Google and the Paradox of Choice
You may have noticed, yesterday evening sometime, that Gmail had gone insane. Everything was blue–had hamsters been let loose in the Google servers, Bwog wondered? To our relief, we found we could return to the older version, like Facebook let us do for a short time before forcing us into new Facebook forever. And then, to our delight, we learned that Google was in fact offering us more choices, not forcing us unto an page-view driven “improvement” (yeah, we hope you’re listening Mark Zuckerberg).
But what to choose? (
If you haven’t figured it out yet, go to “settings,” and pick “themes”). Obviously not any of the sleek professional ones. Tea House is a bit gimmicky, and Phantasea rather trippy for our taste. Ninja is a bold selection–yow!–and you might last a few days with Candy before perishing of saccharine pink.
Bwog is going with “New York,” for now, which shrouds the interface in a pleasant overcast. But perhaps something else tomorrow–if Gmail is our lives, why not try a new identity every day?
Tags: google, insanity
20 November 2008 @ 12:32 PM · 15 comments
on 
this is cool, but i can’t find it on safari or firefox… I think i am blind.
I am unable to see the themes.
Are available as a tab underneath settings.
As stated in the article.
there IS NO theme called “New York”
Oh, sorry, should have clarified–if you choose “Tree,” it lets you choose a city. For some reason, Seattle was bright and sunny, which just didn’t feel right.
now either that’s a coincidence you got this post up so fast or you guys have a really quick turnaround to comment tips about gmail…
Gmail = ♥
is right. maybe google can take a class in orientalism
What on earth does orientalism have to do with it? Let me guess – gmail is the tool of the oppressor, creating favorable caricatures of the east as part of an agenda of systematic oppression. Those damned racists.
unfavorable
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/china_s_andy_rooney_has_some
candy! i like it
is made of win
…was really awesome at first, but yeah, it quickly created a state of sensory overload, especially when the old Gmail interface was so Spartan. I’m going with ‘Shiny’ for now.