Priceless quote, but I’m starting to wear thin…

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Migrating Outlook to Gmail is a bad idea - simply because the user interface in Gmail is a real piece of crap. We just need to fix what he has.

Thanks,

(Name Removed)

Of course there’s truth in that quote, but it’s not the gmail UI crappy part (Outlook is just as crappy), it’s the part about fixing what people use because that’s what they chose to use. Welcome to Web 2.0, the post-modern internet. If I like Gmail, I should be able to use Gmail. Every web app I use should work with my browser of choice, my OS of choice, and my hardware of choice. If it doesn’t, it’s broken.

Also, Gmail is not an Outluck Outlook replacement. Gmail is a simplified, pared-down email client. We don’t use Gmail because we want Outlook features, if we wanted Outluck features we’d use Outlook with our gmail. In fact, some of us use Gmail BECAUSE it’s a web app, and has features Outlook doesn’t like attachment previews. In gmail I can open that virus-filled Word document someone sent me right in my browser window, no need to wait 15 seconds for Microsoft Office to start up. Same with powerpoint files and even PDFs.

I’ve used lots of email apps. Apple Mail, Outlook Express, Eudora, Pegasus, Thunderbird, Outlook and more. None have been as easy to use, flexible, and convenient as Gmail. Say what you will about the UI, it works fantastically. I’m interested in Google taking Gmail out of beta, polishing the UI a bit, allowing sub-labels, a preview pane and offline editing. Gmail’s not perfect, but neither is Outlook; if anything I’d have to say Thunderbird is the most impressive and flexible full-featured email app out there.

This is just one of the many recent events at work that have been really getting me down. Stuff like this just discourages and demotivates me. We were so progressive, so hip, so flexible and savvy just a year ago. I guess when you’re successful you get bigger, and bigger companies can’t afford to use Web apps and Macs…[/sarcasm]. If it acts like a big company, what’s the point in working for a small company? Where are the small company perks like Wii Wednesdays, beer thirty, stock options that flow like wine, the hip progressive semi-celebrity board, bonuses, green programs, cool computer hardware, iPhones for employees, etc? What happened to Web 2.0?