10 ms·

Wow, what an incredibly, obviously bad idea. I spotted this last night and immediately realized how this would go down. If you have 900 million users (as gmai

Wow, what an incredibly, obviously bad idea. I spotted this last night and immediately realized how this would go down. If you have 900 million users (as gmail does) and you add a button right next to the send button that also has the word "send" on it, you are going to have a significant numbers of users send emails using that button! AND it adds a gif AND it archives the email thread AND those features aren't explained when you hover over the button! I have a feeling the vast majority of gmail users don't know how to find their archived email threads, so those users will never see the replies to the email they sent. The gmail team was asleep at the wheel on this one.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
smt88 11y ago
> gmail team was asleep at the wheel on this one No. They intentionally drove off the road for fun and somehow didn't understand humans enough to realize that it would be really infuriating to some of their ~1 billion users. They did the same thing with their "Call your Dad today" calendar reminder and many other things. Google's product teams seem to be both deaf (help forums overflowing with "+1s" for simple fixes) and tone-deaf. This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft's apps/ecosystem and retain my Gmail address. There's no reason to put up with Google's terrible product decisions anymore.
- haukilup 11y ago
  > This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft's apps/ecosystem and retain my Gmail address. There's no reason to put up with Google's terrible product decisions anymore. Why specifically mention Microsoft? Seems like you could have concluded you 'should' switch away from Google's ecosystem without coupling it to your desire to switch to Microsoft.
- fuck_google 11y ago
  Google makes even Microsoft look good, doesn't it.
- gthtjtkt 11y ago
  It seems to be a combination of the Silicon Valley echo chamber + groupthink. They're completely ignorant of any perspective that isn't their own. It's the one thing I hate about Android. The UIs of Google apps have gotten consistently worse over the years, mainly because they've been prioritizing aesthetics over functionality/ease of use. I'm assuming their thought process is something along the lines of "This is obvious to me. Therefore, it will be obvious to the millions of Android users". No, it's obvious to you because you just thought of it, it's most definitely not obvious to everyone else.
  - euyyn 11y ago
    > didn't understand humans enough > They're completely ignorant of any perspective that isn't their own. It's like people commenting on Hacker News have never made a mistake or have something backfire at them.
    - gthtjtkt 11y ago
      It's not like I'm in a position to do so anyway, but I would never consider implementing some kind of prank into a vital service that hundreds of millions of people use on a daily basis. Let alone a prank that could be so easily mistaken for a core function of the service. Words can't even begin to describe how arrogant/stupid this was, and now users are paying the price.
    - Jare 11y ago
      Not all mistakes are born equal in reach and consequences. I would like to think that yes, most people in HN (most people, period) would not make a mistake like this.
  - enraged_camel 11y ago
    >>It seems to be a combination of the Silicon Valley echo chamber + groupthink. They're completely ignorant of any perspective that isn't their own. This is totally expected when your employees are overwhelmingly in their 20s and have never held a job outside of a tech company in the valley. My old company was full of developers like that. Fresh out of college, doesn't know how the real world works, yet is expected to develop products for the real world. It was horribly frustrating working with them.
- digi_owl 11y ago
  Its far from limit to Google. I wonder if it is a geek/SV thing, as i keep seeing "solutions" come out of there that are hopelessly utopian in their naivety when it comes to considering human behavior and reactions.
  - MrRage 11y ago
    It isn't limited to Google. At the end of 2014 Facebook put this thing in my brother's feed that said "It's been a great year" and then put in post he made right after our mother passed away. I wonder if it's a being young thing too?
    - MichaelGG 11y ago
      For such integral products, I'd expect them to have some sort of concept of "out of all your users, some of them will be having the worst day/week/month/year of their lives while heavily interacting with your product".
    - digi_owl 11y ago
      I recall hearing about that one. One guy had a image of his recently deceased daughter plastered across the screen...
    - fixermark 11y ago
      Facebook, specifically, is struggling with the issue that strong correlation doesn't imply semantic value (i.e. posts with a lot of activity can be really good OR really bad) and corner cases. The semantic value issue they're addressing with the multifaceted "like" button. The corner cases issue may not be fixed. As harsh as it is to say---and as unacceptable, perhaps, as it should be to work this way---there is a train of thought that goes "Even if we get the occasional bad result, when we have a billion users and 99% of the results are good; ship it. That's 990 million happy customers." The 1% bad results have to be really bad to tip the scales.
- Chris2048 11y ago
  > This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft Right, MS. Way better product decisions...
  - fixermark 11y ago
    You got significantly downvoted for some reason, and I'm not sure why, especially in light of Microsoft's most recent embarrassment (http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-cha...). Do people perceive, perhaps, that there's a difference between "corporate Microsoft" and "AI research Microsoft," and the former would never make a mistake with their products like the latter has? I find that a less-than-likely assumption.
    - gyardley 11y ago
      Microsoft makes annoying product mistakes like everybody else and obviously isn't immune to PR blunders. However, they're also pleasingly boring and know where their bread is buttered, so I sort of do trust them not to introduce April Fools Day jokes into their important business applications.
      - DanBC 11y ago
        MS had Easter Eggs hidden in Office software. They stopped as part of their Trustworthy Computing initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Easter_eggs_in_Microsoft_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Easter_eggs_in_Microso... The Mic drop feature was stupid, but it wasn't included for people who were Google Apps business, education or government users. https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/5aOAnuG3G4g https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/5aOAnuG...
sixothree 11y ago
What ever happened to "plonk" anyway.
nogbit 11y ago
Simple solution, just stop using the heaping pile of crap that is Gmail. I did that about 4 years ago and I can actually read my email and have things work in the bog standard way vs. some convoluted non idiomatic way that Google wants you to.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

smt88 11y ago

> gmail team was asleep at the wheel on this one No. They intentionally drove off the road for fun and somehow didn't understand humans enough to realize that it would be really infuriating to some of their ~1 billion users. They did the same thing with their "Call your Dad today" calendar reminder and many other things. Google's product teams seem to be both deaf (help forums overflowing with "+1s" for simple fixes) and tone-deaf. This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft's apps/ecosystem and retain my Gmail address. There's no reason to put up with Google's terrible product decisions anymore.

