this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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DeGoogle Yourself

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Why would anyone use this over Proton Mail or the gazillion alternatives if it treats people like shit.

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[–] [email protected] 148 points 11 months ago (3 children)

These ads only appear in the "promotions" section of Gmail, the section that is by definition for advertising emails. It's not great, but this is the least intrusive place to put ads.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Whoa, there's remotely tech-savvy people who don't turn off 100% of that "new" inbox sorting stuff? Color me surprised.

That Social/Updates/Promotion shit is absolutely trash shit garbage useless. It does nothing to improve email experience. It exists to serve you ads.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (3 children)

As someone who enjoyed Google Inbox before they killed it, it hurts to read this comment.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

I loved Inbox. I hate everything that was supposed to replace it. Spark isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's not nearly as smart. Shortwave may be ok but my only IOS device isn't set up to receive email and I haven't bothered to try it since the Android app is new. Gmail is terrible. Outlook is Outlook.

Inbox worked in a way that my brain immediately understood and adapted to.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I used Inbox too, and also liked it.

But these gmail features aren't remotely like inbox. They hide the emails behind alternate tabs. Ones you cannot configure yourself. With nearly no indication instead of putting them front and center (but grouped together). They make it harder to see and understand your inbox instead of easier. This post being a perfect example -- tons of people didn't even understand what was going on because of how awful the feature is.

Inbox was killed and its main features lost with it. They were not folded into gmail.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

What I do is I create rules with which I tag emails and auto archive them. This moves them to "folders" in a way I decide and removes them from the inbox. They all are still in the all mail tab.

I also archive all the mail after processing it so that "clear the inbox" feeling that Inbox had is not lost.

I still prefer Inbox to Gmail but I emulated all the features I used.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I didn't even try it because I knew Google would kill it later like other products.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's weird, I feel like it does improve my experience. I like how it categorizes my emails.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, there's like three tabs there I don't need to look at.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

You can turn on and off tabs. But if you turn them on, you're going to get ads.

I've been getting these ads for months now, and am slowly working on moving to proton/k9. I imgine it's going to suck getting similar filters set up for my mail, though.

2023 is easily the worst year in the history of the internet, every big company can go fuck itself imo

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Never noticed an ad in the Primary tab. They appear in the others. I genuinely never look there as it's just three extra tabs of spam I don't need to see.

If any of my wanted email is there, I guess I'll see it when I use the search function. That also doesn't have ads. So far.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Shit I was confused I’ve never seen this, but I assume I am have all that turned off. Still moving away from gmail though. Protonmail, mentioned by someone else, is what im using, but I think having your own domain and just having someone host the data is probably the best bet

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I agree with you 100%. That's what I did. Registered a domain for 10 years, and use the free version of Zoho mail. It may or may not be enough, depending on if you regularly clean your emails or not, since each of the allowed 5 users gets only 5GB of storage space. There are plenty of alternatives out there to do this, all of them with their pros and cons.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Are you kidding? It filters out 90% of my inbox so I don't have to look at it, but keeps it available for me in case I want it later. It's one of my favorite features Gmail.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I've still been using the HTML version on desktop. I just got a notice that it'll be discontinued come 2024. It's actually a nice nudge to de Gmail myself.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yep. It's always the first thing I do with all new gmail accounts. It's garbage.