In a recent article on Read/WriteWeb about Online Office Apps, Josh Catone mentioned off-hand that he didn't like the Gmail user interface. Since I've been using the Gmail interface exclusively for quite a while, I decided it might be time to talk about the problems I have with the interface. When I sat down and started thinking about it, I could only come up with two things that really annoy me.

Lack of Redirect

Gmail let's me reply to messages, and I can forward messages, but I can't redirect messages. Redirecting, or 'bouncing', a message may not be a function that the average email user needs frequently, but it seems to be something I need all the time.

The concept of redirecting a message is that you may occasionally receive an email that should really be directed to someone else. Rather than forwarding the message, you can redirect it so that it appears in the proper recipient's mailbox as if it came from the original source. The beauty of this is that the recipient can work with the message as they normally would, rather than having to go through the additional steps of adding a recipient when replying, making sure all parties are Cc'ed, etc. It's a small difference, but one that I see as vital.

Over-simplistic Signature System

Gmail's settings allow for exactly one signature. This might be acceptable if I only had one email address. Unfortunately, I have several email addresses (personal, day job, clients, etc.), and each of those email addresses needs a customized signature.

Since Gmail allows me to use multiple email addresses, they should also allow me to use multiple signatures. I think I'd be satisfied with one signature per address (although I understand the usefulness of multiple signatures per address).

That's really all the Gmail annoyances I could think of. What about you? What don't you like about Gmail?