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Google wants you to be able to book a flight without exiting an email:
Google is bringing its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) capabilities to email today through a developer preview for Gmail. The feature, called AMP for Email, will allow developers to make emails "more interactive and engaging." Google envisions the feature to be beneficial to users because developers can embed widgets in emails that are constantly up-to-date and include actionable functions that work without leaving your inbox. Google's existing AMP webpages are an emerging standard for webpages that load radically faster than regular mobile pages.
AMP for Email is open-source so developers can freely play around with the capabilities and use them to their advantage. Companies developing features for AMP for Email include Pinterest, Booking.com, and Doodle. Google says the AMP for Email feature will allow you to do things like RSVP to events, browse and interact with content, or fill out forms without leaving an email. For example, Google says if a contractor wants to schedule a meeting with you but isn't able to see your calendar, they'll contact you about availability. With AMP for Email, you could respond interactively through a form without ever leaving the email client.
Some observers believe AMP allows more effective phishing attempts. One serious flaw, noted by tech writer Kyle Chayka, is that disreputable parties who misuse AMP (as well as Facebook's similar Instant Articles) enable junk websites to share many of the same visual cues and features found on legitimate sites. "All publishers end up looking more similar than different. That makes separating the real from the fake even harder," said Chayka.
Also at Google and TechCrunch.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Appalbarry on Wednesday February 14 2018, @01:36AM (6 children)
There are many reasons to avoid Google's AMP pages [ycombinator.com], but in this case I have to assume that once again Google will find some way to screw up Gmail even more than they have. Have they ever made a significant change to Gmail that hasn't made it less usable?
Time to check out how Mailpile [mailpile.is] is doing these days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @01:47AM (3 children)
I'm with ya. gmail is so bad that hotmail and yahoo are starting to look good. Are they operational these days? Doesn't matter - they would still be better than gmail.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Appalbarry on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:03AM (2 children)
You owe it to yourself to go check out Yahoo mail. Super clean interface, and I suspect, can do anything that Google can.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday February 14 2018, @01:33PM (1 child)
Yeah, and Yahoo has only been pwned giving up EVERY account available in 2013 what, once? And then they covered it up. And haven't faced any action for that I'm aware because Verizon. http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/03/technology/business/yahoo-breach-3-billion-accounts/index.html [cnn.com]
This sig for rent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @02:49PM
hey did anyone hear that whoosh?
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Wednesday February 14 2018, @08:07AM
I agree.
Gmail used to be a beautiful and clean webmail client. However, the last 5+ years it has turned to crap. Any valuable function in an icon was hidden until the web client became completely useless. Seems to me like their material design means hide every useful button.
For years I used to have an open browser window with Gmail at all times and would use that as my preferred client. Now I let thunderbird grab the mail and use that as my primary interface, and god knows how many years Thunderbird has gone without proper support.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 1) by DeVilla on Thursday February 15 2018, @11:10PM
When I first got onto Gmail (2004-ish) I didn't really like it any more than any other web mail client. Somewhere since then, they got better and I grew to like it. So yes, there was a time when they made changes that did not make it less usable.
... I'm not saying they've kept that momentum, but it did happen.