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Iunno, my inbox gets increasingly useless every year. Facebook emails me about a message but stopped including the message in the email. Online sellers email m

Iunno, my inbox gets increasingly useless every year. Facebook emails me about a message but stopped including the message in the email. Online sellers email me that order #2748747284933938 has had its status updated. Click link and yippee, it’s gone from order received to processing. That’s the email. Thanks. It’s really annoying and turns me off using those products.

advisedwang 5y ago
Order status update might not be valuable, but the knowledge that you purchased product X is. That's a biggie for targeted ads.
- dylan604 5y ago
  If only they'd use that targeting more efficiently as in "don't send ads to some that has recently purchased".
  - inglor_cz 5y ago
    Yeah, Google seems to think that if I buy a washing machine, I am on some kind of washing machine buying spree.
    - brimble 5y ago
      If a user who hasn't bought a washing machine recently is 0.1% likely to be interested in a washing machine ad, and one who has is 0.2% likely to be interested, then they may be making the right call, even if for most people that second number is 0.0%. A few outliers can really skew those kinds of things.
      - inglor_cz 5y ago
        Yeah, it might be a strange statistical artifact. Perhaps someone is buying washing machines for an entire dormitory and isn't satisfied with the first test model. Such people, while rare, might be valuable enough to push new washing machine ads on everyone.
        brimble 5y ago
        That, people with multiple laundry rooms (somewhat-large McMansions with two or more floors may have these) who buy one to see if they like it, then buy another (same or a different one), people with enough money to buy washing machines for someone else (or "this one's OK but I'm open to buying another if it looks better, and giving this nearly-new one to my kid/parent/friend" or whatever), et c. With those kinds of low-frequency purchases it doesn't take a lot to make one category of buyer twice as likely to buy a second time as the population at large is to buy one in the first place—even if the notion seems silly to most people seeing the ads.
qwertox 5y ago
That's what filters and labels and "skip the inbox" are there for.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  I like the emails of what I bought, I just have no idea what items were inside #2748747284933938. Sometimes I have multiple orders on the go and telling apart #2748747284933938 from #111111111 or from order #22222222222222 is impossible.
spywaregorilla 5y ago
> Online sellers email me that order #2748747284933938 has had its status updated. Click link and yippee, it’s gone from order received to processing. That’s the email. Thanks I mean, I click < 1% of these kind of email links but I'm glad I get them on the off chance I do.
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  The point is the vendor has stopped putting it in the email because they don’t want google to know what I bought or what I paid, but it also makes it really annoying for the user. For some things, I’ve taken to copying the page of my purchase and replying to myself in the inevitable “thanks for your order” (and zero details of it in the email). God help you if you have multiple people (spouse, kids) using your Amazon or whatever account.
  - kyralis 5y ago
    It's not so much that they don't want google to know what you bought or paid: it's that they want you back on their website so that they can track you / encourage additional purchases.
  - spywaregorilla 5y ago
    I'm pretty sure they do that because it's better to send you 1 email with a link to the current state of the item rather than 5 emails with hardcoded and soon to be outdated information.
    - fomine3 5y ago
      Why not both? Data on website is owned by operator so it can be edited or deleted. I want to have data also in my mailbox.
brimble 5y ago
At some point I gave up trying to organize my Gmail when I realized that 99% of my use of it is just opening it to get a sign-in code or check on a package or whatever. I send an email to an actual human with it maybe once a year. I don't check it unless I'm expecting something because there's almost zero chance something I care about will show up there when I'm not expecting it. My personal email is almost entirely read-only, and nearly all its utility is letting computers, not people, send me messages that I'm expecting.

advisedwang 5y ago

Order status update might not be valuable, but the knowledge that you purchased product X is. That's a biggie for targeted ads.

dylan604 5y ago
If only they'd use that targeting more efficiently as in "don't send ads to some that has recently purchased".
- inglor_cz 5y ago
  Yeah, Google seems to think that if I buy a washing machine, I am on some kind of washing machine buying spree.
  - brimble 5y ago
    If a user who hasn't bought a washing machine recently is 0.1% likely to be interested in a washing machine ad, and one who has is 0.2% likely to be interested, then they may be making the right call, even if for most people that second number is 0.0%. A few outliers can really skew those kinds of things.
    - inglor_cz 5y ago
      Yeah, it might be a strange statistical artifact. Perhaps someone is buying washing machines for an entire dormitory and isn't satisfied with the first test model. Such people, while rare, might be valuable enough to push new washing machine ads on everyone.
      - brimble 5y ago
        That, people with multiple laundry rooms (somewhat-large McMansions with two or more floors may have these) who buy one to see if they like it, then buy another (same or a different one), people with enough money to buy washing machines for someone else (or "this one's OK but I'm open to buying another if it looks better, and giving this nearly-new one to my kid/parent/friend" or whatever), et c. With those kinds of low-frequency purchases it doesn't take a lot to make one category of buyer twice as likely to buy a second time as the population at large is to buy one in the first place—even if the notion seems silly to most people seeing the ads.

qwertox 5y ago

That's what filters and labels and "skip the inbox" are there for.

Scoundreller 5y ago
I like the emails of what I bought, I just have no idea what items were inside #2748747284933938. Sometimes I have multiple orders on the go and telling apart #2748747284933938 from #111111111 or from order #22222222222222 is impossible.

spywaregorilla 5y ago

> Online sellers email me that order #2748747284933938 has had its status updated. Click link and yippee, it’s gone from order received to processing. That’s the email. Thanks I mean, I click < 1% of these kind of email links but I'm glad I get them on the off chance I do.

Scoundreller 5y ago
The point is the vendor has stopped putting it in the email because they don’t want google to know what I bought or what I paid, but it also makes it really annoying for the user. For some things, I’ve taken to copying the page of my purchase and replying to myself in the inevitable “thanks for your order” (and zero details of it in the email). God help you if you have multiple people (spouse, kids) using your Amazon or whatever account.
- kyralis 5y ago
  It's not so much that they don't want google to know what you bought or paid: it's that they want you back on their website so that they can track you / encourage additional purchases.
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  I'm pretty sure they do that because it's better to send you 1 email with a link to the current state of the item rather than 5 emails with hardcoded and soon to be outdated information.
  - fomine3 5y ago
    Why not both? Data on website is owned by operator so it can be edited or deleted. I want to have data also in my mailbox.

brimble 5y ago

At some point I gave up trying to organize my Gmail when I realized that 99% of my use of it is just opening it to get a sign-in code or check on a package or whatever. I send an email to an actual human with it maybe once a year. I don't check it unless I'm expecting something because there's almost zero chance something I care about will show up there when I'm not expecting it. My personal email is almost entirely read-only, and nearly all its utility is letting computers, not people, send me messages that I'm expecting.