The loss of useful information

I am quite frustrated with the way gmail web application deals with email created in response to an email.  If you reply or reply to all it does not put information into the email to show who was on the previous email or when it was sent, etc.  If you forward an email it does.   You also cannot have both a reply and a forward email at the same time.  

I often get an email that has 5 of the 6 people that need to be involved included.  I want to reply to all, add person number six, let everyone see when the previous email was sent and who was involved.   

It is also common to need to both forward and separately reply to an email.  I would like to be able to start both of those emails and drop in the relevant additional information as I collect it.   The one or the other limitation makes it necessary to track emails I need to send in a separate list. 

To me this is logical, methodical, basic functioning available in email since the last century.   I continue to be puzzled on how to create a workflow pattern when basic operational functioning disappears. 

Slow Learner

I am sure this blog provides all the documentation needed to confirm I am a slow learner. I don't think being a slow learner is inherently bad.  I generally don't make the same mistakes repeatedly because I fail to be observant.  I am a slow learner because I don't accept a new piece of information without scrutiny.  I need to test the new concept. I need to repeat the operation with controlled parameters. I need to see the same result repeated.  This is where my slow learning and Google's continuos changes and varied contextual interfaces clash.  I can never seem to get through testing and come out with some new learned knowledge.

Yesterday I got a step closer to understanding the phone portion of my android phone. Pick the phone icon. It goes to a dialer page. My (most) recent call is shown at the top of the page. I hit the green phone icon and sometimes it calls that person and sometimes it calls someone else. I finally figured out that (as I noted) this is the dialer page. Even though the top of the screen is filled with a name, number, and picture showing my most recent phone call this is not associated with the green phone icon. The phone icon is associated with the dialer. It is going to call the last number I dialed (which is not displayed). It is not going to reestablish a connection with the last person to whom I was connected.   I still have more testing to do.  Next to resolve is if it is my last outgoing call no matter whether I entered it via the dialer.  But then again perhaps I will just avoid this interface and it's accidental call potential since chances are I would not get this figured out before the next operating system update. I am a slow learner.

Google Plus Redirect

When I go to Google Plus it always doesn't go there.  It goes to a page to find friends.  When using Google Plus I am at worked I am going there to complete a task.  I would like to keep working.  I don't think friends are going to do my job for me.  No option to not have this launch again and again and again.  

Google Contact Mystery

Why do some Google Contacts go missing?

There are some people that when I add them to my contacts from an email it fills in their name.  I thought this name completion was great since I find it annoying (and a step backwards) that with most contacts added from email I have to type in the name when it was clearly already available.  The joy ends when I switch to my Android phone and the new contacts are not to be found.  Ends up their name is lost and they get filed under their company name on the phone only.  (Our IT person figured this out for me as I thought they were not transferring to the phone at all.)   Since the contacts look fine on the web it is not clear the best way to fix.  Deleting their name and general editing back and forth on the web appears to work as does making the change on the phone.  The real problem is you don't know who this is going to apply to. Now a month after the initial mystery I have to check my phone for each new contact I add.  I don't know if it is Google Plus or corporate Google email or just certain companies.  

Yesterday

I am enjoying that my first post on "Today on Google" is titled "Yesterday."

I am also enjoying that my Google vent blog is on Google's Blogger.

It is still early so my Google interface to this point has only been with Google's Blogger via Safari on my iPad. So far no issues so I am going to vent a bit about yesterday.

Chrome on my laptop was not my friend yesterday. Of course the spell correct substitutions were failing. So I went through and closed all my drafts and closed Chrome. When I reopened Chrome any drafts that were started as blank emails reopened and secured themselves to the bottom. When I went to a new tab it would carry the graphics from the previous active tab over.  So while one would think you might be in your mail with drafts open it was just an unresponsive image.  After several tries and realizing the chat portion was saying that it could not connect while everything else was I did a complete laptop reboot. This solved the four issues above (for a time).

My other challenge with Google yesterday had to do with Spam. That is going to deserve its own post.

On a more positive note I did learn one tip for viewing your calendar. On the little calendar on the side bar you can highlight several weeks and get a view of those weeks only on the big calendar. When you need to do some schedule planning for more than a week, less than a month, or weeks that overlap two months this may be a handy view. I haven't actually used it to do anything beyond view so stay tuned for potential pitfalls.

Also learned yesterday that although Contacts that was in the Google Bar is not in the Google Square it is still available. It can be found by selecting the drop down on the word Mail on the mail interface. This follows the general rule of Google that you always have to pick the thing you are sure you don't want.