# What happened to Gmail? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 8, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657 "2007-11-08T15:02:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/1 "2007-11-08T15:02:58Z")
Gmail has come out with a new version, a version that assumes I want the chat component available. Which means that it will go out and check for contacts that are online to chat. Ergo, I am violating company policy by using a unauthorized chat client. Fuck. To top it all off, I can’t find a customer service email to tell Google that they have fucked me over. Bastards. Do no evil, indeed :rolleyes: Has anyone else noticed this? Any workarounds? The only option I can think of would be to set up Thunderbird as a POP3 email client. Pain in the ass. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/2 "2007-11-08T15:07:53Z")
At the very bottom of the Inbox page there is some options “GMail View:” and one of them is “turn off chat”. Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/3 "2007-11-08T15:09:32Z")
[QUOTE=FordPrefect] Gmail has come out with a new version, a version that assumes I want the chat component available. Which means that it will go out and check for contacts that are online to chat. Ergo, I am violating company policy by using a unauthorized chat client. . [/QUOTE] Ugh. I had a similar issue. Then I went into preferences and set it up so my Gmail forwards all my email to my Yahoo account. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/4 "2007-11-08T15:11:03Z")
[QUOTE=K364] At the very bottom of the Inbox page there is some options “GMail View:” and one of them is “turn off chat”. Hope this helps. [/QUOTE] Interesting. I’m using Safari and I see no such “Turn off chat” option anywhere. ETA: Could you post a screenshot or somethign so I can see where it is on your screen? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/5 "2007-11-08T15:19:05Z")
You can also click “use older version” in the upper right next to settings (assuming it’s not missing on Safari as well), but IIRC the older version also had integrated chat that you needed to turn off (if you wanted it off). ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/6 "2007-11-08T15:21:04Z")
[Here you go](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/1918925785_12280f29e7_o.png), **Swallowed My Cellphone**. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/7 "2007-11-08T15:22:39Z")
[QUOTE=Revtim] You can also click “use older version” in the upper right next to settings (assuming it’s not missing on Safari as well), but IIRC the older version also had integrated chat that you needed to turn off (if you wanted it off). [/QUOTE] That option is not kept longer than the session. The next time Gmail is opened it reverts back to the new version. So far I haven’t been logged into chat, so chat is “off”, however it is still checking to see which friends are online, which means that the security folks are going to see IM pings from my machine when the review security logs. Not that I will get fired for this, but undue attention is not why I signed up with Gmail. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/8 "2007-11-08T15:24:52Z")
Cell, I’ve sent you a message with a link. ---
**Author:** ![wasson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4da419/32.png) [@wasson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wasson)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/9 "2007-11-08T16:07:40Z")
You could also now set up Thunderbird as an IMAP client so your messages will stay perfectly in sync. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/10 "2007-11-08T18:22:01Z")
[QUOTE=Aesiron] [Here you go](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/1918925785_12280f29e7_o.png), **Swallowed My Cellphone**. [/QUOTE] Weird, I have almost the same thing at the bottom of my screen, _except_ it just says “standard | basic HTML | Learn more”. Te with or without chat links are just not there. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/11 "2007-11-08T18:29:19Z")
Missed the edit window. Mine [looks like this](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2111/1920932277_be61300d9d_o.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/12 "2007-11-08T18:35:00Z")
GMail on Safari doesn’t have chat available, so there’s no link to disable it. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/13 "2007-11-08T21:52:14Z")
The basic html version doesn’t have chat at all. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/14 "2007-11-08T22:48:33Z")
According to the folks on the Gmail help groups, if you go to Settings and change your language to English(UK) you will get the old version (at least for now). Looks like quite a few people don’t like the changes. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/15 "2007-11-08T22:57:11Z")
Mine is different still. [Gmail Footer](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/pa_sdmb/gmail.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/16 "2007-11-08T23:06:52Z")
I’m using Gmail (from the UK) and have it happily set to default to ‘standard without chat’ (without losing the setting across sessions). Is this a US-only change? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/17 "2007-11-08T23:20:18Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] Mine is different still. [Gmail Footer](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/pa_sdmb/gmail.jpg) [/QUOTE] That’s the footer you get if you’re using Firefox or MSIE. Click on “turn off chat” to, er, turn off chat. If you do so, it changes to “turn on chat”, which you click to turn on chat. This setting is saved across sessions. ---
**Author:** ![pasunejen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@pasunejen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pasunejen)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/18 "2007-11-09T02:30:00Z")
[QUOTE=Terminus Est] That’s the footer you get if you’re using Firefox or MSIE. [/QUOTE] Actually, I think turn on/off chat is only the footer for these browsers in the new version. The old version has standard with/without chat, as in **Aesiron** ’s screen cap. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/19 "2007-11-09T02:39:12Z")
Yes. OP was complaining about the new version, though. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657/20 "2007-11-09T02:55:17Z")
Why would your company care about an unauthorized chat program? I use chats all the time in my work, it’s really convenient for asking a cow-orker a quick question. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-gmail/425657.md?page=2)