Really, Google?

<p><pre><code> &#62; Will someone please, please, please make a reasonable &#62; Gmail facsimile that I can pay for, so that I don't have &#62; to put up with these arbitrary changes? </code></pre> You can pay for Gmail, if you want to. Paying will remove the ads. Paying won't cause Google to halt all changes to the user interface forever. I expect you will have a very hard time finding any actively-maintained web service that does not periodically change parts of the user interface to better serve the majority of their audience.<p>If you want a bookmarkable full-screen compose page, that is still available. Go to <a href="http://mail.google.com/?ui=html" rel="nofollow">http://mail.google.com/?ui=html</a> , then click compose, and bookmark that page.

The old compose _was_ broken (at least for me). I encounter the use case where I need to reference data from another email when composing a new message all the time. This used to mean opening up a new gmail tab, with the new compose I can draft an email while jumping around through archived messages. That's a big win.

I wonder if this might be leading toward an eventual merging of Gmail into Google+. They both already have very similar chat functionality. Such a merging might not suit Google Apps users very well, though.

One less than perfect alternative is to use the Shift-c shortcut which will give you a compose window in a new window. Its not the same as your bookmarked compose view but it'll block most of your inbox. I'm with you though . . .

I personally love the new compose page. It helps me to get over other emails if I need to while writing a new one

It's not gone: <a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&#38;fs=1&#38;tf=1" rel="nofollow">https://mail.google.com/mail/?view=cm&#38;fs=1&#38;tf=1</a>

It's a problem with web apps vs apps in general. If I have an app on my laptop/tablet/phone and a new version comes out I don't have to download it if I don't like what I read about in the reviews. But with a web app I am at their mercy, forced to adapt to their every whim.

You can still access the old compose page (temporarily) - by clicking the little up arrow on the right hand site of the page. Hopefully they keep both choices available.

You could always click the pop-out button and full-screen that bitch.

I still use the old compose and actively opt out of the new compose whenever they try to force it on me. It smacks of something that should be a choice and not a forced-upon default.

I have been using this for a while but I don't care for it much. I feel like they've reinvented Desqview.

I feel like you could probably create a one page compose screen of your liking and send through SMTP.

If you don't want arbitrary changes to your UI, use a desktop client.