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Tag: gmail

  • Gmail Turns ‘Promotions’ Tab Into A Visual Shopping Experience

    Google has introduced a new Gmail feature that lets users turn their “Promotions” tab into a more visual, almost Pinteresty shopping experience.

    This is one at least minor improvement to the current state of Gmail for email marketers. The introduction of the Promotions tab and the tabbed interface in general is something a lot of markers have had to struggle with because messages mostly go there to rot. Be honest. How often do you really look at your Promotions tab?

    “Promotional mail has a lot of images, from pictures of snazzy new shoes to photos of that rock-climbing gym you’ve been wanting to try,” product manager Aaron Rothman says in a blog post. “But right now, those images are buried inside your messages—and with only subject lines to go on, it can be a challenge to quickly pick out the deals and offers that interest you most.”

    “Buried” is a good word. Let’s not forget that the images are really buried in the messages which are buried themselves within the Promotions tab.

    “You’ll be able to toggle between the new visual grid view and the standard list view by clicking a button at the top of the tab,” Rothman says.

    Promotions Tab

    The grid view includes infinite scrolling (again, much like Pinterest).

    Gmail uses an algorithm to determine the most relevant image from a message to display, but you can also use markup to specify the image you want to show up. More on this here.

    For now, the feature is only available in a field trial, which you can sign up for here.

    Image via Google

  • Gmail Is Adding An Unsubscribe Link To The Top Of Marketing Emails

    Gmail Is Adding An Unsubscribe Link To The Top Of Marketing Emails

    Google is reportedly adding a new “prominent” unsubscribe link to the top of marketing emails, potentially driving a lot more unsubscribes for businesses. It was announced on Thursday at a conference in San Francisco.

    According to a report from PCWorld, the link will appear at the top of the message next to the name and email address of the sender. In other words, if you put an unsub link at the bottom of your marketing emails, you won’t be making it any less likely that a recipient will unsubscribe, at least in Gmail.

    Many marketers will no doubt see this as another blow from Google, which last year, already made it much less likely that users will even see their emails in the first place. Gmail added a new tabbed inbox style, which includes a Promotions tab, where marketing emails go to never be seen again. Ask Groupon.

    Google says the new unsub link could help businesses, however, by giving users an easy opt-out without reporting the email as spam, which would make it more likely that future emails would appear in users’ spam folders. PCWorld quotes a couple of Googlers:

    “One of the biggest problems with the Gmail spam filter is identifying unwanted mail or soft spam,” said Google’s Vijay Eranti, who heads anti-abuse efforts at Gmail. The issue, he said, is that sometimes customers opt into a company’s send-to list but later decide they don’t want the emails. And if they can’t find the unsubscribe button, sometimes they mark the message as spam.

    …

    “We want our users to not have spam, and we also want you to reach the user,” Elie Bursztein, who leads Google’s anti-abuse research, told conference attendees.

    This week, Google also launched a new search feature in Gmail, enabling users to search by file size:


    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Gmail Bug Led to Inadvertently-Deleted Emails, Spam Reports

    Some Gmail for iOS users just received an important notice from Google urging them to check their trash and spam folders for wrongly-categorized emails.

    According to the Gmail team, some users were affected by a bug that saw trash and report spam actions taken on some messages actually affect other messages. That means that some users may have hit delete on Email A, but actually had Email B or C moved to the trash without their knowledge.

    The bug apparently affected messages received the week of January 15th to the 22nd.

    Here’s the notice that some users received (h/t The Verge):

    You may have been impacted by a recent issue in Gmail that inadvertently caused some actions (e.g. delete, report spam) taken while viewing a message to be applied to a different message. The issue occurred between January 15 and January 22 and is now fixed.

    We encourage you to check your Trash and spam folders before February 14, 2014 for any items you did not intend to delete of mark as spam and move them back to your inbox. We apologize for any inconvenience.

    It’s good the the issue has been resolved, but accidentally-trashed emails could have been the cause of some major headaches over the past couple of weeks.

