Goofle is the name ye Editor has given to Google when it makes a big, stupid error in it software offerings. Google has made a big deal of its recent interface updates to Gmail. But they have have been legion with goofs very large and unnecessary and raise the question where is interface guru MM when needed. My pet peeve is that many buttons that were labeled with commands like reply, archive, forward, etc have been replaced by obscure icons so I am never sure what service I am getting.
Likewise simple editing capabilities that are available in other online mail services like Mozilla Thunderbird `s ability to insert images into a email body or add a complete styling template are not available or only accessible through an obscure, undocumented gmail lab settings. Yet TinyMCE , post editing tool used in WordPress and many other online document editors, provides many of these features . The other problem is that Help is almost nonexistent for many of Google’s online offerings. Now this maybe because some services are still classified as still beta after several years on the market. However, just as a check- look for help in Google Finance, Google Gmail, Google+, and/or Google maps. Yep, you get Help by osmosis or googling for it.
And Alexis Madrigal, editor at the Atlantic, raises the issue of space war conflict between Gchat and Gmail editing at the same time.
Again an accordion or tab Gchat widget that becomes a side-by pane lis one of many obvious Web 2 solutions to this problem. the big Goofle is that as Alexis points out, Google`s interface design engineers did not think this through. And so once again, Google looks inferior to Apple in the `make it so with good design` world that is on the forefront of the mobile computing world.