If you look at the latest gmail redesign, the first thing you notice is the functional duplication of "Mail" and "Inbox" link.

http://kasolutions.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/google-minimalism.jpg

Google is famous for its minimalism. What happened this time?

It is not a duplication : mail is still visible when you are in the contact tabs, inbox is not.

I would prefer the "Mail, Contacts, Tasks" options to be somewhere else... Maybe across the top of the screen or something? This would bring my "Compose button, Inbox, Chats, Sent Mail, etc" back up closer to the top of my screen... And I think it would appear less crowded then it seems now.

"Mail, Contacts, Tasks" could be tabs right above the "Archive, Report spam, Delete buttons". Buzz and maybe Settings could also be moved to tabs there?

The "Web Clips" (if enabled) could even fill the rest of the tab bar to the right of the tabs? I guess that would depend on your screen resolution though...

Luka : Your point is correct. But somewhat I think they could have avoided the duplication of functionality on the landing page.

I know that you could turn on keyboard shortcuts and don't worry about anything else. But still I was hoping GMail would come up with a better solution that the current one.

i believe, mail points to all your new mail irrespective of the labels. but inbox has only those mails with the label "inbox". atleast thats how it looks on my new gmail page.

This also makes room for an upcoming feature

DPIc Here's a comment I posted elsewhere:
<<[Google could] put [Reader, Docs, Calendar... all] inside Gmail:
- Add links to every application in the "Mail/Contacts/Tasks" menu. You chose how apps are ranked in the menu, or let Google do it based on your usage stats. You can customize the keyboard shortcuts to go directly to each app (like g+b and g+c).
- The label menu changes as you select an app (like Contacts) but some labels are consistent across apps: all items, starred items, trash, trends...
- The Gmail logo is replaced with a simple Google logo.
- Search is "universal" so that a search in Gmail brings results from every applications, ranked by relevance, and autocomplete brings results from the selected app first. There will be two search buttons ('search apps' and 'search the web) until Google can differentiate our intention to search personal vs. public data.
- Sidebar widgets and buttons are contextual, e.g the mini-calendar appears when an email with event is selected. The label menu should behave as a contextual widget. The chat box remains always accessible but collapsed at the bottom of the sidebar. Users can add third-party contextual widgets to the new Gmail (i.e all Google apps) via the Google Apps Marketplace.
- Multiple apps can be open in different windows, like Mail and Buzz in the current version.

I personally think something like this: http://dribbble.com/shots/44146-Redesigned-Redesign would be much better for usability & scalability...

With tabs across the top, they could incorporate additional Google services without pushing the "Compose mail" button, Inbox, Sent Mail, etc even further down the page...

But Gmail's lead user interface designer doesn't agree :(http://www.flickr.com/photos/azaraskin/4886664008/comment72157624714250626/

Apparently they're going to add the Buzz button to the top too...Ugh.