    As you may recall, Gmail and Google+ were hit with a major outage earlier this week. The outage lasted for about 30 minutes and Google is blaming it a bug that caused an internal system to generate and incorrect configuration.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Gmail Is Down, Guys. Stock Up and Bunker Down

    UPDATE 2:22 pm EST: IT’S BACK! – but with some kinks. Gmail is currently unable to access contacts and Google+ still seems to be down for many users.

    It’s not just you – Gmail is down for users all over the world. Most users who are experiencing the outage are receiving a temporary (500) error:

    “We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is temporarily unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest trying again in a few minutes,” says the message from Google.

    By the Twitter reaction, this one looks to be a pretty significant outage.

    Also down? Google+.

    Sure, this is a problem for a lot of people. But just think, it could be worse…

  • In Case You Missed The Memo, ‘Google+ Is Google (Which Includes Gmail)’

    Google announced a new change to Gmail this week, enabling people to send messages to Google+ users without knowing their email address. If you have a Gmail account and a Google+ account, you can send such messages to other Google+ users, and likewise, other Google+ users can send messages to you. If you let them.

    Of course, the “invasion of privacy” cries were immediate, as were the complaints of Google forcing Google+ on people. And yes, you have to opt out of the functionality. But you can opt out, and Google is sending everybody messages about the change so they’ll be aware.

    Is this the best approach for Google? Maybe not in terms of user annoyance reduction, but it’s probably a small price to pay to further integrate its services with one another. It’s not like Google is just going to let Google+ stagnate and die. They’ve come too far, and detractors should simply accept that by now if they continue to want to use Google products.

    I’m sure that’s not a popular opinion, but it’s reality. If you don’t want to have Google+ forced on you, I’m sure Google’s competitors will be happy to have you. They’re going to keep integrating. They’ve not been shy about it, and they’re not going to stop. “Google+ is Google,” as the company has said more than once. You have to stop looking at it as this outside social network you don’t want to use. That doesn’t mean you have to use it as a social network, but Google’s going to make it available to you one way or another. It’s a feature of Google. Just like Gmail is a feature of Google. And YouTube is a feature of Google. It’s just Google.

    Opt out if you want. It’s pretty easy. Go to Settings in Gmail, then look at the “Email via Google+ setting,” and adjust accordingly. Make sure you hit the Save Changes button. That’s pretty much it. Crisis averted. I haven’t seen the actual emails Google is sending out as it rolls the feature out yet, but it’s supposed to include a link right to the setting.

    For the record, despite what some media reports would have us believe, I’m not seeing near the backlash over this as with the recent YouTube comments change. But really, the problems with that are deeper than simply being Google+-driven.

    Image via Google

  • Now Google+ Users Can Email Gmail Users Without Knowing Their Email Addresses

    Google has added increased Google+ integration into Gmail. When you go to compose a new message, and start typing, it will now bring up Google+ connections as suggestions in addition to your regular contacts. In other words, Google+ connections become contacts regardless of whether you’ve ever exchanged emails.

    This is an extension of previous Google+-related additions to Gmail. About two years ago they added various Google+ elements, like showing information and photos when you exchange emails with people, the ability to share photos, and a connection between contact info and Google+ profiles.

    With the new feature, Google says email addresses will only be shared with the people you want them to be.

    “Your email address isn’t visible to a Google+ connection unless you send that person an email, and likewise, that person’s email address isn’t visible to you unless they send you an email,” says product manager David Nachum.

    Google has introduced a new setting in Gmail that lets you choose who can email you via your Google+ profile. Options include: Anyone on Google+, extended circles, circles and no one.

    When someone in your own circles emails you, the message will appear in the Primary category in Gmail’s recently launched tabbed interface. If they’re not in your circles, the messages will appear in the Social tab (if you have the tabs enabled).

    The feature is rolling out over the next couple days to all Gmail and Google+ users. Google is sending an email to users to let them know about the setting when it’s available.

    It will be interesting to see how users respond to this increased integration. It didn’t sit to well with YouTube users.

    Image via Google

  • Google: Gmail Image Change Means More Accurate Open Rates

    Google announced on Thursday that it would begin showing images automatically in Gmail. It has always hidden them until the user has told it to show them.

    It has done it this way, the company says, as a precautionary measure for users aimed at protecting them from those who might try to use images to compromise security.

