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Gmail for Android received a really nice update last week. It came with an awesome card style UI, but there is much more hiding behind that beautiful style. Google has also included some coding into Gmail v4.6 that will not make many of you happy, because it seems the app will be getting ads very soon.
The app has managed to stay ad-less until now, but we must realize Google lives off advertising. It’s the main reason why we get most of their services for free (or very cheap). They have other sources of income and we can’t blame them, right? I don’t think most of us would rather pay for Gmail than have to look at some ads.
So, let’s go into how it is going to work. We are not exactly sure how Google plans to implement these ads (or if they will at all), but there is a very interesting feature in the code. It seems we will be able to save ads for later viewing. It will be some kind of archiving feature.
In a way, this makes sense for advertising. One many times runs across a cool ad for a great product, but it goes away after you close the page. Later you remember and want to check it out, except the ad is a bit hard to come by again. Don’t know the brand or model? That’s it… it’s gone. With this feature you will be able to save it and go back to your deals when ready.
The coding looks to be almost ready, so it’s just a matter of Google deciding what they want to do. Will they flip the switch on? Will they keep Gmail ad-less? What do you think?
[via Electronista]
There’s no reason to put ads in our Gmail app other than greed. Ridiculous Google. Normally I agree with what you do, but not this.
Greed? They offer you a free service, they can do what they want.
Me personally, I am opting not to use the app.
They get plenty of revenue from their search engine and Android itself. No need to clog up a good app with more advertising.
The servers that store your emails cost money. App development costs money. Those are very good reasons to try to make that money back.
Free service :-/ They neglect to tell you when you buy the $600+ phone that your services are free and you’re really just buying a portable advertisement.
How about people paying for google apps email? Will we also be subject to ads despite paying for the service?
There are alternative email clients for the android. Most phones come with their own integrated services that are not tied to Google.
Google apps is an ad optional service for paying accounts. You can turn them on or off for the domain.
They have to monetize, or they aren’t a business for long. It’ll matter how intrusive they are.
Fine. What about a paid version for those of us with a zero tolerance policy towards ads?
Yes please, i’d pay pretty penny to not see advertisements or use up my data to download the ads.
I have yet to receive the last update.
Yup, no update here In Mexico yet to be pushed to the Play Store.
i’m sure there is an apk somewhere
Hey Google guess what? Ads in my Gmail app will never have me visit or have me buying anything. Just a heads up.
sadly, that’s not the point. it’s the fact that other companies are willing to pay big G lucrative amounts to get that crap in front of you.
Also to consider, someone is clicking on that s***
I don’t see how they get actual unique page views from this. I guess just having *insert ad* right in your face is enough for them to pay.
The advertisers can track ad clicks against metrics such as revenue from a shopping cart, signups for a service, or requests for more information. The ads certainly deliver on both brand awareness and revenue generation.
Google is the ad agency, if no one click then they have no metrics on that. But of course as we know they scan our email anyway so we don’t have to click any more. Me personally I’ll never buy anything from an ad that shows up in my email.
Yea i never click on anything either, but thats not the point, its just that they are getting them seen and some people do click on them, prob a lot of people. Even me from time to time from an inaccurate touch.
Yeah.. I’m not happy about this. I hope there will be modified versions of the app in the wild.
Speaking of the Gmail app. Why don’t I have the option for social, promotions or that other choice? I only have the choice between priority or regular separation. But I have the other options on my other Gmail account. One I rarely use.
as long as the ads aren’t intrusive. I don’t care.
What if it’s disguised as an email in your inbox? O_o
That would suck and blow at the same time >.<
Yeah, kinda like what Facebook does. Not real happy about, so I don’t really read FB much anymore…. Just wait for notifications or when peeps tell me to go find something.
That’s how I imagined it. And it’s not like it you can block them and report their spam lol.
That’s how the Yahoo! mail app does it. Annoys the hell out of me, the first email in the inbox is always and advertisement.
I’m hoping that it will be a small banner like what Phandroid has in their app.
I already get so much spam. I eventually just blacklisted the word “unsubscribe” and now I get almost none. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it a long time ago
I still never received the update
Maybe along the bottom of the screen like a ticker ? I wouldnt care, ads are a part of society anyways.
You can always use adaway to remove the ads
They already read our emails what more do they want
Archiving ads?! Omg just what I always wanted. I wish TV’s would let me archive my commercials too… said no one, ever.
