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This, contrary to what people might believe, is good for online marketing and for business. Here is why: * You're much better off with a list of people who act

This, contrary to what people might believe, is good for online marketing and for business. Here is why: * You're much better off with a list of people who actually care about your communication and your product, rather than a list of people sort of interested or downright annoyed by you, which haven't unsubscribed because they couldn't find the link. * Less disinterested subscribers means less costs to send and maintain the list (e.g., via Mailchimp or SES). * Less spam reports which hurt your email deliverability (get enough of those and you'll be booted off sites like Mailchimp). * People will have less unwanted commercial communication overall, and will be able to focus on yours (of course I'm talking about the selected group of people who are actually interested). I welcome this change, and I say this as someone who runs a site that sends 50,000+ 'newsletter' emails per week. This to me is good news.

tomerico 13y ago
If this is good for them, than why no marketing email feature a prominent unsubscribe button at the top of the email? Surely it's not an original idea by Google.
- TeMPOraL 13y ago
  Greed, mostly. And stupid short-term thinking of the "I don't care if it benefits everyone else, it doesn't benefit me now" type.
- yeukhon 13y ago
  If you use something like MailChimp (I think that's what many new businesses tend to use? I can't remember..) or one with pretty subscribe/unsubscribe page for every customer who uses the mailing list service, then the customer's customers will have the luck to enjoy opt-in/opt-out option. If your organization is still running some out-of-date, custom subscription software, then unsubscribe might be out of the question.
- lotyrin 13y ago
  Turns out most people are dumb and self-absorbed.
msrpotus 13y ago
Agreed. Much of my consulting work is around email marketing and it always shocks me how many people "can't find" (or don't bother to find) the unsubscribe link and then either reply to the email or mark it as spam. While this will undoubtedly shrink some email lists, most of those people weren't going to be interested and buy (or whatever the action is) anyway. If you're doing email marketing, you should expect that a certain percentage of people will unsubscribe from any given email not because it's a bad email but they are just no longer interested. Making it more difficult for someone to unsubscribe just increases the likelihood that they'll complain or report it as spam and no one really benefits from that.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  They've been trained by unethical spam senders that unsubscribing doesn't work.
  - hdevalence 13y ago
    Or, the company hides the "unsubscribe" link in a tiny font at the bottom of the email, and it's just much simpler to hit Gmail's big "spam" button at the top.
    - YeahKIA 13y ago
      Hotmail has had this for a long time and has been very helpful. Glad that Gmail folks are getting it as well.
    - arn 13y ago
      Is that really considered hiding? I expect the unsubscribe link to be a small link in the footer. If it's not, then it's an inconvenience.
      - lambda 13y ago
        It's small and hard to find. Yes, that's where I expect to find it, but that involves scrolling down and reading through a bunch of fine print to find the right thing. Oh, and I've had plenty of cases of using the unsubscribe link not actually work, or only unsubscribe me from one of the five lists that they autosubscribed me to, that it's hard to trust. On the other hand, the spam button is right up top, in the same place every time, and easy to click. It's a lot faster and more user friendly, and it generally gives me better results.
eli 13y ago
Yup, the only reason google is able to offer one click unsubscribe is because the people sending the message have enabled the list-unsubscribe header. They are intentionally making it easy to unsubscribe. No legitimate email marketer wants to send messages to someone who doesn't want them.
socrates1998 13y ago
Yes, I completely agree! I tried to do an email campaign about a year ago and it was a nightmare to get good quality subscribers. I would much rather have 1,000 people who really care about my newsletter than 100,000 that don't.

tomerico 13y ago

If this is good for them, than why no marketing email feature a prominent unsubscribe button at the top of the email? Surely it's not an original idea by Google.

TeMPOraL 13y ago
Greed, mostly. And stupid short-term thinking of the "I don't care if it benefits everyone else, it doesn't benefit me now" type.
yeukhon 13y ago
If you use something like MailChimp (I think that's what many new businesses tend to use? I can't remember..) or one with pretty subscribe/unsubscribe page for every customer who uses the mailing list service, then the customer's customers will have the luck to enjoy opt-in/opt-out option. If your organization is still running some out-of-date, custom subscription software, then unsubscribe might be out of the question.
lotyrin 13y ago
Turns out most people are dumb and self-absorbed.

msrpotus 13y ago

Agreed. Much of my consulting work is around email marketing and it always shocks me how many people "can't find" (or don't bother to find) the unsubscribe link and then either reply to the email or mark it as spam. While this will undoubtedly shrink some email lists, most of those people weren't going to be interested and buy (or whatever the action is) anyway. If you're doing email marketing, you should expect that a certain percentage of people will unsubscribe from any given email not because it's a bad email but they are just no longer interested. Making it more difficult for someone to unsubscribe just increases the likelihood that they'll complain or report it as spam and no one really benefits from that.

jamesaguilar 13y ago
They've been trained by unethical spam senders that unsubscribing doesn't work.
- hdevalence 13y ago
  Or, the company hides the "unsubscribe" link in a tiny font at the bottom of the email, and it's just much simpler to hit Gmail's big "spam" button at the top.
  - YeahKIA 13y ago
    Hotmail has had this for a long time and has been very helpful. Glad that Gmail folks are getting it as well.
  - arn 13y ago
    Is that really considered hiding? I expect the unsubscribe link to be a small link in the footer. If it's not, then it's an inconvenience.
    - lambda 13y ago
      It's small and hard to find. Yes, that's where I expect to find it, but that involves scrolling down and reading through a bunch of fine print to find the right thing. Oh, and I've had plenty of cases of using the unsubscribe link not actually work, or only unsubscribe me from one of the five lists that they autosubscribed me to, that it's hard to trust. On the other hand, the spam button is right up top, in the same place every time, and easy to click. It's a lot faster and more user friendly, and it generally gives me better results.

eli 13y ago

Yup, the only reason google is able to offer one click unsubscribe is because the people sending the message have enabled the list-unsubscribe header. They are intentionally making it easy to unsubscribe. No legitimate email marketer wants to send messages to someone who doesn't want them.

socrates1998 13y ago

Yes, I completely agree! I tried to do an email campaign about a year ago and it was a nightmare to get good quality subscribers. I would much rather have 1,000 people who really care about my newsletter than 100,000 that don't.