New Gmail is Counterproductive

I finally got the New Gmail today. But it did not make me all that happy. The first thing that annoyed me was that when you log into the New Gmail the chat is enabled by default and you are logged in without your consent. Ok, I signed out of Gmail and started looking for the “standard without chat” option as it was in the Old Gmail.

Its not there! I search the settings for chat, not there either. I don’t know whose big idea it was to remove this great feature, surely not everybody uses chat in their email accounts. The New Gmail has only the option of “turn off chat“.

I prefer the desktop client where you can log in when you want instead of people seeing you online whenever you log in to check your mail. I keep my Gmail logged in as long as I’m on my PC. And you don’t even have the option of hiding the chat box when it is turned off.

The chat box just stands there without any function taking up precious screen space. You can either move it above or below the Labels box but never remove it entirely. One important they should have done is to do away with the “Invite a friend” frame. Since now almost everyone can register for a Google Account its a vestigial application.