    When Google made the announcement, there was some concern from the email marketing industry. The concern was reported in an Ars Technica article , which suggested that email marketers wouldn’t be able to get information from image actions.

    TechCrunch has since reported, after talking to Google, that marketers who track open rates through images will still be able to do so, and that the data might even be more accurate now. User IP data, however, won’t be tracked.

    With Google’s new method, Google serves all images through its own secure proxy servers.

    The feature has already begun rolling out in Gmail on the desktop, and will come to the mobile apps early next year.

    Image: Google

  • Gmail Starts Showing Images Automatically

    It’s the dawn of a new era. Gmail will now show images in emails automatically.

    As Google explains in a blog post, Gmail has historically asked users if they want images to be displayed in emails as a precautionary measure, as “unknown senders might want to try to use images to compromise the security of your computer or mobile device.”

    Gmail has a new way of doing things, serving all images through its own secure proxy servers, so it will now display images automatically on desktop starting today, and in its mobile apps early next year.

    Gmail

    “Your messages are more safe and secure, your images are checked for known viruses or malware, and you’ll never have to press that pesky ‘display images below’ link again,” says product manager John Rae-Grant. “With this new change, your email will now be safer, faster and more beautiful than ever.”

    If you want to still be asked before displaying images, you can turn it back on in the settings. This will continue to be the default for users who previously selected “ask before displaying eternal content.”

    In other Gmail news, Google announced on Wednesday that Gmail on Android now has a vacation responder, attachment support for any file type and the ability to print hard copies of emails (KitKat).


    Image: Google

  • Microsoft Adds New Gmail Import Feature To Outlook.com In Hopes Of Stealing Away Users

    Microsoft announced a new feature for Outlook.com aimed at making it easier for users to import their Gmail accounts. As you may know, much of Microsoft’s “Scroogled” efforts have slung mud at Gmail, in hopes of gaining more Outlook.com users.

    Interestingly enough, there aren’t nearly as many people complaining about Gmail these days as are complaining about Yahoo Mail, despite Gmail also getting design changes recently.

    Microsoft and Yahoo are important partners, of course, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft wouldn’t want to do more to hurt that relationship. It was revealed this week that the “search alliance” between the two companies is responsible for 31% of Yahoo’s revenue.

    Microsoft says that “discontent with Gmail seems to be on the rise.”

    “According to a recent study by market research firm Ipsos, nearly 1 in 4 consumers would switch email providers if it was easier to do,” writes Naoto Sunagawa on the Outlook blog. “That same study also highlighted the areas that customers identified as most important; these include ensuring ads don’t interfere with the email experience (70%), offering advanced spam filters (69%), providing an easy-to-understand user interface (67%), and not scanning the contents of email to serve ads (58%). We have focused on many of these areas with Outlook.com, and so for those looking to make a change in their personal email provider, Outlook.com is a natural choice.”

    “Of course, even if you are frustrated with your current provider, the thought of switching to a new service can seem daunting,” Sunagawa continues. “So we’ve introduced new functionality right into Outlook.com that does the heavy lifting for you. All you need to do is follow a few simple steps to connect your Gmail account (using OAuth) to your Outlook.com account (if you don’t already have one, it’s easy to get). This will import your Gmail emails into your Outlook.com inbox and, because you’ve connected both accounts, your Google contacts will automatically appear in Outlook.com. The structure of your inbox, including read/unread status of your emails, will be preserved. The new tool will even set up your Gmail address as a ‘send-only’ account so you can continue to send email from your @gmail.com address, right from Outlook.com, if you still want to.”

    You can get the step-by-step here.

    The feature will be rolling out over the course of the coming weeks.

    Image: Microsoft

  • Google Adds Data Download Feature To Gmail, Calendar

    Google announced on Thursday that you can now export a copy of your Gmail and Google Calendar data making it easier to back up data or move to another service.

    Users can download all mail and calendars or choose subsets of labels or calendars. You can also download data from Gmail, Calendar, Google+, Youtube, Drive, etc. in a single archive file.

    You can download Calendar data right now, but the ability download Gmail messages will be rolled out over the coming months.

    Google announced some additional Calendar features on Wednesday. They’ve added autocomplete to event creation, and friends you invite can click on “map” to make sure they’re going to the right place. They’ve also added the ability to see relevant events and contacts as you search.

