Gmail Spam folder Web Clips revisited
Hey, check it out! The funny Gmail Web Clips phenomenon I blogged about a couple years ago was the subject of a recent entry in the Official Gmail Blog.
Yes, at Google, went through the same steps I did, when I first saw “Spam Hashbrown Bake” at the top of my gmail window:
1. disbelief: Is that really a context-sensitive ad for Spam-related products, appearing at the top of my Spam folder view? Maybe it’s just a funny coincidence.
2. confirmation: [refresh page a couple times] Hey, it’s another recipe involving Spam, and another one! There’s something funny going on here!
3. research: Ms. Schneider one-upped me on this one. When I encountered this Spam folder Easter egg, all I had available to me was the Gmail help system (which seemed to imply that this context-sensitive Web Clip thing should not be happening). She has the benefit of being a Google insider, so she actually went and talked with a Gmail Product Manager about it.
Here’s what Ms. Schneider found out, regarding the origin of the Spam recipe Web Clips:
At first I was told that these recipes “were placed there by elves when we weren’t looking” (real cute), but Keith, one of Gmail’s Product Managers, eventually divulged the real story. Turns out that when they came up with the idea for Web Clips, they didn’t think it made sense to show these RSS feeds and ads in the spam folder. After all, these clips should be useful and fun, but spam (of the email variety) is neither of these things. Not knowing what to put here, Keith searched for “spam recipes” and decided to make a feed out of the results. As he said, “it was just one of those late night ideas” — probably a consequence of too many said [sic] energy drinks.
One thing that she may not have noticed, though, is that a similar behavior occurs when viewing your Trash folder in Gmail. guess she didn’t notice (or just didn’t mention) that the Trash folder also has trash-related Web Clips (see screenshot in my original blog entry about this).
It was nice to finally read an explanation about this mysterious Gmail behavior, after all this time. I didn’t even have to seek out the explanation–it came to me in a feed! :)
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