Google: Please Stop Raping GMail

I opened my browser and logged in to my GMail account and heard this odd music playing out of no where!

It was frustrating that I did not know where it came from, I could not stop it, and the browser tab kept freezing! And there on top, I noticed a new feature by Google called "Priority Inbox" and after a few times of refreshing the page, I got to click on it and turns out it had a video!

This is the 2nd time Google does this kind of stunt! It's irritating! You could have used the HTML5 version rather than the crappy flash one!!!

And since I'm ranting, I might as well take this off my chest: YOUR NEW USER INTERFACE IS BAD! And I'm not the only one complaining! And here is a list of comments written by users on Google's topic.

List of disadvantages to the new GMail interface:

1. I hardly ever click on Contacts. I don't need to see it in my face all the  time!
2. I don't use tasks. Why can't I hide it like the other labels?
3. I liked "Compose" as a link more than it is as a button now. At least it was obvious that I could hold SHIFT while clicking the link to compose in a new window.
4. The drop list. I despise the drop list! I can't express how much I hate it! Instead of a single click, now I have to click the drop list then choose an option! Why increase the effort to 2 clicks? Is this your idea of an optimized user interface?!

If you're having problems loading your GMail account, load the HTML interface: https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=a

Google: I'm disappointed.

Google Apps and Email Delivery Issues

If you're setting up a Google Apps account and would like to use the email service from it in a web application or in a way that you'll be sending a lot of emails, whether to one person or many, you'll suffer from email delivery failures.

I've recently moved a company from a dedicated server to another, and that included switching the email service from being on the dedicated server itself, to Google Apps.

After 2 days, their delivery email account was disabled because it was suspected by Google to be a spam account. Re-enabling it was as simple as logging in through the web interface.

Another 2 days pass, and emails started being rejected from delivery and the company's customers weren't receiving confirmation emails. That's very bad.
 I've asked in Google's public forum and turns out you have to add Google's SPF records to your domain name's DNS records to avoid such issues.

The  bounced emails had the following message:
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently.
Message rejected.

What's annoying is that Google already has a page explaining why you should use SPF records, but it's not linked to the basic setup that explains setting up email exchange (MX) records.
If I'm going to setup the MX records, then I might as well add the SPF records too since I'll be modifying the DNS records! It would've been very helpful to have linked or pointed at the SPF page rather than wait till I face problems, search for its cause & solution then find out!

So what are SPF records?
In a nut shell, they are records that are added to a domain name's DNS zone and they dictate who is authorized to send emails from that domain name.
The Sender Policy Framework is used by both the sender and the receiver to verify that incoming email was sent by the domain it's claiming to have come from.

Setting up the DNS records:
Add the text as Google has shown to the @none field and not to all. See the picture below.

Make sure to type the text as you were told by Google! Some parts may not show in the above picture.