Did GMail finally mess up?

I think GMail has made an error.

No, it’s not a big error, and yes, it’s still my favorite web-based email service.

But they still messed up with GMail Labs.

It’s a great idea, so far it’s giving off great fruit, and I would be a sadder person today if it did not exist. That said, I was kind of interested in how to develop for it. So I went to the Labs portion of my Settings page, scrolled to the bottom, and was told:

Looking for something we don’t have? Suggest a Labs feature or join the Gmail team and write your own!

Lame! There are probably hundreds of people who would love to get a development kit from GMail and write their own Labs features, host them externally, and suddenly POOF! GMail would have hundreds of plugins, and it would suddenly be just as awesome as Firefox or gedit or vim! I’m not saying GMail needs to release its source. All I’m saying is that they should release enough of it for developers.

FAQ

Q: How would this help Google?

A: It would make GMail much more powerful, giving it an edge over the competition.

Q: How would this help me?

A: It would provide you, the GMail user, with a much more powerful interface.

Q: Why do you keep using the phrase “much more powerful”?

A: Because it sounds better than “powerfuler”.

Q: That was a terrible answer.

A: And that’s not a question. Are we even?

Q: But, couldn’t you just submit a feature request?

A: Yes, but it’d have to be an exceptional idea for the official GMail staff to make it. Opening it up would provide a lot more people willing to code, which would make the good ideas happen too.

Q: What if this crashes GMail?

A: They already have the option to open GMail without Labs.

Q: What about privacy?

A: I’m sure there’s a way to give developers enough control to develop, but not enough control to feed them your personal information.

Q: What about Better GMail/Greasmonkey? (Thanks, Peter)

A: First of all, native is better than third-party. Second of all, a LOT of end users don’t know about/care about Better GMail/Greasmonkey. Third of all, Better GMail/Greasemonkey only works on computers you install it on, while what I propose would be universal for your account.