Gmail has got themes, so?
I am not going to use any one of those funky, blurry themes for my gmail account.
But why?
Most of the first 7-8 themes I tried out are either too dull or way to bright for my eyes. None of them do a great job at differentiating old & new messages from my inbox. Everything looks the same, what’s the use of all these themes which don’t highlight the difference between unread and read mails.
Anything weird?
Oh yes, but this has nothing to do with the new themes gmail has launched (I guess so).
I noticed that gmail loads eight 8×8 pixel images on the gmail home page. I don’t see those images being used anywhere. The other possible reason I can think of is tracking.
If tracking is all what gmail wants then why not use a 0.04KB (1×1 px) image instead of using a 0.14KB (8x8px) image.
Is gmail b0rked?
Yes it is! A blog post was pending on this one for a long time now.
Try adding a contact to your contacts list in the gmail standard view (with or without chat enabled).
Go to contact’s, click on ‘New Contact’ icon on top left & done.
Here’s the best part.
Now switch to basic HTML mode (this mode get’s enabled when a uses is on a slow connection by default).
and now try adding a contact to your contacts list.
Go to contacts, and then what? where is the option to add a new contact.
It’s really funny to see that gmail doesn’t have the most basic feature of adding a contact in basic HTML view. FAIL.
Please leave a comment if you figure out a way (or when gmail fixes this) to add contacts in gmail from the basic HTML view.
Gmail get’s away with these small but important features by sticking a ‘BETA’ sticker on it’s logo every time.
[tags]google, mail, gmail, themes, b0rked[/tags]
The basic HTML view is a little different from what you’re used to because the following features aren’t available:
* Spell checker
* Keyboard shortcuts
* Creating filters
* Adding, editing, importing, or deleting contacts
* Custom ‘From:’ addresses
* Rich formatting
source: The basic HTML view is a little different from what you’re used to because the following features aren’t available:
* Spell checker
* Keyboard shortcuts
* Creating filters
* Adding, editing, importing, or deleting contacts
* Custom ‘From:’ addresses
* Rich formatting
source: http://tr.im/1c7p (gmail faq)
they really want you to treat it like safe mode and assume that all safe mode products are basically crippled.
i don’t think ppl take the beta sticker that much literally as far as google is concerned.
what do you mean, you can’t differentiate between unread n read mails?
i haven’t used all the funky blurry themes, but so far..even in terminal, there are font color n weight differentiation.
and lastly, gmail themes vs stylish scripts. what looks and performs better? i think stylish loads faster. might not be location/time based. but then not cross-browser.
Diabolic Preacher
21 Nov 08 at 9:39 am
@DPreacher you can’t just ignore the fact by calling ‘basic html’ mode as safe mode.
Check Y! mail classic for that matter, the reason both Gmail & Y! mail have a lighter(non-ajaxy) version is, to give the users with slow internet connection the same features and experience(not in every sense) like the other users who are on a high speed connection.
and why would someone deliberately switch the so called ‘safe mode’ ON?
The only reason I can think of is slow connection, so the question is, why make the basic features inaccessible to the people using slow speed internet?
Praveen
21 Nov 08 at 10:05 am