> > There's ways to do this correctly (via machine learning)

> Please no.

Indeed, that's the second coming of Office 2000's "adaptive menus". It was an awful idea then, it's an awful idea now.

Even if the account has a single unchanging user and the feature actually works correctly and it doesn't impair initial discoverability, changes in software behaviour will break muscle memory and at least annoy.

Gmail does the Windows 2000 "adaptive menu" by hiding the folders you don't use often behind an expando.

I hate it. Hate hate hate hate hate it.

Naturally, there appears to be no way to override and say, "just show ALL my folders ALL the time! If I didn't want to see a folder, I'd delete it!"

But I don't expect a lot from Google, which seemly has zero UX experts and I'm not even 100% sure its products are developed by human beings. (See: Buzz, Wave.)

also for reasons I don't understand, when I search google, the links to "images, maps, shopping" etc. are in a completely random order. They will literally switch between searches. WHY?

There isn't 1 button for that, but you can either drag the separator or just set all folders to "Show".

Fair enough. I'm not partial to anything, but UX designers gotta eat.

...by justifying themselves to their bosses by annoying users.