    Google Calendar

    Additionally, event guest lists will now automatically update as people join or leave a Google Group.

    Images: Google

  • Google Launches New Gmail Design On iPad

    Google Launches New Gmail Design On iPad

    Google has launched a new update to its Gmail iOS app with a focus on the iPad screen size. Here’s what it looks like:

    Gmail

    Gmail

    “If you hold your iPad in landscape mode, you’ll immediately notice the new left hand navigation bar, which allows you to quickly switch between inbox categories, or between multiple accounts, with a single tap,” says software engineer Carmen Wilkinson. “To help you get through your email faster, you’ll also see a new message counter for each category.”

    “For those preferring a more focused immersive experience, hold your iPad in portrait mode to get a full screen view of individual messages,” Wilkinson adds.

    There are some cosmetic updates specific to iOS 7 which apply to both the iPad and iPhone.

    Images: Google

  • Google Adds New Drive Integration To Gmail

    Google announced the further integration of Google Drive and Gmail today, with an update to the latter that lets you view and save files directly to Google Drive without actually having to leave Gmail.

    When you receive an email with files attached, you’ll see previews of the files at the bottom of the message. When you click them, you’ll get full-screen views of the images/documents. You can then read, search or browse through them from Gmail itself.

    Google Drive in Gmail

    Gmail

    “You can now also save your attachments directly to Drive simply by clicking the Drive button that appears when you hover over the preview,” notes Scott Johnston, director of product management. “Of course, if you prefer to download the attachment to your computer, you can—just click the arrow button.”

    Gmail

    The feature is rolling out over the course of the next week.

    On a side note, Google says that Google Drive has 120 million active users.

    Images: Google

  • Gmail Gets More Quick Action Buttons

    Earlier this year, Google added quick action buttons in Gmail. They appear on messages in the inbox, and allow users to take action on them without even having to open them.

    Initial examples included things like checking in for flights, responding to event invites, reviews, confirming registrations, etc.

    Today, Google announced that it has added more types of quick actions.

    “For example, you can rate and review restaurants you ordered from on Seamless and even modify OpenTable reservations—all without opening an email,” writes Google’s Claudio Cherubino in a blog post. “And for the deal lovers out there, you can conveniently save a promotion from Google Offers with one click, making it easy to find and buy it when you’re ready.”

    “If you’re an avid uploader of YouTube and Vimeo videos, you can view finished uploads with a single click with the new ‘View video’ button,” Cherubino adds. “Similarly, you can also speedily open a Dropbox folder or Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides that have been shared with you.”

    Gmail quick actions

    Gmail Gets more quick actions

    For documentation on how to add this stuff to your own emails, go here. Google says it will be adding more types of actions.

    Images: Google

  • Google Adds Handwriting Support To Gmail, Docs

    Google announced today that it has added handwriting input support to Gmail and Google Docs. You can now input words directly into Gmail and Google Docs with your mouse or trackpad.

    First, you’ll need to enable input tools in Gmail or in Docs, and then select the handwriting input (which is shown with a pencil icon) of the language you wish to use.

    Handwriting

    “Handwriting input makes the internet easier to use by people worldwide and is also part of a larger effort to break the barrier between languages,” says Google product manager Xiangye Xiao.

    The feature will let you write single or multiple characters at a time in the panel , so you can see them in your message or document.

    The feature is available for over 20 languages in Google Docs and for over 50 in Gmail.

    Images: Google

  • WashPost: NSA is Collecting Your Friends Lists

    According to the Washington Post‘s latest documents provided by ex-contractor Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency routinely “harvests” the contact lists from email accounts, social media accounts, and instant messengers, some of which belong to American citizens.

    This is the first revelation of any kind of metadata surveillance that intercepts address books and “buddy lists.” The data is intercepted as the platforms carrying the emails and instant messages move between global data links, such as when a message is sent or when a user logs in or out.

    The collection of contact lists does not target any individual users; instead, the NSA targets a percentage of the global population’s internet accounts, and then analyzes collected data to see hidden connections and draw a map of relationships in a fraction of the time it would take without the internet.

