Google tells me to be on the lookout for a better Google+ notification experience in email in the next week.
And by “email” they mean Gmail. And by “better” they mean more precious email real estate given up to a service that I don’t use. And by “to users who’ve upgraded to Google+” they mean everyone, since you can’t seem to get rid of Google+ no matter what you do.
Yay.
Great products are not forced on users. Google’s a little more like Microsoft every day.
Thank God for IMAP.
Uncrunched 
Exactly how I feel about Google+. Some of my friends promised they would never return to FB. Slowly they have crept back.
Shhh! They might do something stupid with IMAP too – then we will get fresh deliveries of the Scoble network- in our Inbox!
why wont you be assimilated? resistance is apparently futile 😦
If you have email notifications set ‘off’ for all G+ activities, you’ll never see a thing. 😉
No idea if it’s on by default though. Can’t remember.
Great now my inbox is full of all these comments. What was I thinking!!??
Fucking notifications. Urgh.
(unchecks box)
What’s the point in using Gmail if you’re going to use it through an IMAP client?
Free, reliable, email server for your domain
Or, you have to use Gmail because the company you work for uses Google Apps, including for email.
Normally I agree with you but from what I can tell here the only change coming is that instead of getting a G+ notification e-mail where you are forced to click a link to interact, you can now interact directly from within the Gmail message itself.
That seems like a no-brainer to me, although I too am not using G+ at the moment, so the feature wouldn’t benefit me very much.
Other than that though, I don’t see how they are forcing anything on you with this update thats new. The Circles piece was already there. Really this is an attempt to get people who won’t use G+ to interact with the users using G+ that they still get notifications for.
Maybe I missed something, but thats all it appears to be to me, and I’m usually the first to not be happy with Google forcing something on its users.
Google’s not even LIKE MICROSOFT!!!
My dad always used to say “Better the devil you know” which is now Microsoft for us. We switched to Office 365 a couple months ago after several accidental doc shares and “Google Plus” mishaps.
Google was so close to that “perfect dream” especially with androids tight integration to all google services. They are like that hot guy at the bar that stares too long without saying anything, who then becomes the creepy guy at the bar.
🙂 Awesome comparison.
That bad huh? Sorry but people complaining about this are sort of pathetic. Just like with Facebook, GO TURN OFF YOUR NOTIFICATIONS. Not that hard. Also, you seem to think that this is “more precious email real estate given up to a service that I don’t use”, but if you were already getting notifications and were too unwilling to turn them off, then this won’t take up any more space it will just allow for more interaction if you so choose. The only change is the ability to use a follow button and comment in the post just like on Google+. Oh and to delete a Google+ account is only a three step process. – Click on your picture > Click on Account > Scroll to the bottom and click on the “Delete profile and remove associated Google+ features”
So, don’t rant just to make a point if the point is pointless. Stop being lazy, look back and try to see the big picture of what Google is trying to accomplish and do some real reporting like you used to do and not just ranting.
Serious tech analysts have slightly more perspective on what Google is. Or better yet what Google+ is. Gmail is Google+. So is Talk, so is Voice, so is Calendar, Picasa, Contacts, Hangouts, Places, Maps, etc.
Sorry but people complaining about this are sort of pathetic. Just like with Facebook, JUST DON’T COME TO MY BLOG
Too bad. Seems like you mean if there are people who don’t agree with something you say, they must stop coming to your blog or stop opposing your thoughts.
Not the kind of guy I thought you were.
or you could compare my comment to the original comment’s second sentence.
Nice comeback. The difference is that in your case nothing actually changed to disrupt your experience with the service. You received the same notifications, you had the same opportunity to turn them off, and you experienced no increase in distraction in your inbox.
In my case, I consistently come to this blog and your past writings for experienced, informed, and entertaining analysis and reporting. In this case, something drastically changed. You report neither demonstrated experience with Google+, a well informed understanding of how the service works, or any sophisticated analysis of the industry at large (you simply used this as a reason to blast Google as being “like Microsoft. Really?). It was, however, entertaining. I’ll give you that. Just really uninformed.
So, see the difference now? I’ll keep coming to your blog because you still have a very good track record for awesome reporting and entertaining commentary. This was a momentary lapse I assume and I honestly really appreciate you and what you do. In this case though, I’m a fan of Google+, love this integration with Gmail, and couldn’t believe how far off you were on this. And frankly, I’m really sick of people not taking the time to understand the direction of the most influential software and internet service company in the past decade. It’s getting kind of pathetic.
+1 🙂
Love how there is a G+ share button at the end of that rant. (agree with you though)
If you have your G+ notifications turned off, this shouldn’t effect you.
I love Google+ and use it all the time, but my email notifications are off so I don’t expect to see any changes as a result of this.
