Gmail新功能令零售商不安
For some retailers that rely on emailed promotions, Google Inc. is adding insult to injury.
對一些依賴電子郵件促銷的零售商來說，谷歌(Google Inc.)正在他們的傷口上撒鹽。
When the search giant overhauled its free email service three months ago, it set up algorithms to automatically siphon the flow of airfare offers and spa deals away from users' main inboxes and into an easily bypassed 'Promotions' folder.
三個月前這家搜索引擎巨頭對其免費電子郵件服務進行改革時，該公司建立了一個功能，可以自動將提供優惠機票和水療服務的郵件從用戶主要收件夾中挑出來，然後放到一個很容易被忽略的“推廣”文件夾中。
But there is another wrinkle: For Gmail users that do visit those Promotions folders, the first items they see will often be ads sold by Google.
但還有另外的波折：那些會點開“推廣”文件夾的用戶看到的通常會是由谷歌銷售的廣告。
The ads are different from those that already appear inside users' opened messages. Instead, they look like emails sitting in an inbox but are shaded yellow and feature informational 'i' icons explaining their purpose. Marketers still complain that the ads threaten to draw attention away from the coupons and pitch emails they want their targets to read first.
這些廣告不同於已經在用戶打開的信息中出現的那些。相反，它們看上去像是收件箱裏的電子郵件，但以黃色陰影標出，並有“i”的小圖標解釋其用途。營銷人員仍在抱怨，這些廣告有可能構成威脅，讓用戶不再關注他們希望目標客戶首先閱讀的優惠和推銷郵件。
'People are not very amused by those,' said Tom Monaghan, product manager for the email service at marketing service HubSpot Inc.
營銷服務公司HubSpot Inc.的電子郵件服務產品經理莫內根(Tom Monaghan)說，人們不太喜歡這些東西。
Google shows no more than two inbox ads per user, spokeswoman Andrea Freund said. Some users' inboxes showed no ads after Google tightened its 'quality thresholds' for targeting the messages.
谷歌發言人弗羅因德(Andrea Freund)說，谷歌向每名用戶展示的收件箱廣告不超過兩則。在谷歌收緊信息定位的“質量門檻”之後，一些用戶的收件箱沒有顯示廣告。
'Our goal was to put them someplace that was more relevant, and we thought that was the promotions tab,' she said. 'When you're looking at promotions, you're looking for deals,' she added. 'We do try to clearly label them as ads.'
她說：我們的目標是將這些廣告放在更爲相關的地方，我們認爲“推廣”文件夾就是這樣一個合適的地方。當你將目光放在推廣上的時候，也就是在尋找交易。我們確實試圖清楚地將它們標記爲廣告。
If past software updates are any indication, Google will likely tread carefully as it introduces the new inbox ads, according to Ben Chestnut, chief executive of email marketing service MailChimp. Too many ads could alienate users, he said.
電子郵件營銷服務MailChimp的首席執行長切斯特納特(Ben Chestnut)說，參考以前的軟件更新情況來看，谷歌推出新的收件箱廣告時可能會小心行事。他說，廣告太多可能讓用戶反感。
The ads are compounding the concern over the changes to Gmail, which has more than 425 million active users and a significant chunk of the world's free email accounts, according to market researcher comScore. Though Gmail users can't see the changes when accessing their messages on iPhones, Google's Web mail application is widely used on desktops. Ms. Freund said more than half of all users have the updated Gmail layout, which the company has been gradually rolling out since May.
這些廣告加劇了對於Gmail變化的擔憂。據市場研究機構comScore的數據，Gmail擁有逾4.25億活躍用戶，在世界免費電子郵件賬戶中也佔據了極大份額。雖然Gmail用戶通過iPhone訪問郵件時看不到這些變化，但谷歌的網頁版郵件應用在臺式電腦上應用十分普遍。弗羅因德說，一半以上的用戶升級了Gmail的版式，谷歌自5月以來一直在逐步推出這種佈局設計。
Prolific emailers like Delta Air Lines Inc., Gap Inc., Gilt Groupe Inc. and Groupon Inc. have sent step-by-step instructions to their mailing lists on how to move messages out of the Promotions tab and back to Gmail's 'Primary' folder.
像達美航空公司(Delta Air Lines Inc.)、Gap Inc.、Gilt Groupe Inc.和Groupon Inc.等發送較多電子郵件的企業向其郵寄對象發送瞭如何將信息從“推廣”文件夾移回“主要”文件夾的詳細指導。
Marketers fear the new system could spread and put an unwanted kink in a tried-and-true method of driving sales, not to mention business models that rely on emailed coupons.
市場營銷人員擔心這個新系統可能對一個已經檢驗證明可靠的營銷方式產生和擴散一種不利的影響，更不用說依靠電子郵件優惠券的商業模式了。
Google redesigned its service to help users manage email overload, Ms. Freund said. Users can reroute emails they want to land in their regular inbox with a simple drag-and-drop, or by going back to the old layout altogether.
弗羅因德說，谷歌重新設計其電子郵件服務，旨在幫助用戶管理過多的郵件。用戶只要通過簡單的拖拽或者完全回到原先的設計模式就可以讓一些他們希望看到的郵件出現在他們常用的收件夾中。
The shift appears to have made a noticeable but small impact on the rate at which recipients open marketers' pitches. MailChimp last month found the percentage of emails that were opened by its 3 million customers fell by about 1 percentage point for Gmail, to between 12% and 13%.
這一改變似乎對收件者打開營銷人員發送的電子郵件的比例產生了值得注意、但尚且較小的影響。MailChimp上個月發現，其300萬個客戶打開的Gmail郵件數量佔其發送的Gmail郵件數量的比例下降了1個百分點，至12%-13%。
Analysis from HubSpot showed the percentage of Gmail users who opened clients' emails slid slightly over the summer, though activity spiked during the weekends. Open rates have declined at the same slow rate since April, suggesting user engagement is suffering from too many emails rather than Gmail.
HubSpot的分析顯示，夏季期間，打開其客戶電子郵件的Gmail用戶比例略微下降，但週末期間則增加。4月份以來這個比例一直在以這樣緩慢的速度下降，說明這種情況是郵件太多導致的，而不是Gmail調整導致的。
'There's a little bit of Chicken Little happening right now over this,' Mr. Monaghan said.
莫內根說，目前發生的情況有點像電影《四眼天雞》(Chicken Little)的情節，掉個果子就以爲天要塌下來了。