    The NSA’s buddy list collection program nets half a million buddy lists per day from live messenger services and from the inboxes of web-based emails. In a single day in 2012, the NSA harvested 444,743 Yahoo contact lists, 105,068 Hotmail contact lists, 82,857 Facebook friend lists, 33,697 Gmail contact lists, and 22,881 from other providers. These figures are described by the NSA document as also being a typical daily intake.

    In an attempt to reassure Americans that their online life is not tracked by NSA computers, spokesman Shawn Turner for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (which oversees the NSA) told the Washington Post that “[The NSA] is focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets like terrorists, human traffickers and drug smugglers. We are not interested in personal information about ordinary Americans. [Attorney General Eric Holder has stipulated that the NSA must] minimize the acquisition, use and dissemination [of data that I.D.’s Americans].”

    It was revealed in June that the NSA scrapes nearly every U.S. call record in a different data analysis program, but NSA czar Keith B. Alexander defended the bulk collection of such data when he said “You need the haystack to find the needle.”

    If you want to read the full WashPost story, you can find it here.

    [Image via NSA.gov]

  • Judge Says Gmail Might Be Breaking The Law

    Google continues to battle a class action lawsuit filed in may, claiming that the company is violating laws when it “opens” and “reads” emails. Earlier this month, Google asked a judge to dismiss the suit, but that didn’t happen.

    This week, a judge reportedly found that Google may indeed be violating California wiretapping laws.

    As you may know, Gmail scans users’ email messages in order to serve targeted ads. It has always done this, and Google has always been pretty clear about it. The company does not have humans reading emails. It’s all done algorithmically (at least as far as anyone knows).

    Gmail has carried on this way for about a decade. Earlier this year, Microsoft in an effort to promote its competing email product, started a campaign playing Google’s “invasion of privacy” up as an issue, as though it was something people did not know about. Perhaps it worked, because the suit was filed a few months later.

    Wired has some quotes from the judge:

    “Accordingly, the statutory scheme suggests that Congress did not intend to allow electronic communication service providers unlimited leeway to engage in any interception that would benefit their business models, as Google contends. In fact, this statutory provision would be superfluous if the ordinary course of business exception were as broad as Google suggests,” Judge Koh wrote.

    …

    “Google further contends that because of the way that email operates, even non-Gmail users knew that their emails would be intercepted, and accordingly that non-Gmail users impliedly consented to the interception. Therefore, Google argues that in all communications, both parties — regardless of whether they are Gmail users — have consented to the reading of emails. The Court rejects Google’s contentions with respect to both explicit and implied consent. Rather, the Court finds that it cannot conclude that any party — Gmail users or non-Gmail users — has consented to Google’s reading of email for the purposes of creating user profiles or providing targeted advertising. Google points to its Terms of Service and Privacy Policies, to which all Gmail and Google Apps users agreed, to contend that these users explicitly consented to the interceptions at issue. The Court finds, however, that those policies did not explicitly notify Plaintiffs that Google would intercept users’ emails for the purposes of creating user profiles or providing targeted advertising.”

    They also share the following statement from Google:

    Google said in a statement that it was “disappointed” with the ruling and was considering its legal options. “Automated scanning lets us provide Gmail users with security and spam protection, as well as great features like Priority inbox,” the company said.

    Google will likely try to appeal, but has to jump through some legal hoops to do so.

    Frequent Google critic Consumer Watchdog is thrilled with the judge’s words.

    “This is a historic step for holding Internet communications subject to the same privacy laws that exist in the rest of society. The court rightly rejected Google’s tortured logic that you have to accept intrusions of privacy if you want to send email,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project Director. “The ruling means federal and state wiretap laws apply to the Internet. It’s a tremendous victory for online privacy. Companies like Google can’t simply do whatever they want with our data and emails.”

    You can read the decison here.

    Image: Google

  • Gmail Disruption Affected 29% of All Messages, Google Apologizes

    Google is apologizing for Monday’s Gmail service disruption, which they say affected 29% of all message sent during the period. During the disruption, messages were slow to deliver and some users had an issue downloading attachments.

    Google first reported the issue at 10:25 am EST Monday, and did not fully resolve it until 10:00 pm.

