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A dialog popped up when I logged into email, and before I'd seen this thread. That dialog was much along the lines of "We'll now show you images in your email
by buro9 13y ago
A dialog popped up when I logged into email, and before I'd seen this thread.
That dialog was much along the lines of "We'll now show you images in your email automatically." with a big "OK" button.
I don't recall whether there was a less prominent "No, thanks" as I was only logging on to reply to one question really quickly.
I suspect this is a UX anti-pattern. I've gone back into my settings and changed it back to "Don't display images".
- 3JPLW 13y agoThe alternative to "OK" is "Settings," with a link that just dumps you into the main settings view… leaving you to find the Images section to change it back. Quite an opt-in.
- waps 13y agoOtoh, this makes it harder for email marketers and generally other people to see if I'm reading their mail. +1
- jtheory 13y agoIf you go to the trouble to figure out how to disable the "auto-load images" setting, then they're just as blocked as before. If you accept the new default, it's far easier for them to track you, because Google will kindly be loading their tracking images on your behalf when you open the email, every time.
- maxmcd 13y ago"Want to see if your users are opening their emails? Pay to display your message in gmail's promotions tab."
- forgotmycreds 13y agoNow google has the data, and they almost defaulted the option for everyone. That gives them a big boost in data receives which they could use for marketing "(hey guys you remember you got × amount of image loads, we made your images get loaded by × more users now if you want the data we got it right here for the right price.)"
- dragonwriter 13y agoAccording to the announcement, if you've already selected the option to ask before displaying external content, when this feature rolls out to your account it will also default to set the new setting to ask before displaying external images.
- pre-show-mac 13y agoGood info, cheers for that!
- josteink 13y ago> I suspect this is a UX anti-pattern. I've gone back into my settings and changed it back Gmail has done this enough times around already for to me become a UX anti-pattern in itself. It's weird to look back to the days people were begging for invites and Gmail was the best game in town. These days the few times I'm forced to use GMail it almost makes me rage. The "normal users" I know which are forced to cope with Gmail are constantly and consistenly confused, asking me where things they used to know have gone, and why Google is ruining Gmail. Glad I migrated to something better, somewhere where I know for a fact that I am the customer, not the product.
- CapitalistCartr 13y agoTo what did you migrate?
- josteink 13y agoI moved to fastmail which I found wildly refreshing. In the same sense I found Gmail refreshing when it first was launched. Once you try using fastmail, you will be surprised by how incredibly lightweight it is. When you first get used to that, trying to use Gmail feels like wrestling a horribly bloated pig. The UX has just become terrible. As for fastmail or other options... I was very keen on being able to host things 100% myself, preferably using FOSS, because of privacy concerns and being in control of my own data. After trying out various FOSS (and non-FOSS) solutions I decided none of them were good enough/polished enough for my needs. In that regard fastmail is a compromise for me compared to what I ultimately want, but it's a compromise I'm more than happy with.