I’ve had a gmail account for years, but I always just plugged it into Mail, I never used the browser interface. Recently I’ve sorta had to, and wow… it’s stunningly awful!
I’m sure many people don’t think twice and find it perfectly swell, but for me…I’m dumbfounded that the Great and Powerful Google could have such a terrible, terrible interface. Sucktastic.
Got that off my chest. Sorry it wasn’t more entertaining. Carry on.
Eh?
I’ve used Gmail in the browser for years. I quite like it’s browser interface and prefer it over anything else, really.
What, in particular, don’t you like about it? I agree that it’s different from most browsers, but I can’t think of anything that is “sucktastic” about it.
Personally, I love the GMail interface. I can’t stand to use Outlook now.
Google’s Inboxinterface, however… I can’t seem to wrap my brain around it.
I think Inbox is more suited for smartphones than desktop - and I think that was the intent in its creation.
This is a problem with every webmail service. There’s just something so much better about using an email client.
Gmail in the browser used to be quite simple and useful, but they have added various “features” over the years that make it less simple.
First thing I would to is click the options (gear) button, pick Configure Inbox and turn off all the tabs except Primary. Also under the options button set display density to Compact.
I still have my original gmail account but I’ve transitioned to Outlook.com. I must say Microsoft really did a good job this time. And with the forwarding option I didn’t have to give up the old address.
I actually prefer some things about the GMail interface, especially the way conversations are managed. Outlook has something kind of equivalent but not exactly so.
However, I also agree with the poster who says that Google has made some really bad choices about the web interface over the recent past (say 18 months or so). If I could go back to their interface from 3 years ago, I would be more reluctant to move away. (As it stands, I’m moving my company to Outlook this summer).
Really don’t know what you guys are talking about. You can turn off the tabs, and then it’s pretty much the same interface. My only gripe is not being able to compose in a true fullscreen, but you can work around that.
Plus there’s no other interface that lets you set it up where only unread emails are on top. It’s why, when Google removed SMS, I wound up crawling back to Google anyways. There just was no alternative that wouldn’t mix in already read emails.
Everyone else tries a one-size-fits-all approach, while Google lets you do pretty much what you want.
I’ve always thought that webmail feels like you really aren’t ‘getting’ your email, it’s more like if the mail carrier just read your mail to you, then took it back to the post office.
GMail’s interface used to be great, but they kept ‘improving’ it until it was awful. There are a few tweaks you can use to adjust it to be more like it used to be, but just wait, I’m sure they’ll ‘improve’ it some more…
Well, put me in the column of “I vastly prefer gmail’s web interface to any other mail service, web-based or otherwise”. I have customized mine a bit, but it took all of 2 minutes. Much better than Outlook, IMHO.
I run Gmail in “Basic View.” I’m sure I’m missing many features, but I don’t miss them because I know nothing of them. 
There are some bugs in Basic, but overall the interface is very simple and I’m very happy.
If you’re in Standard View, it may be difficult to switch to Basic View now, but I don’t think it’s impossible.