haukilup 11y ago
> This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft's apps/ecosystem and retain my Gmail address. There's no reason to put up with Google's terrible product decisions anymore. Why specifically mention Microsoft? Seems like you could have concluded you 'should' switch away from Google's ecosystem without coupling it to your desire to switch to Microsoft.
fuck_google 11y ago
Google makes even Microsoft look good, doesn't it.
gthtjtkt 11y ago
It seems to be a combination of the Silicon Valley echo chamber + groupthink. They're completely ignorant of any perspective that isn't their own. It's the one thing I hate about Android. The UIs of Google apps have gotten consistently worse over the years, mainly because they've been prioritizing aesthetics over functionality/ease of use. I'm assuming their thought process is something along the lines of "This is obvious to me. Therefore, it will be obvious to the millions of Android users". No, it's obvious to you because you just thought of it, it's most definitely not obvious to everyone else.
- euyyn 11y ago
  > didn't understand humans enough > They're completely ignorant of any perspective that isn't their own. It's like people commenting on Hacker News have never made a mistake or have something backfire at them.
  - gthtjtkt 11y ago
    It's not like I'm in a position to do so anyway, but I would never consider implementing some kind of prank into a vital service that hundreds of millions of people use on a daily basis. Let alone a prank that could be so easily mistaken for a core function of the service. Words can't even begin to describe how arrogant/stupid this was, and now users are paying the price.
  - Jare 11y ago
    Not all mistakes are born equal in reach and consequences. I would like to think that yes, most people in HN (most people, period) would not make a mistake like this.
- enraged_camel 11y ago
  >>It seems to be a combination of the Silicon Valley echo chamber + groupthink. They're completely ignorant of any perspective that isn't their own. This is totally expected when your employees are overwhelmingly in their 20s and have never held a job outside of a tech company in the valley. My old company was full of developers like that. Fresh out of college, doesn't know how the real world works, yet is expected to develop products for the real world. It was horribly frustrating working with them.
digi_owl 11y ago
Its far from limit to Google. I wonder if it is a geek/SV thing, as i keep seeing "solutions" come out of there that are hopelessly utopian in their naivety when it comes to considering human behavior and reactions.
- MrRage 11y ago
  It isn't limited to Google. At the end of 2014 Facebook put this thing in my brother's feed that said "It's been a great year" and then put in post he made right after our mother passed away. I wonder if it's a being young thing too?
  - MichaelGG 11y ago
    For such integral products, I'd expect them to have some sort of concept of "out of all your users, some of them will be having the worst day/week/month/year of their lives while heavily interacting with your product".
  - digi_owl 11y ago
    I recall hearing about that one. One guy had a image of his recently deceased daughter plastered across the screen...
  - fixermark 11y ago
    Facebook, specifically, is struggling with the issue that strong correlation doesn't imply semantic value (i.e. posts with a lot of activity can be really good OR really bad) and corner cases. The semantic value issue they're addressing with the multifaceted "like" button. The corner cases issue may not be fixed. As harsh as it is to say---and as unacceptable, perhaps, as it should be to work this way---there is a train of thought that goes "Even if we get the occasional bad result, when we have a billion users and 99% of the results are good; ship it. That's 990 million happy customers." The 1% bad results have to be really bad to tip the scales.
Chris2048 11y ago
> This whole thing makes me realize I should just switch to Microsoft Right, MS. Way better product decisions...
- fixermark 11y ago
  You got significantly downvoted for some reason, and I'm not sure why, especially in light of Microsoft's most recent embarrassment (http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-chatbot-racist http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/24/11297050/tay-microsoft-cha...). Do people perceive, perhaps, that there's a difference between "corporate Microsoft" and "AI research Microsoft," and the former would never make a mistake with their products like the latter has? I find that a less-than-likely assumption.
  - gyardley 11y ago
    Microsoft makes annoying product mistakes like everybody else and obviously isn't immune to PR blunders. However, they're also pleasingly boring and know where their bread is buttered, so I sort of do trust them not to introduce April Fools Day jokes into their important business applications.
    - DanBC 11y ago
      MS had Easter Eggs hidden in Office software. They stopped as part of their Trustworthy Computing initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Easter_eggs_in_Microsoft_products https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Easter_eggs_in_Microso... The Mic drop feature was stupid, but it wasn't included for people who were Google Apps business, education or government users. https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/5aOAnuG3G4g https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/5aOAnuG...

sixothree 11y ago

What ever happened to "plonk" anyway.

nogbit 11y ago

Simple solution, just stop using the heaping pile of crap that is Gmail. I did that about 4 years ago and I can actually read my email and have things work in the bog standard way vs. some convoluted non idiomatic way that Google wants you to.