Mike – I think with Windows Phone, Azure, Kinnect, Xbox and the like, Microsoft is slowly changing it’s ways. NodeJS essentially being a first class citizen on Azure is not something I would have seen 5 or 10 years ago. Heck, even Bing is less cluttered than Google search (though I still use the latter (when not using duckduckgo).
It seems like the older coming is changing it’s stripes while the younger is following the path the older previously went down.
“Great products are not forced on users.”
Not sure if that’s entirely true. For example, the myriad changes made to facebook over the years that have kicked up user protest, which died down within a week when everyone realised that the huge change actually made things easier or better.
Google see G+ as a new feature, not a seperate product. So this is like Facebook forcing everyone to use the new timeline feature. It’s just a new feature.
This is precisely right. I think it is better to state it that everything outside of Google search is now part of Google(+) more.
Google+ Picasa, Voice, Docs, Contacts, Talk, Video Chat, Blogger, Android, Gmail, Calendar, Contact Groups, Youtube, Games, Social Search, User Identity and Profiles, Commenting, News, Books, Offers, Latitude, Maps AND Places, and any other service that is ancillary to their original product but still part of their mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.
That mission used to just cover all of the worlds indexed websites and then spread to books and maps, and now is moving into our personal lives to help us organize our photos, conversations, books, news, offers, location and make that information universally accessible via the web anytime we want it. THAT is a huge vision and one that I’m particularly excited about. I already love the fact that the information I share is now searchable, indexed, and that my photos are uploaded instantly where they won’t be lost unless Armageddon comes. That is a valuable service that millions of people use every day and that is Google+(more).
Google+ is not a separate product, it is a social extension to Google’s existing products, hence the name Google+. That is the way Google has seen it from the beginning and that is what they’re actively doing with it, so get used to it.
Actually you can delete your G+ profile and still use most other Google services including Gmail
http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1044503
Reblogged this on The Utah Progressive and commented:
Been saying this along time now : ” Google’s a little more like Microsoft every day”
I totally agree with you. You should remove that G+1 button if you hate it that much though. Just a thought.
Now that Facebook is everyone’s darling Google is beaten up. You should do a post on this Google hatred. People are seeing enemies where they want to see them.
Google should be careful to not taint their brand with Google+ too much. Yes, I know the social network is used in some, uh, circles… But it’s not overly popular at all, and they want that unpopular idea to consume space and attention in their popular products. I hope they realize the risks that holds, not just for Gmail or whatever is being integrated, but for the Google brand itself.
Being obnoxious is the opposite of what Google is known for.
So this is uncharted territory for their image, and I hope the confidence and inexperience won’t cause them to hit an iceberg like Titanic. They did for the very same reasons.
I think you missed a small phrase “You can also reply to notifications from your mobile device (and/or POP or IMAP client).” You can get it in IMAP too! 🙂
https://www.google.com/settings/plus
I love G+, it’s the central tenet of my online experience. But I don’t want G+ notifications in my inbox, so I turned them off at that link. It’s very simple, Mike.
What I really want is Gmail to be rolled entirely into G+ in a way that mimics the more casual conversation style of Wave (w/out the realtime keystroke entry etc), because I’m completely sick of email in its current form. It feels so antiquated and slow. Nothing beats the G+ identity system for me. Roll Gmail into it in a way that makes sense, and I’ll be very happy.
https://www.google.com/settings/plus
I love G+, it’s the central tenet of my online experience. But I don’t want G+ notifications in my inbox, so I turned them off at that link. It’s very simple, Mike.
What I really want is Gmail to be rolled entirely into G+ in a way that mimics the more casual conversation style of Wave (w/out the realtime keystroke entry etc), because I’m completely sick of email in its current form. It feels so antiquated and slow. Nothing beats the G+ identity system for me. Roll Gmail into it in a way that makes sense, and I’ll be very happy.
I fail to see how this gives up any “more precious email real estate.” It only affects how the body of notification emails is displayed. You can turn such emails off, or not get them in the first place if you’re not using G+.
Google is not like Microsoft… Microsoft is better behaved in the community, has an improved focus on startups, and is a much better corporate citizen than Google (even in Silicon Valley).
I’m missing how/why this is a bad thing. I dislike getting notifications I can’t reply to directly. It seems they fixed this.
More fake outrage or just plain failure to think about what’s happening. Let me break it down:
1) If you were not a G+ user already, this change makes no difference to you
2) If you were a G+ user and had email notifications turned off, this change makes no difference to you
3) If you were a G+ user and had email notifications turned on, then your GMail inbox was already getting cluttered with notifications, this change does not increase or decrease
4) What this chance does is simple. When you view a G+ email notification, the UI is prettier, and you can respond to it inline instead of clicking a link to launch a new tab.
See, it’s not that hard Mike, unless you are itching to write Google bashing pieces and jump the gun before actually bothering to think about it.