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Just off the top of my head quickly. I <3 labels.
Don't get me wrong here I agree that labels per se have an attractive quality to them - I would suggest that proper tagging the kind that we are use to as bloggers or are used by services like Technorati is a much better implementation of the concept. What I don't agree with is this blind loyalty to a system that doesn't do anything really any different than a folder based mail client.
I believe that web mail clients have their place but they are not the panacea for all that is wrong with email that the loyal base of Gmail users think it is.
Folders are really good for hierarchical organisation and cope with multiple levels of depth far better than labels do, but labels offer a different type of flexibility.
Although I use gmail for both my main email accounts, I'm still not completely happy with having to use only labels and would like folders too.
I'd also like search folders (I know I can do this with a greasemonkey extension) and the ability to see all unlabeled messages easily.
gmail is still a work in progress and sometimes that progress seems really slow...
And on your "delete" point -- there is a delete button and an archive button. Archive hides. Delete, as you put it, "deletes." Sure there is no option to permanently delete after each session, but why delete-delete when you'll never see it again and you have virtually limitless storage capacity?
On your UI point -- could anything be more boring than Outlook? And besides, I'd rather have a clean interface so as not to be distracted as I read my mail. Maybe the problem is that your mail it too boring to keep you entertained? :)
In the electronic world, this just isn't necessary. You can simply archive/store whatever you want wherever you want on your computer or online and find it later just by doing a quick search.
This is akin to walking into your "office" and saying "2008 tax return" and it magically levitates out of a drawer somewhere. I'm sure if you could, you wouldn't care what drawer/folder you stored it in in the first place.
If you think of things this way, you see that tags and folders really have nothing to do with eachother. There is no direct comparison because in the GMail world....there ARE no folders.
I understand your points, though. You have to be willing to let go of a lot of things that have been "normal" for a very long time in order to really get into using GMail. For some, major changes like that are just not worth it.
As for an empty inbox that is just as easily done with filters and folders as it is with any labeling system. Regarding "bling" that isn't what I want either I just want an interface that doesn't put me to sleep with how boring it is.
I have 2 tags I use for things I need to actually follow-up on, or things that I may need to hold onto for a minute (receipts, tracking codes, etc.).
It's not really a Tags vs. Folders, thing for me. it's just about getting things done and having a buch of folders or labels visible on my screen must mean these are things I am supposed to be taking care of. If I'm just filing things away...well....that's what the Archive feature is for.
Also, there's rumors on the intarnets that Google is going to be releasing GMail themes in the next few weeks.
I'm definitely a GMail fangirl. I went to great lengths writing a large VBA script to run in Outlook 2003 to make it work like GMail because my work wouldn't let me use GMail for corp mail. A lot of the features I was looking for can be tweaked into Outlook 2007 more easily but still, I'd rather use GMail than Outlook anyday.
And so your deleted messages stay in the trash for 30 days... big deal. You don't have to look at them, and it's not like you're going to run out of space. I've had plenty of occasions where I did need to retrieve an e-mail I previously deleted, so I'm glad they stick around for a while. If there's something you really want gone, that absolutely cannot stick around for 30 days, then empty the trash. It's not that hard.
I'm sorry Steven, but this does not sound like you "really tried". You went into it still determined to hate it, and you hunted down every excuse you could, no matter how weak, to continue to do so.
As for the filters / labels things maybe I was doing things incorrectly but the fact that I would have to click this label or that label or select one from the drop down list is a pain. With Outlook once the filters are setup it's all automatic --- mail comes in and gets shuffled of the folder I want it in.
I do agree with the advantage of multiple label for emails which is why I'd like to see a real tagging system incorporated into the client especially if (on Windows) the desktop search could be made to use tags as a parameter. Tagging is - or at least it could be - a very powerful system both on the local machine as well as the web - combine them together and you have a winner.
I have several filters in Gmail which do just that, so yes, you must not have been doing it right. I'll agree that using the drop-down menu when manually labeling is a pain, and some drag-and-drop support would be nice. But that's another great thing about Gmail. It's constantly evolving, they're always adding new features, and they actually listen to what people want. They may even add an option for more frequent trash emptying if enough people request it.
:)
I haven't seen an example of this recently. People have wanted the ability to turn off Conversation View, disable the auto-add-to-Contacts feature, and manually re-thread messages when the threading algorithm messes up since before I joined (in Spring of 2006). I would like the latter two options available, and have suggested them multiple times, but no amount of requests from me and all the other users has succeeded in getting those features added. Google listens to users if something is easy, like colored labels: Just rip off the Greasemonkey userscript that someone else wrote (I'm speculating; there has been no code analysis performed by me).
Those people are probably the toughest crowd to convert to any other email client, no matter how much of a clone of Outlook it is (or isn't). And I really can't fault them actually. Some things Outlook does really well.. and once you have gotten used to its idiosyncrasies, it's quite useable.
But here's a different angle for you: If you are used to using the Google Reader hotkeys, you will find that most of them work in Google Mail too. And being able to surf through your mail without ever touching the mouse is completely awesome.
Personally I think all email clients suck donkey balls and in many cases are a detriment to productivity. I understand why Outlook became as popular as it has with the inclusion of all the calendaring and task list type stuff but I never use (at this point in time) those features.
To be honest I really like Windows Live Mail. I like the interface and it has all the features I need.
this ON or OFF.... can't be that hard?