GMail: The Backlash?

Gmail's subtly chaged things recently and I'm vaguely annoyed. A thread used to have a link for "expand all" and now it is a not-very-obvious button of a square with a down arrow in it :/

not got + yet, but i care not.
loving the new minimal look.

Goddamnit. My gmail just got hacked this afternoon, got that big red warning at the top about my account being accessed from the Netherlands. Changed my password as soon as I saw that, how freaked should I be?

it probably wouldn't hurt to change all your important passwords

Will definitely do that.

i have, likely foolishly, not done this, but you may subsequently want to try two-step verification.

lately gmail has been putting more than a few of my non-spam messages in the spam folder and trash. i don't want to have to check three folders every time i log in!

xp thanks! just set up two-step authentication; that is cool.

Okay, so I changed my password and set up the two-step authentication, but I have a question. On my work computer, our IT guy has it set up so our IE (yes yes, I know) clears out all saved data every couple of days. Since it says I'll have to do the two-step verification on every unverified computer, will I have to redo it every time IE clears out (so to speak)?

i thought it was pretty cool when i got on gmail early on and got a very simple address, but now it is awful. people apparently sign up for all kinds of shit (mailing lists, fantasy football sites, online shopping receipts etc) with a 'fake' email (or maybe they're somehow getting their own email wrong?) that happens to be mine. lately i've been logging into their accounts and deleting them as retribution for using my email (and so i don't get more spam). it is mystifying, especially for sites that require you to verify your email address.

haha i thought it was pretty cool too -- you gave me my gmail invite iirc

haha

Jordan I've started to get the same thing in the last 6 months or so. I can't work out if its a bunch of people dumb enough to think my email address is theirs, or some weirdass new spam sneak mechanism?

But yeah Ive gotten login (w/plain text pwds) for dating sites, and the other day full info on someones financial services shit, which I just replied to all with "this isnt your account, change your password!".

same shit happens to me. there's not much to do about it except jordan's aggressive stance of deleting accounts, which i've also taken to. it makes me feel kinda bad sometimes :(

yeah, i usually respond to misdirected emails (lately i've gotten a lot of resumes from indian people for some reason?). but this account shit is weird, and if it's spam then it's next level for sure.

xp

One dating site login I had gave me a pwd and userID. I logged into it (eharmony I think) and it worked. I guessed that the eharmony userid was the actual gmail address they meant (rather than "trayce"). lo and behold it let me log into her gmail >_<

It was full of Farmville updates and nothing else, so I just let it be.

The lesson there is: never use the same password on all yr accounts.

oh most definitely, some *ahem* people I know used that to great effect back in the day

also, do not auto-message your password to a certain nickname on irc.

So any thougts on the new gmail? I switched and subsequently lost my nice minimalist theme :(

I just switched to Gmail after Hotmail, or should I say Hotfail, blocked my decade-old account (presumably for spam/hacking reasons) and won't let me back in unless I give them my mobile number for them to display for all the world to see. Fuck you I won't do what you tell me, &c.

Seems to be working OK thus far but who knows.

There's an ultra-cosy option or something.

Marcello I think you can skip that mobile "extra security" option: its there, but its in very teeny small text on the bottom right of the page/message.

Not on mine there isn't.

I annoyingly only see that teeny small text in the bottom right when I log out. It pops up for some milliseconds and I can never get there in time to click it.

that sounds like browser shenanigans :(

Either that or Larry Page and Sergey Brin are going "LOL he missed it again trololo" every time I try :-(

Probably a FF issue though, you're right.

Still no way to organize email by address alphabetically. >:(

hurrah I managed to get my Hotmail account back without having to do all the mobile number business! "There's only one way to beat them - get round the back," as someone once said.

hmm, change for change's sake, it seems.

It's OK, not worth changing back.

As long as those "Do you with to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?" stupidquestion panels go away.
(just checked, nope they still ask!)

this new version is not compatible with my browser at work so I can't email from my home account during the day which kind of sucks

The Gmail blog says that the big change was "responsive design" which will make the page conform to the size of its window. I approve of that, and I'm really glad they made the more diffuse spacing of objects optional bc I don't find the dense spacing crowded, I find it useful.

Does internet work?

Yes.

Let's fix it.

looks way too spaced out for me, irritating. guess I'll get used to it like I get used to every other dumb internet thing.

Even after switching to Compact display density? I hated the look until I figured out you could change that. My only qualm is that starred items don't stand out as much as they used to, but otherwise, it pretty much looks the same as it used to now.

xp: Click the lowermost of the two cogwheels in the top-right; there are two less airy settings to choose from.
I'm one of the few who thought Google Reader was improved by the redesign, but with gmail I'm sticking with the old look as long as I can. Mostly I dislike that some of the old text-links have been replaced with icons. I'm sure I'll get used to the icons in time, but ugh, not until I have to...

unread emails don't stand out as much as they used to. my gf leaves lots of unread stuff in her inbox, so this is driving her crazy.

I use the Tree theme (shows pictures of what the weather is doing, which is great! e.g., snow piling up on your icons, terrifying electrical storms) and the contrast btwn read and unread might be slightly lower, but it's still pretty clear.

However the new look works (or doesn't work -- I personally find it decreases legibility), there'll be an add-on within weeks to display it the old way.

contrast between read and unread is what matters to me and this looks way worse for that.

I see zero difference in the contrast between read and unread for the new look versus the old look.

(I am using the "Light" theme.)

Preview Dense

Yeh, I just switched back and forth between old and new and the contrast of read/unread was the same in Tree theme.

this new version is not compatible with my browser at work so I can't email from my home account during the day which kind of sucks

this is true of a lot of Google stuff, if your work uses a dud web browser like IE7 and does not let you install stuff on your PC. I mentioned this to a friend who works for Google, and he more or less laughed at me for working somewhere that uses IE7.

Eh, just in case my friend who works for Google reads this, that maybe is a bit of an exageration of his position, but he did seem to feel that people stuck with dud browsers are not a category of persons Google needs to worry about. Which is a shame - I fear that Google may be limiting their appeal to first world people with flash new computers capable of running all the latest web browsers and browser add-ons.

I mentioned this to a friend who works for Google, and he more or less laughed at me for working somewhere that uses IE7.

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0&qpcustomd=0

laughing at someone for using the most popular browser in the market is kind of stupid

Also, the appeal of Google in the first place was that it was so pared down and that it could be used on even the junkiest of 1994 computers. Dicks.

it's totally fine if Google wants to focus on tech nerds but they are effectively jettisoning over 50% of the market by doing so, which is just stupid no matter how you look at it

laughing at someone for using the most popular browser in the market is kind of stupid

Well, you might consider upgrading to 9 at least...

I have to deal with a website at work that requires me to use IE 6(!!). I use Opera for all other things, however, so that I don't have to use IE 6 all the time. I don't like Firefox or Chrome.

lol I wasn't even paying attention to the version number; working in tech has made me well aware of anti-IE snobbery (in fact, I participated in it for years)

I think my dev environment still has IE6 as the browser, lol.