

Really, Google? - kennethcwilbur

You had to kill the Gmail Compose page?<p>I value single-tasking.<p>There is nothing more distracting than an open email inbox.<p>Sometimes I have a thought I need to communicate. Sometimes it takes me a while. Sometimes it takes concentration.<p>That is why I had your Gmail Compose page bookmarked. I could go straight to a platform to communicate my thought without running into the biggest distraction available.<p>Will someone please, please, please make a reasonable Gmail facsimile that I can pay for, so that I don't have to put up with these arbitrary changes? First the "new look"... now the dead compose page... what next? Why does Gmail keep fixing things that are not broken?
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jmillikin

      > Will someone please, please, please make a reasonable
      > Gmail facsimile that I can pay for, so that I don't have
      > to put up with these arbitrary changes?
    

You can pay for Gmail, if you want to. Paying will remove the ads. Paying
won't cause Google to halt all changes to the user interface forever. I expect
you will have a very hard time finding any actively-maintained web service
that does not periodically change parts of the user interface to better serve
the majority of their audience.

If you want a bookmarkable full-screen compose page, that is still available.
Go to <http://mail.google.com/?ui=html> , then click compose, and bookmark
that page.

~~~
psweber
You are right about all UIs changing, but the OP is talking about a new
version of compose that Google is testing. It removes the full screen compose
page and treats compose in a similar way to gChat conversations.

[http://learn.googleapps.com/new-gmail-compose/new-compose-
vi...](http://learn.googleapps.com/new-gmail-compose/new-compose-video)

The new design has messaging that says the old version of the compose page
will go away. I agree with the OP. Freaking terrible news. I only want to see
my inbox a few times a day. Not every time I compose. I am a fan of the new
visual style, though.

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kniht
The old compose _was_ broken (at least for me). I encounter the use case where
I need to reference data from another email when composing a new message all
the time. This used to mean opening up a new gmail tab, with the new compose I
can draft an email while jumping around through archived messages. That's a
big win.

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jfoster
I wonder if this might be leading toward an eventual merging of Gmail into
Google+. They both already have very similar chat functionality. Such a
merging might not suit Google Apps users very well, though.

~~~
logn
Yuck. Google's not going to be satisfied until either Google+ is integrated
into everything and is a huge success, or is integrated into everything and
kills the company. Once I leave Gmail and Google search, there's not much left
for me on Google.

Edit: also, I think this focus on Google+ is myopic. They want all the data
Facebook has on us. You're telling me that they can't put together a good
picture of my entire life and pretty much exactly what to market to me between
Google Analytics, Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google Play, Android, Google
Drive, Calendar, Google Books, Google Groups, AdSense, Google DNS, and Maps?
Maybe they should take all that Google+ budget and devote it to datamining
their successful products. Anyhow, I hope Linus enjoys his own little social
network, he's the only one I know who uses it.

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joshuapayne
One less than perfect alternative is to use the Shift-c shortcut which will
give you a compose window in a new window. Its not the same as your bookmarked
compose view but it'll block most of your inbox. I'm with you though . . .

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niico
I personally love the new compose page. It helps me to get over other emails
if I need to while writing a new one

~~~
ChrisClark
Yeah. There is no way I could go back to the old compose view. I've been using
the new one for a long time now and it has very helpful.

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aiurtourist
It's not gone:
[https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1](https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&fs=1&tf=1)

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jamesseattle
It's a problem with web apps vs apps in general. If I have an app on my
laptop/tablet/phone and a new version comes out I don't have to download it if
I don't like what I read about in the reviews. But with a web app I am at
their mercy, forced to adapt to their every whim.

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sfrechtling
You can still access the old compose page (temporarily) - by clicking the
little up arrow on the right hand site of the page. Hopefully they keep both
choices available.

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Navarr
You could always click the pop-out button and full-screen that bitch.

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mccolin
I still use the old compose and actively opt out of the new compose whenever
they try to force it on me. It smacks of something that should be a choice and
not a forced-upon default.

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anigbrowl
I have been using this for a while but I don't care for it much. I feel like
they've reinvented Desqview.

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xauronx
I feel like you could probably create a one page compose screen of your liking
and send through SMTP.

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mike-cardwell
If you don't want arbitrary changes to your UI, use a desktop client.

