The Story of Gmail’s new tabbed interface
If you are using Gmail daily, this is not a new thing for you. But few days
ago, Google introduced a new tabbed interface into the Gmail accounts, and this
post is all about it.
If
you are not familiar with this new interface, you might get a clear idea about
it after reading this. So keep reading :)
The Old story…………..
We
know that, Gmail was started as a service by Google to overcome the problems we
had with other email service providers like Yahoo & msn. They were the most
popular email services before the arrival of Gmail. The main problem of these
old services was the space they provided. It was a very little amount of
storage and users had to keep their inboxes cleared to welcome the new emails.
Then Google introduced their new product, Gmail. They promised that they will
provide unlimited storage for their users. But by now they offer only 10 GB of
free storage, and it is comparatively a fair storage for nothing (I mean for free
:D).
Why is it?
What
I wanted to tell you was that Gmail / Google always introduces new things to
help their users. This new tabbed interface also the same. Since emails have
become an essential part of our day to day lives, it is important that we do
not miss any email because each and every email will be useful most of the
times. Hence Gmail has come up with this new interface which will bring you a
clean and a well organized inbox.
How it works?
Gmail
will automatically add 3 tabs (by default it has 05 pre generated tabs) to your
inbox as Primary, Social, and Promotions. Other two are Updates and Forums, and
they are not activated by default.
The
Good news is that if you do not like this tab thing you can always hide them.
Why I need those tabs?
OK,
be cool….They will just filter your emails in the inbox. Don’t worry…all your
mails are there. Read the below lines and you will find exactly what it will do
for you :)
Primary Tab: the mails you usually receive from other people, especially
from the people you know by the name of the sender will be included in this
tab. (to be exact, the emails you receive from an individual. Cool. Got it?)
Social Tab: I know, we all are social addicts, maybe either Google+,
Facebook, twitter or anything else, we all use them. But what’s the bad with
them? Yes they do send emails daily. Yeah? Personally I don’t like this type of
emails. The problem is now solved. Those mails will directly go to the social
tab.
See
how easy? Now no more hassles choosing the important mails…
Promotions Tab: If you have subscribed to any mailing list, you may already
have experienced the spam-my type useless mails (most of the times they send
crap.)
No
problem, now you don’t need to worry about them. Gmail will filter them for
you.
Updates Tab: This tab will filter emails which are in the type of
confirmations or receipts or bills. Say if you have registered for a website,
and they want you to reconfirm your email address. You will get en email from
them. So this is an important tab. If you have not activated this tab, the
emails in this category will be shown in the primary tab.
Forums Tab: This is similar to the above Promotions tab, but this
includes the emails from Public Forums, or Group discussion boards which you
are engaged in.
How to use the tabs?
Well,
actually you don’t have to do anything. Gmail will handle everything for you.
But
still if you need any email to be shown in a specific group, you can drag and
drop the email to the tab you need. Gmail will ask you whether you need to
follow this action for the future mails from this sender.
Click on yes.
It
is simple as that.
To
manage the tabs, click on the + icon next to the tabs. It will bring up the
options box. Or click on the settings button (the toothed wheel icon on the top
right corner), and click on “Inbox Options”. It will also open the same options
window. To make any tabs hide or visible, just use the check box to tick or
un-tick the tab. To completely hide the tabs, un-tick all the check boxes and
click on save button. (You can’t un-tick the primary tab, but it will not be
shown if other tabs are not selected).
 |
| Inbox options window |
Summary.....
Gmail
introduces all these features to enhance the experience of its users, and hence
to increase the user friendliness. Ultimately, it is an important factor for
any product, maybe it is either an Online or an offline product, the user
friendliness is still important. So do you think this feature of Gmail will be
helpful? Or have it been already useful to you?
Leave
your ideas for others…….
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:
Tech
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