    According to the company, most of the delayed messages weren’t really delayed for that long – an average time of just 2.6 seconds. But some users suffered a greater headache:

    The impact on users’ Gmail experience varied widely. Most messages were unaffected—71% of messages had no delay, and of the remaining 29%, the average delivery delay was just 2.6 seconds. However, about 1.5% of messages were delayed more than two hours. Users who attempted to download large attachments on affected messages encountered errors. Throughout the event, Gmail remained otherwise available — users could log in, read messages which had been delivered, send mail, and access other features.

    “We’d like to start by apologizing – we realize that our users rely on Gmail to be always available and always fast, and for several hours we didn’t deliver,” says Sabrina Farmer, Gmail’s Senior Site Reliability Engineering Manager.

    “Our top priority is ensuring that Gmail users get the experience they expect: fast, highly-available email, anytime they want it. We’re taking steps to ensure that there is sufficient network capacity, including backup capacity for Gmail, even in the event of a rare dual network failure. We also plan to make changes to make Gmail message delivery more resilient to a network capacity shortfall in the unlikely event that one occurs in the future.”

    A Gmail outage is always a big deal, and it’s a giant frustration when it happens at the start of a work week. For the most part, Gmail’s disruption was limited to a small portion of messages. At the time, Google also reported problems with Google Docs and Google presentations – both of which are now up and running smoothly.

    Image via Google

  • Gmail Suffers Service Disruption Affecting Small Portion of Users

    If you’re experience issues with Gmail, it’s probably not your fault. Google has confirmed that the service is suffering a small “disruption” that is affecting a small portion of users.

    Google first reported the service disruption at 10:25 am EST on Monday, saying that they were investigating reports of an outage. At 11:45 am EST, Google said that “the delivery of some messages is being delayed and attachments may fail to download.”

    They also said that it was affecting only 0.024% of the Gmail user base, but judging by the reaction on Twitter is may be a little more widespread than that.

    Either way, Google says that they’re on it.

    According to the Google Apps Dashboard, both Google Docs and Google Presentations are also experiencing a service disruption.

    Well, not exactly. But it does make things a bit more difficult. Happy Monday, everyone.

  • Gmail Gets Update On Feature Phones

    Gmail Gets Update On Feature Phones

    Google announced on Monday that it has updated Gmail for feature phone browsers with a new look. Here’s that look:

    Gmail Feature Phone

    “People use all sorts of devices to access Gmail: their web browser, smartphone, tablet and, in many parts of the world, their feature phone,” says product manager Ari Bezman. “For those of you who use a feature phone to access Gmail on the go, starting today you’re getting a brand new look that’s faster and easier to use.”

    “You’ll get a number of improvements that reduce the number of button presses required to read, reply and compose emails,” he says. “For example, you can reply directly to a message from the thread view, you can choose to move to the previous or next conversation, and much more.”

    Google has been making a lot of changes to Gmail in general lately. I’m sure you’ll recall the launch of the new tabbed interface and the new compose box. Some of these changes have been frustrating to users.

    I don’t anticipate we’ll be seeing much of a backlash about the new feature phone update. Frankly, it’s just nice to see Google isn’t totally ignoring this part of the market, which is still substantial.

  • Google Continues To Defend Its Decade-Long Gmail Privacy Stance In Court

    Remember that decade when people were using Gmail, and not caring about Google algorithmically scanning messages and delivering ads based on them? It recently ended when Microsoft launched a campaign to promote its competing webmail product and trying to scare Gmail users into thinking that Google is snooping on their private emails.

    Then, in May, a class action lawsuit was filed against Google, claiming the company is violating laws when it “opens” and “reads” emails.

    This week, Google is asking a judge to dismiss the suit. Frequent Google privacy critic Consumer Watchdog shares Google’s motion (pdf), which says:

    This case involves Plaintiffs’ effort to criminalize ordinary business practices that have been part of Google’s free Gmail service since it was introduced nearly a decade ago. While Plaintiffs are differently situated (some are Gmail users; others are non-Gmail users who exchange emails with Gmail users), their claims boil down to the same core allegation: that Google commits an illegal “interception” when it applies automated (non-human) scanning to emails involving Gmail users even though the processes at issue are a standard and fully- disclosed part the Gmail service. This claim fails as matter of law for multiple reasons.

