Lifehacker points out a new feature in Gmail:
Gmail now includes the complicated, killer feature we've been waiting almost 2 years for: a button that deletes messages with one click.Down with that damnable dropdown, I say! Google has now single-handedly saved a generation from RSI. Generous of them, no?
I've always thought that the lack of a delete button in Gmail was similar to Apple's historical resistance to two-button mice or their decision to not offer floppy drives in the iMac: An attempt to force users to rethink a whole section of their philosophy about what it means to use a computer. (And, like Apple's decision, destined to be much maligned.) One of Gmail's main philosophical tenets was that your email should be a huge, freely searchable, complete archive. You weren't supposed to delete things. The generous storage quota meant never having to say, "Damn, I must have deleted that message from six months ago that I thought I wasn't going to need." It was all there, forever, just on the off chance you needed it.
Of course, most users weren't ready to buy into that, for a variety of reasons. First, it went against their experiences with other email clients, where permanently deleting unimportant messages was the norm. Second, having those old (apparently useless) messages hanging around, even when they're tucked away in a seldom-used folder, just seemed messy and disorganized, like an ever-growing closet of useless things that hid behind a bulging door.
I think eventually users will get used to the idea of relatively limitless storage, and the idea that lack of organization isn't necessarily a bad thing. This last notion is based on equating virtual organization—including things like freeform tagging—with physical organization. It's not necessarily a bad thing that my email archives aren't ordered in the same way I'd order a physical space such as a storage closet. (Well, actually, my real-world storage spaces are about as organized as my Gmail archives, but that's a separate issue.)
[via Lifehacker]
Posted by johndanseven at January 20, 2006 11:39 AM