Mystery music angers Gmail users

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 1 Sep 2010 at 13:37

Google has angered Gmail users by inserting a promotional video in inboxes that plays ragtime music with no obvious way to turn it off.

The video is promoting Gmail's new Priority Inbox, but the advert has left subscribers wondering whether it was a virus or system glitch.

“I thought my account had been hacked - especially when I heard the scrunching of paper,” posted disgruntled Gmailer Goz3 on the Google support forum, adding he thought his email was being "eaten up".

Google says it is working to fix the problem, which only affects Gmail users on Chrome who have been targeted as early adopters for the Priority Inbox service.

The music is actually related to a promo box for the service, but the video and controls for the audio are invisible unless users click through to the box.

“We're aware of an issue for Chrome users where the Priority Inbox video starts upon login causing music to play in the background,” said Google on its Known Issues page. “The video can be stopped by clicking the 'New! Priority Inbox' link and pausing the video in the promo bubble.”

Forum posters, however, reported mixed success with this fix, and questioned whether Google had properly tested the new service before launch, a very real concern for anyone using Gmail for their main email account.

“The success has finally gone to Google's head - it's lost the plot,” posted Davedub on the help forum. “I'm a software developer myself. There is absolutely no excuse for this. It can only be due to either a complete breakdown of the test process, which scares the hell out of me, or a badly thought out publicity stunt that is about to backfire.”