    First, all of the federal and state wiretap laws at issue specifically exempt ECS providers from liability based on conduct in their ordinary course of business. These protections reflect the reality that ECS providers like Google must scan the emails sent to and from their systems as part of providing their services. While Plaintiffs go to great lengths to portray Google in a sinister light, the Complaint actually confirms that the automated processes at issue are Google’s ordinary business practices implemented as part of providing the free Gmail service to the public. This is fatal to Plaintiffs’ claims.

    Second, the wiretap statutes also preclude liability where either a single party to the communication (for the federal statute) or both parties (for the state statutes) have expressly or impliedly consented to the practices at issue. Here, all Plaintiffs who are Gmail users consented to the automated scanning of their emails (including for purposes of delivering targeted advertising) in exchange for using the Gmail service, thus precluding any claim under federal law. Moreover, multiple courts have held that all email senders impliedly consent to the processing of their emails by virtue of the fact that email cannot be sent or delivered without some form of electronic processing. This combination of express and implied consent bars Plaintiffs’ claims in their entirety, under both the federal and state wiretap statutes.

    Third, the CIPA claim brought by certain Plaintiffs is even farther afield than the wiretapping claims above because CIPA does not apply to emails at all, as confirmed by both the express terms and legislative history of the statute. In fact, the California Legislature specifically considered and rejected proposals to expand the statute to cover emails. And even if CIPA could be interpreted to cover emails, both implied consent and choice of law rules would preclude the CIPA Plaintiffs from relying on the statute. As residents of Alabama and Maryland whose emails have no alleged connection to California, these Plaintiffs cannot invoke the protections of California law and bypass the laws of the states in which they reside simply because they want to avoid the requirements and limitations of their local laws.

    Last, Plaintiffs’ claims should be rejected because they would lead to anomalous results with far-ranging consequences beyond the allegations in the Complaint. Plaintiffs’ theory–that any scanning of email content by ECS providers is illegal–would effectively criminalize routine practices that are an everyday aspect of using email. Indeed, Plaintiffs’ effort to carve out spam filtering and virus detection from their claims underscores the fact that their theory of liability would otherwise encompass these common services that email users depend on. Notwithstanding these limited carve-outs, Plaintiffs’ theory would still sweep up a host of common features that benefit consumers. For example, Plaintiffs’ theory of liability would prevent ECS providers from providing features that allow users to sort their emails using automated filters or even to search their emails for specific words—because these features necessarily involve the scanning of email content and would thus be an illegal “interception” under Plaintiffs’ theory. The Court should not allow the Complaint to proceed on this sweeping basis.

    Consumer Watchdog has singled out one quote from Google’s motion, where it says, “”Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient’s [email provider] in the course of delivery. Indeed, ‘a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.’”

    Consumer Wathdog’s Jamie Court says, “When Consumer Watchdog released the statements to the public, Google caught quite a backlash because, apparently, the public does expect it has a right to privacy in its email communications.”

    A hearing is scheduled for today, which will determine whether the case gets dismissed or not.

    Image: Google

  • Do Users And Businesses Have Legitimate Gripes With Gmail?

    Google is making waves with Gmail a lot these days for a variety of reasons, and this week, users are freaking out about something the company said in a court document regarding email privacy. Combine that with the new compose box that is getting people riled up, and the recently launched tabbed interface, and a lot of people are finding new reasons not to like Gmail.

    Have any of these events influenced your thoughts about Gmail as a user or as a business? Let us know in the comments.

    Privacy

    A 39-page court document (via TheVerge) has Google saying:

    Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient’s [email provider] in the course of delivery. Indeed, “a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.”

    On the surface, this may look like Google is saying that Gmail users shouldn’t expect privacy, but this quote that has drawn so much attention is actually in a section about “non-Gmail plaintiffs”.

    But that hasn’t stopped some from running wild with the story. Frequent Google privacy critic Consumer Watchdog, for example, put out a press release under the headline, “Google Tells Court You Cannot Expect Privacy When Sending Messages to Gmail — People Who Care About Privacy Should Not Use Service, Consumer Watchdog Says.”