Not entirely true. The ones for the Superbowl are usually kept for a while. There used to be sites dedicated to gathering commercials such as the SB ones that people wanted to watch…. However I do not expect that this will be the case with regular Android adds.
Because its Google, I don’t mind (as long as its not in my %@!$ notifications). Google offers so many amazing services, for free, that I cant help but want to throw them some money from time to time. Example: All Access isn’t exactly an innovative service but I wouldn’t pay any other company for music. Why? Because it integrates so well with all the other things Google offers (for free) and I use.
you are delusional if you think some ads are cool. I will stop using the gmail app. I’ll pay for an app, but I do not do ads.
How bout they offer a paid version of gmail so those people willing to pay don’t see them?
THINK Google
I would pay $100/year to remove ads from all Google apps! YouTube, Gmail, etc.
The thing is that we can pay to remove ads from Gmail but you need to have a Google Apps account, personal accounts are not eligible for this.
They charge $5/month for the accounts.
I’ll start using the default e-mail app and use gmail as an IMAP server. No way after paying good money for 3 Sammy Android devices am I going to watch ads in my freaking e-mail. I’ll move to outlook.com first if I have to.
You do realize that outlook.com has very likely been compromised by the NSA and that all your communications are stored forever by the NSA?
It is claimed Google/Gmail is doing this too but not nearly as specific as these documents.
“Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal”
“The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail”
“Microsoft also worked with the FBI’s Data Intercept Unit to “understand” potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases”
“Within five months, the documents explain, Microsoft and the FBI had come up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption on Outlook.com chats”
“Another newsletter entry stated that NSA already had pre-encryption access to Outlook email. “For Prism collection against Hotmail, Live, and Outlook.com emails will be unaffected because Prism collects this data prior to encryption.””
source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data
alrdy froze it..I been freezing google apps like crazy. google is just another big greedy company. uninstalled chrome a while back xscope pro is way faster, so is Firefox. I use startpage to search google and not send them info to paste me with ads.
in the future when I ROM I won’t even need to install gapps. haha ads in my email, I think not.. k9
Google also funds the Mozilla Corporation to a tune of about $300,000,000 annually. I understand the reasoning behind not wanting to be exposed to the advertising, but how does that make them ‘another big greedy company’?
Are developers that use in app ads and purchases to generate revenue for their “free” app also being greedy?
well about the ads have u used google search lately? it’s got more ad content then search. you do realize google is filthy rich, right? they don’t need to shove more ads down our faces. as for devlopers I always buy ad free, if no ad free I uninstall. I never use root to steal apps. this is common sense stuff if you could remove your nose from googles as$
The thousands of Google stockholders certainly don’t see it that way. They have an expectation for Google to maximize the value of their stock even if they are “filthy rich.” I expect Google to continue monetizing their services and returning me higher capital investments and paying a healthy dividend.
There are plenty of other services that don’t display ads. It’s silly to criticize them for making more money. Maybe Apple should cut down the price of the ipad since they are so “filthy rich” and don’t need to make $125 profit margin on each one? Lol
Apple is a complete ripoff.
I am tired of ads, they ruin television, radio and now email.
Me too, I wish I could just pay Google $100/year to remove ads from my life!
I will say though that if I have to have ads, I can tolerate the Google style of ads since they are usually relevant to my interests (targeted).
I can’t say that I would tolerate any ads, if I want something I go to the internet and look up where I can find it, research it and then go buy it if I really want it after that, don’t need a consistent reminder to go buy something some computer believes is relevant to me.
I am not one that needs guidance in my life, I am quite able to make decisions on my own with out being told what to do and that I need this product.
How they helped me get rid of junk mail and organize my emails by Priority, Social, Updates and Forums makes perfect sense. Since they did that I rarely look at emails that are basically ads, like groupon emails. This will give them first shot at getting a click through their advertising and will make Groupon advertise through Google and not just rely on the free email blast campaigns they do. Quite brilliant and very aggressive, but I’m not sure I like it.
If you do your homework and know how to edit the host file or find adaware away from the store this fixes all my issues. I think you have to be rooted to edit the host file but I’ve rooted and romed everyphone I have every bought including my Samsung tab 3
Since google’s update, my phone quit fetching my email. While I love the suite of products that google offers, their email has MUCH to be desired. Tagging emails will never be as good as being able to actually place them in folders.