6 ms·

The example presented are the kinds of emails I actively avoid. Perhaps the author is right, and Gmail is not working with them on purpose. If that is the case,

by scott_s 11y ago

The example presented are the kinds of emails I actively avoid. Perhaps the author is right, and Gmail is not working with them on purpose. If that is the case, it may be because many users are like me, and they tend to not want fancy-looking marketing emails, and just want basic rich-text features. The Schema initiative - I didn't know it was called that until now - is in the other direction, and I like it. Emails that have valuable information for me, such as airline flights, are presented not in the way those that send it want it to be shown, but in a way that my mail client thinks is best. Frankly, I want sameness in my emails.

Cakez0r 11y ago
I completely agree. I am totally unsympathetic about it being difficult to send consistent looking advertisements and emails that resemble web pages. If anyone from the gmail team happens to be reading, please let my comment be a contrary data point to this TC article and keep doing what you're doing!
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- discreditable 11y ago
  I'll agree there. One of my favorite things about using Thunderbird as my mail client is that I can force simple HTML view on all incoming mail. It ignores CSS and other garbage, while keeping basic things like bold, italic, and links in tact.
rhino369 11y ago
>If that is the case, it may be because many users are like me, and they tend to not want fancy-looking marketing emails, and just want basic rich-text features. Of course it wouldn't be that Google is the world's largest advertising company and they are in direct competition with those advertisements that they break.
wise_young_man 11y ago
The article claims that Schema has not caught on, but in fact you have to be approved [1] to be able to have Gmail pick them up in emails you send and it's not really an open standard like it should be. Moz has a great article which covers it pretty well. Basically you have to send 100 emails per day for some length of time. Since you can't just add them to your email and expect them to work, I think that is why it hasn't caught on. I'd really love if it did though. 1: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/registering-with-google?hl=en https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/registering-with-... 2: https://moz.com/blog/markup-for-emails https://moz.com/blog/markup-for-emails
- kawsper 11y ago
  Adding that data to our order emails when we sell tickets took an hour. Going through the process still haven't been completed.
badloginagain 11y ago
Marketing emails are not the only ones that developers want to look not broken. To pick an instance at random: Confirmation emails for purchases made, especially if they have tickets as an attachments. If this email looks broken, customer thinks it's phishing or something, and might end up trashing it, just because styling is not supported consistently. And I take issue with your argument of "marketing emails are bad." You may not like them, and that's fine, but there is a large part of the internet ecosystem that do like marketing emails- such as my mother who likes learning about deals/sales/coupons at her favourite outlets.
- scott_s 11y ago
  I did not argue that marketing emails are bad. I'm stating that I don't want them, and guessing that many users are like me. Regarding your example, I have no problem if such emails are not stylized.
  - pfooti 11y ago
    I'm sure that you don't have a problem if confirmations are unstyled. But I'm also sure that a lot of users differ in that regard and would expect at least some styling on that non-marketing, but still system-generated emails. Examples include things like confirmations, notifications (that you've opted in to), or just richer and more complex conversations. I mean: to end users, the email experience is part of the brand, and if the brand emits terribad emails, or unstyled emails, it erodes confidence. I'll grant that there's a lot of yucky and annoying html in some marketing emails. But there is still a use-case for html-styled emails, and just having plain text with "click here to see images of the food you're getting next week" is pretty darn 1994.
- davidbanham 11y ago
  Why is that email using HTML? Hello there! Thanks for purchasing X for $Y. Your tax invoice is attached. Here's where you can track your delivery: http://example.com/tracking http://example.com/tracking Thanks!
  - 11y ago
Fiahil 11y ago
> Many users are like me, and they tend to not want fancy-looking marketing emails, and just want basic rich-text features. Oh god, yes! I, sometimes, get really offended when people are asking my email for sending the warranty on something I bought in real life. And then, extremely upset when they start sending their colorful marketing prospectus through this address. This inbox (or any other one) is carrying very valuable informations for me to remain organized and accurate; Therefore, it must stay sorted and categorized. I do not have time, nor attention to evaluate your christmas sales on stuffed donkeys. Enough with the ads, and the blinking shit.

by scott_s 11y ago

Cakez0r 11y ago

I completely agree. I am totally unsympathetic about it being difficult to send consistent looking advertisements and emails that resemble web pages. If anyone from the gmail team happens to be reading, please let my comment be a contrary data point to this TC article and keep doing what you're doing!

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
discreditable 11y ago
I'll agree there. One of my favorite things about using Thunderbird as my mail client is that I can force simple HTML view on all incoming mail. It ignores CSS and other garbage, while keeping basic things like bold, italic, and links in tact.

rhino369 11y ago

>If that is the case, it may be because many users are like me, and they tend to not want fancy-looking marketing emails, and just want basic rich-text features. Of course it wouldn't be that Google is the world's largest advertising company and they are in direct competition with those advertisements that they break.

wise_young_man 11y ago

The article claims that Schema has not caught on, but in fact you have to be approved [1] to be able to have Gmail pick them up in emails you send and it's not really an open standard like it should be. Moz has a great article which covers it pretty well. Basically you have to send 100 emails per day for some length of time. Since you can't just add them to your email and expect them to work, I think that is why it hasn't caught on. I'd really love if it did though. 1: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/registering-with-google?hl=en https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/registering-with-... 2: https://moz.com/blog/markup-for-emails https://moz.com/blog/markup-for-emails

kawsper 11y ago
Adding that data to our order emails when we sell tickets took an hour. Going through the process still haven't been completed.

badloginagain 11y ago

Marketing emails are not the only ones that developers want to look not broken. To pick an instance at random: Confirmation emails for purchases made, especially if they have tickets as an attachments. If this email looks broken, customer thinks it's phishing or something, and might end up trashing it, just because styling is not supported consistently. And I take issue with your argument of "marketing emails are bad." You may not like them, and that's fine, but there is a large part of the internet ecosystem that do like marketing emails- such as my mother who likes learning about deals/sales/coupons at her favourite outlets.

scott_s 11y ago
I did not argue that marketing emails are bad. I'm stating that I don't want them, and guessing that many users are like me. Regarding your example, I have no problem if such emails are not stylized.
- pfooti 11y ago
  I'm sure that you don't have a problem if confirmations are unstyled. But I'm also sure that a lot of users differ in that regard and would expect at least some styling on that non-marketing, but still system-generated emails. Examples include things like confirmations, notifications (that you've opted in to), or just richer and more complex conversations. I mean: to end users, the email experience is part of the brand, and if the brand emits terribad emails, or unstyled emails, it erodes confidence. I'll grant that there's a lot of yucky and annoying html in some marketing emails. But there is still a use-case for html-styled emails, and just having plain text with "click here to see images of the food you're getting next week" is pretty darn 1994.
davidbanham 11y ago
Why is that email using HTML? Hello there! Thanks for purchasing X for $Y. Your tax invoice is attached. Here's where you can track your delivery: http://example.com/tracking http://example.com/tracking Thanks!
- 11y ago

Fiahil 11y ago

> Many users are like me, and they tend to not want fancy-looking marketing emails, and just want basic rich-text features. Oh god, yes! I, sometimes, get really offended when people are asking my email for sending the warranty on something I bought in real life. And then, extremely upset when they start sending their colorful marketing prospectus through this address. This inbox (or any other one) is carrying very valuable informations for me to remain organized and accurate; Therefore, it must stay sorted and categorized. I do not have time, nor attention to evaluate your christmas sales on stuffed donkeys. Enough with the ads, and the blinking shit.