underdog, it is hard for you to compete, stay fast and nimble, and stay innovative. Buzz and other Google-initiated (not acquisitions) forays into competing products have been disappointments. AdWords is no longer easy to use from the customer standpoint (and by the way, you searchers and AdWords supported email users are not the customers--you are part of the product being sold), that we have had to hire a full time guy to manage our AdWords campaigns and utilize outside AdWords consultant services.
I won't say Google has lost its touch, but even its searches are not producing good results for esoteric queries.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 73.6 ms ] threadhttp://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=44c9d...
In a nutshell, using FF 3.6.12 on Ubuntu 10.04 x64, with all addons disabled, gmail will only load the backup HTML-only version. No ajaxy goodness. Even if I manually select the standard interface, it refuses to use it and references the browser upgrade recommendation page.
Anyone have any idea what the problem could be?
Toggle it on/off/on (and back to whatever you have it set to)
Then regular mode will work again (may need to refresh page)
Gmail hosed something, relying on local storage in Firefox?
You say running a desktop email client with GMail IMAP? The fact is I got tired of GMail's way of doing IMAP. I cannot remember how many times I try to make the `delete` key to actually trash an email in Mail.app. It's an even bigger mistake with its Push Email on iPhone. So half-baked IMAP and half-baked Exchange.
Finally, I could not stand it any more and moved over to MobileMe and cannot be happier. I still use the same GMail address and simply have GMail forward everything to my MobileMe account. This way, I get to keep my email address and take advantage of GMail's nice spam filter. I know GMail has IMAP and can do Push email and this and that, and after you configure this and that, it will work; but I am not a fancy person and just want to read, delete and send email, from my three Macs, an very old iPhone and an iPad. My days of messing around with kernel modules are over, and I guess I am old enough to start enjoying the almost-zero-configuration of MobileMe on all my computing devices.
In regards to iPhone: Simply get an Android phone. Flawless Gmail/GoogleApps integration; native support for colored labels, calendar, etc. I wouldn't clal it half-baked IMAP, more of, half-baked clients that don't support Gmail properly. Remember that traditional email uses folders; Gmail uses labels. They are FAR superior in every way. If a client doesn't support it, find a new client.
And I've never used MobileMe, but why add another point of failure to email? It's something that is typically very important to people, even more so probably the people who visit Hacker News.
I mean, have you ever used labels? I mean, REALLY used labels?
I actually keep Chrome running all the time just for GMail. My main web browser is Opera. Chrome's drag & drop support for attachments also helps. I used to use Firefox with Gears specifically for GMail, but that doesn't seem to work very well anymore (and Google have abandoned it with no replacement as yet).
Click [Gmail]/Trash. Click the Mailbox menu, go to Use This Mailbox For, choose Trash. You're done.
I have not experienced any speed issues.
On a side note, I do recall a few theories that were related to account age. Accounts opened around the same time seemed to be affected (as I read, anyway). This is a possible situation, however, it's almost impossible to know for sure.
Unless I've been completely wrong about its meaning for years, "reach out to" implies more of a process, rather than simply asking a question. If you say you plan to "reach out to the city's troubled youth", people would assume you meant something more than just asking some troubled youth a few questions.
In this case, I don't see what's wrong with saying: we asked Google why Gmail has been slow, and this was their response. "Reached out ... with the following statement" feels sorta like an oxymoron.
I agree. That's an example of its original usage which was meaningful, though vague.
Really, I cant see me working with another email provider, and being enclosed to one is not usually a good choice, it would be nice to try other alternatives
I won't say Google has lost its touch, but even its searches are not producing good results for esoteric queries.