Gmail 2-Step Verification

Finally.

I kept putting it off for the hassle, particularly because of dealing with phone mail access, but it was a breeze, and the device specific password is divine inspiration. Unlike so many of the recent Google actions, in which they seem to be throwing garbage products out and hoping they’ll stick, or else deprecating features everyone loves to conform to some boring-ass universal Google megasite, this 2-step password verification deal is simple, well-thought through, and cleanly implemented. The 3 minute video explaining how to do it is very helpful and addresses all the normal concerns — what if I don’t have my phone, etc.

Seriously, do it. Otherwise, it’s gonna be like that time when you forgot to backup your term paper and your computer crashed, and you lost everything. Except it’s going to be soooooo much worse.

If you can’t be bothered, read this, and rethink.

A preview of Gmail’s new look

I like it, I do. It’s cleaner, leaner, less bubbly. And the ad is moved to the bottom of the screen (not shown in this pic, of course). It’s nice. But. So much spacing. Even the “Preview (Dense)” theme is more than 25% less dense than the default themes. Normally, I can see 29 message headers. Under the new fancy theme, I see 21. This is not helpful, jackholes.

Few things drive me crazier than design improvements that make things prettier but less useful. Gah.

At least, unlike Tumblr’s recent dash overhaul, they (a) announced it and explained it in a blog post, and (b) made it optional.