Finally: Google Modifies Gmail Conversation View
The days of compact email viewing are over.
Google's Wiltse Carpenter seems to really like Gmail's conversation view (aka message threading). In a blog post dated Wednesday, he compared the feature to cilantro--you either love it, or you hate it, noting the websites dedicated to hating the herb. He went on to express how he loved the way message threading keeps everything organized, keeps all the replies to the replies grouped together with the original message. But he also acknowledged that not everyone feels the same way.
Either you love it, or you hate it.
"And just as an outspoken minority has banded together in unison to declare their distaste of one of nature’s most delicious herbs, some of you have been very vocal about your dislike of conversation threading," he acknowledged. "So just like you can order your baja fish tacos without cilantro, you can now get Gmail served up sans conversation view. Go to the main Settings page, look for the “Conversation View” section, select the option to turn it off, and save changes."
He added that Gmail users can revert back to the coveted conversation view at any time.
As indicated, Gmail users have been quite vocal about the feature since Gmail became available to the general public back in 2007. A petition was even started on the Gmail help forum, and thus far has racked up 1896 responses.
"Conversation view is perhaps Gmail’s most hotly debated feature," Google admitted in the official Enterprise Blog. "Threading enthusiasts say they spend less mental energy drawing connections between related messages and that their inboxes are much less cluttered. On the other hand, email traditionalists like many former Outlook users think conversation view just complicates something that has worked for years."
"We really hoped everyone would learn to love conversation view, but we came to realize that it’s just not right for some people," the company added.
Yay. For real.
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I've use Gmail since it was released in beta back in 2004...
and I had no idea what conversation view was until I looked it up just a second ago.
Apparently it never bothered me one bit, seems like a natural way to organize mail to me.
But hurray for the power of choice.
Well, boohoo to the naysayers, but eve Microsoft are moving this way. Outlook 2007 comes with conversation view as an option (although it looks horrible), and it's the default view in Outlook 2010.
Personally, after using Gmail for a while, I just cannot go back to the old list style.
I also find conversation view a natural one and cannot see any reason to get back to list view.
One thing however I miss in conversation view is the ability to add mails manually to a conversation - this would be useful to me.
Most of the time it rocks! but every now and then I find that it is a huge issue. Sometimes I post an ad for labour in a local website, and all the replys come back as "reply to you ad" ... they all get bunched in to 1 conversation, and I can't separate them in to "people I want to talk to" and "plan b's".
Holy Spam attack batman!
Back on topic.. Conversation view it awesome... that is all.
"The days of compact email viewing are over."
No, the days of not having the option to turn it off are over. Since when does "You can turn it on or off as you please" = "It's gone forever"?
I also find conversation view a natural one and cannot see any reason to get back to list view.One thing however I miss in conversation view is the ability to add mails manually to a conversation - this would be useful to me.
And remove them too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PK6QkZG_Y0
Hated it! - In living color.
I'm really surprised to hear that there are people out there that hate it so much. Conversation view for emails seems like such an intuitive and convenient way to read them.
However, just because I can't understand why someone wouldn't want it doesn't mean they shouldn't have a choice, especially as someone that has wished for choices against some of the other "Features" Google has offered in the past (homepage fade in, anyone?). I'm happy to see Google taking a step in the right direction for everyone.
@Kevinnem
I'd never considered that drawback to conversation view. Nothing like that has ever affected me, but that certainly brings up good ideas for further improvements to the style.
gmail changed? didnt notice
I don't love it or hate it. What then?