<p>This is a very small complaint, so I apologize for taking your time with it, but it exemplifies something that used to make a lot of Google products really annoying and limited the company's growth potential--something that, thankfully, Google has gotten a lot better about in recent years.</p><p>For more than a decade, I was a devoted user of Yahoo Mail, which was by far the best web-based email system. Then, over the years, as Yahoo's management got distracted by a revolving door of senior executives, the product first lost its edge and then, eventually, began to become flaky.</p><p>Eventually, after posting several posts warning about what would happen to the company if it didn't fix the problems (it would lose me as a customer!*), I was forced to switch to Gmail.</p><p>This switch was a vote against Yahoo, not a vote for Gmail. Because, in those days, Gmail forced users to use a highly annoying "new-and-improved" email format called "conversations." I understood that many Gmail users who are younger, smarter, and cooler than I am LOVED the "conversations" format and thought that anyone who didn't (me) was an idiot. But that didn't make me like "conversations" any better.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/one-thing-i-hate-about-gmail-2012-9">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/09/20/google-apps-now-lets-import-emails-contacts-yahoo-hotmail-aol-gmail/">Google Apps now lets you import emails and contacts from Yahoo, Hotmail, and ...</a> (The Next Web)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&ned=us&ncl=dNmL7JsgF1HnRuMC8FEMW0BTGFuEM">2 additional articles.</a></p>