All I want for Xmas is for Google to..Gmail

Yes, I know it's the end of January. But I have a big list, so Santa needs lots of time to get this all ready for me.

Google has become a big part of my daily life: Gmail, Google search, Google News, Google Adsense and Google Adwords are daily usage for me. Other tools like Google Earth don't get used daily, but are certainly part of the empire Google is building on my desktop.

And I've got gripes.

Oh, not big gripes mostly, just stocking-stuffer kinds of things. Things I want. Things I think I need. Things I think other people would want too. So I made a list, and checked it twice, and since we all know there's no more point in sending it to Google than sending it to Santa Claus, I'll put it all here. As the list is big, I'll have to break it into sections. Today's choice is Gmail.

Gmail

I want an "undo". I can't tell you how many times I have marked off a bunch off messages and clicked "Spam" when I meant "Delete" or vice versa.

Let me set my own retention times for Spam and Trash. Right now, Google automatically deletes these after 30 days. Maybe I'd rather delete Spam after two days and Trash after 14. Yeah, I know I'm only at 12% of my allotted space, but it bothers me that Google is keeping stuff longer than I want. Yes, I am a little obsessive-compulsive, thanks for noticing.

Speaking of Spam: why does it take Gmail so long to understand that the "Bouncer takes Gravity out of Sex!" email is spam? How many times to I have to mark the exact same email before Gmail "gets it"?

Better control of "Conversations". Just because the Subject has changed doesn't mean it's not the same conversation, and the reverse is just as true. This would be similar to Labels, but would group messages like those with the same Subject are grouped now.

Selected Signature. My "Work" signature isn't really what I'd like for family and friends. It would be really convenient if I could set a rule that would determine the signature based on who I am emailing, but that's probably too much.

Mailing Lists: I often want to send the same email to a group of people, but these aren't necessarily people who know each other so there is no reason for them to see each other's addresses. I can hide the addresses by using the group in BCC of course, but a mail list would be neater.

Macros would be nice. Persistent.Info has some add on scripts for that kind of thing (and more) but I don't like to add more junk to my browser.

Direct MX record. I forward aplawrence.com to my Gmail account but why have that extra processing? I'd happily pay a few bucks to be able to point my MX right at Gmail.

Contacts. Sheesh, just because I emailed someone once doesn't mean I want them in the Contacts list. Here's a thought: maybe there could be a setting that says "if I send mail to someone more than X times, OFFER TO/AUTOMATICALLY add them to Contacts". Some people might set that to 1 and AUTOMATICALLY, but I'd set it to a higher number and make it confirm before adding.

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