Experimental Gmail feature shows promotional emails as a grid of images

Experimental Gmail feature shows promotional emails as a grid of images ,

Google is testing a very different way of showing promotional emails. In a new experimental view, marketing emails don't look like emails at all; instead, they're big, bold ads with large images. The new view follows Google's controversial move to collect marketing emails and place them in a separate tab in Gmail, away from your personal messages and social network updates. With the experimental view enabled, these emails now show as an endless stream of images rather than a set of ten subject lines.

As part of the new view, Google is offering marketers a way to signal in their messages which image and content to highlight. If senders do nothing, Google will take its best guess at what to show in the  . It's notable that this is just a test for now — you'll have to request access to join the "Field Trial" at this link. And if you do get selected, there will be a button in the promotions tab that lets you switch between the two views at any time.

It may seem like an unusual move, but considering that marketing emails originated as a way of getting ads into your inbox, maybe it makes sense that they take the form of a true advertisement.