    Consumer Watchdog says.

    Even The Daily Show managed to get in a jab, saying on its Facebook Page:

    TDS Breaking News: Google: “Gmail users can’t legitimately expect privacy.” Just like Google can’t legitimately expect us to use Google+.

    Even if there is no real issue here, perception is a whole different story. And it probably doesn’t help Google that this also follows a recent marketing campaign from Microsoft designed to create unease with Gmail’s privacy policy, not to mention the whole PRISM thing. People aren’t exactly trusting of big companies when it comes to privacy these days.

    The Compose Box

    But this whole privacy discussion is really only one part of the current backlash against Gmail, and the others are very real things that Google has implemented for better or worse.

    Back in October, Google began testing its new compose box. In March, Google began rolling it out to everyone, though it was still optional. This week, the company announced that it will no longer be optional. Users are going to need to get used to it.

    The problem is that a lot of users aren’t getting used to it. In fact, a lot of users just downright hate it. Personally, I don’t really see the big deal, but people have been quite vocal about it in comments on our coverage of the feature since it rolled out.

    There have been quite a few comments like, “new gmail compose is absolutely terrible” and “Absolutely the worst interface ever.”

    Again, I just don’t see it, but clearly a lot of people agree with these.

    Google has even gone so far as to provide users with the option to make the compose box full screen, but users still aren’t into it.

    New Gmail Compose Box

    “Now that that option is available, we’re saying farewell to the old compose and switching everyone to the new compose over the next few days. The new compose opens drafts as a minimizable window so you can write multiple drafts at once, keep an eye on incoming email, adds support for inline images and much more,” says Google in a Gmail Google+ post.

    A more recent comment, which again, is after the inclusion of the full-screen option, says:

    Everything is hidden and needs more clicks. It reminds me strongly of MS Vista. Sure it had improvements but many things were buried under more clicks and more mouse movement. I hope Google comes to their senses quickly. Or maybe everyone in their management uses tablets for 90% of their work now and they are out of touch with people who use a mouse and keyboard with a “real” computer.

    So frustrating. I can’t remember ever feeling the urge to find an alternative to gmail before but I definitely felt it today. No, I probably won’t switch, but that’s only due to the hassle of it…

    More comments like these continue to roll in even as I write this.

    Finally, the new tabbed interface.

    This one is easily fixable if you don’t like it. You can adjust the settings to basically make your inbox look the way it used to. I haven’t seen quite the amount of online backlash over this as I have over the compose box, and that’s probably why. Most of the people I have talked to about the interface immediately adjusted their settings to revert back to the old style as soon as the new one was thrust upon them. I’m still using the old style on one account and the new one on another (personal/work). I honestly haven’t made up my mind on which I prefer.

    Regardless of what users think about, it does present some new things for businesses to think about in terms of getting their email messages viewed by consumers (yes, consumers who have opted to receive such messages).

    It’s still early, but there is some research out there, and it’s actually not so bad for businesses. The good news is that those who were already engaging with marketing emails are doing so more with the new interface.

    Last week, we looked at research from Return Path, which showed that users who are “routinely engaged” with marketing email are reading a slightly higher percentage of their marketing email now – an increase of 2.11%.

    On the flip side, the study found that read rates have dropped to around 10% for Gmail users who have had a “medium engagement” level with marketing email (which makes up 88% of all Gmail users, according to the firm). Those with the lowest engagement level read far fewer marketing messages dropping from 2% to 0.4%.

    Engagement levels in gmail interface

    Again, this is early research, and we don’t know how many users are actually using the new tabs. It’s still something marketers are going to have to show some level of concern about.

    Reality

    When it comes to redesigns, new features or any other issues with online services, the disgruntled ones are always the most vocal, so regardless of how many complaints there are about any of these things, it’s not necessarily an indication that Gmail is going to lose many users.

    It’s hard to say if any of this will lead to any significant change in webmail market share, but competitor Yahoo is having a hard enough time keeping users happy itself. Perhaps Microsoft does have something to gain.

    Are you concerned about Gmail privacy? Do you like the new compose box? How about the new tabbed interface? Are any of these things making you rethink your Gmail use, or how you conduct your email marketing? Let us know in the comments.