I went down a rabbit hole this morning of trying to clean up my email inbox and contacts list.
Ever try this via Gmail? Yeah, two hours later and I managed to get my inbox down from 2,500 emails to 2,150.
Big deal.
In the process I discovered a stored contacts list of everyone who ever sent me an email in the what seems like the past 3 years. Every reply to every recruiter. Every incoming email that I never replied to. Every old email. Every email address typo I made in the ‘to’ line. Every. Account.
I’m good with a list. However:
- A) I want it be front and centre, not at the bottom of a list on some secondary page or link.
- B) I don’t want that list labelled ‘other contacts’ as if it is of no consequence.
- C) I want to own it.
I eventually got a hold of this list. I persevered, but I used the word bastards quite a bit.
And since I am here. How about the process of ‘deleting’ emails?
- How is it that when I delete an email I am then asked if I want to undo my delete? Sure we all make mistakes. But every time I delete you have to ask?
- How is it that when I delete an email I then have to locate the ‘bin’ folder hidden at the bottom of the screen under a ‘More’ link? Why is the ‘bin’ not up front?
- And why is it that when I do empty my ‘bin’ folder Google feels the need to information me I don’t have to do that because they do it every 30 days, and I have plenty of room to grow more trash?
Passive aggressive much?
Google – the group that AIs my emails for me so I don’t have to type a complete sentence. Google – the group that allows me to walk down a dusty road on the Serengeti. Google – the group that returns search engine results, from around the global, with a 95% accuracy in less than 2 seconds. Google – the group that makes it a near frustration to manage my inbox to the point where I’d rather give up …
Right?
I work on transactional databases. I understand the concept of intelligence and how it works. They are in the business of collecting data and if they make it easy to remove information, the integrity of their collection is in jeopardy. So make it easy to retrieve but a pain to remove, and people will give up trying to delete. I get it, but boy has this exercise shown me just how entangled I am within their spidered webbed wall.
Dear G:
FYI: Smug is …
Never a good look.
C.