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.

对一些依赖电子邮件促销的零售商来说，谷歌(Google Inc.)正在他们的伤口上撒盐。

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.

三个月前这家搜索引擎巨头对其免费电子邮件服务进行改革时，该公司建立了一个功能，可以自动将提供优惠机票和水疗服务的邮件从用户主要收件夹中挑出来，然后放到一个很容易被忽略的“推广”文件夹中。

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.

但还有另外的波折：那些会点开“推广”文件夹的用户看到的通常会是由谷歌销售的广告。

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.

这些广告不同于已经在用户打开的信息中出现的那些。相反，它们看上去像是收件箱里的电子邮件，但以黄色阴影标出，并有“i”的小图标解释其用途。营销人员仍在抱怨，这些广告有可能构成威胁，让用户不再关注他们希望目标客户首先阅读的优惠和推销邮件。

'People are not very amused by those,' said Tom Monaghan, product manager for the email service at marketing service HubSpot Inc.

营销服务公司HubSpot Inc.的电子邮件服务产品经理莫内根(Tom Monaghan)说，人们不太喜欢这些东西。

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.

谷歌发言人弗罗因德(Andrea Freund)说，谷歌向每名用户展示的收件箱广告不超过两则。在谷歌收紧信息定位的“质量门槛”之后，一些用户的收件箱没有显示广告。

'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.'

她说：我们的目标是将这些广告放在更为相关的地方，我们认为“推广”文件夹就是这样一个合适的地方。当你将目光放在推广上的时候，也就是在寻找交易。我们确实试图清楚地将它们标记为广告。

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.

电子邮件营销服务MailChimp的首席执行长切斯特纳特(Ben Chestnut)说，参考以前的软件更新情况来看，谷歌推出新的收件箱广告时可能会小心行事。他说，广告太多可能让用户反感。

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.

这些广告加剧了对于Gmail变化的担忧。据市场研究机构comScore的数据，Gmail拥有逾4.25亿活跃用户，在世界免费电子邮件账户中也占据了极大份额。虽然Gmail用户通过iPhone访问邮件时看不到这些变化，但谷歌的网页版邮件应用在台式电脑上应用十分普遍。弗罗因德说，一半以上的用户升级了Gmail的版式，谷歌自5月以来一直在逐步推出这种布局设计。

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.

像达美航空公司(Delta Air Lines Inc.)、Gap Inc.、Gilt Groupe Inc.和Groupon Inc.等发送较多电子邮件的企业向其邮寄对象发送了如何将信息从“推广”文件夹移回“主要”文件夹的详细指导。

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.

市场营销人员担心这个新系统可能对一个已经检验证明可靠的营销方式产生和扩散一种不利的影响，更不用说依靠电子邮件优惠券的商业模式了。

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.

弗罗因德说，谷歌重新设计其电子邮件服务，旨在帮助用户管理过多的邮件。用户只要通过简单的拖拽或者完全回到原先的设计模式就可以让一些他们希望看到的邮件出现在他们常用的收件夹中。

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%.

这一改变似乎对收件者打开营销人员发送的电子邮件的比例产生了值得注意、但尚且较小的影响。MailChimp上个月发现，其300万个客户打开的Gmail邮件数量占其发送的Gmail邮件数量的比例下降了1个百分点，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的分析显示，夏季期间，打开其客户电子邮件的Gmail用户比例略微下降，但周末期间则增加。4月份以来这个比例一直在以这样缓慢的速度下降，说明这种情况是邮件太多导致的，而不是Gmail调整导致的。

'There's a little bit of Chicken Little happening right now over this,' Mr. Monaghan said.

莫内根说，目前发生的情况有点像电影《四眼天鸡》(Chicken Little)的情节，掉个果子就以为天要塌下来了。