How to turn off conversation view in Google Mail

A long, long time ago in a galaxy very near (yes, the one we live in), Google launched a Beta product called GMail. They started a true revolution in the world of webmail with giving users a full Gigabyte of storage capacity. Back in 2004, actually only five years ago, that was considered a lot. Especially since Hotmail gave 10MB or something, or perhaps even 25 at the time. Either way, not a lot.

They also introduced a very fancy way of displaying mail in threads. Or Conversations, and they called it. Many liked it. Personally, I liked it a lot. And so did Google.

Despite a big outcry from around the web for Google to offer a normal display of threads, they have always refused. Call it stubborn or just a case of superiority complex, they knew that the public would adopt their way anyway. And besides, it was better!

Yes, it was. But it has - if you'd ask me - one disadvantage. Opening a conversation would mark all mails in it as read. And not just the ones you have actually read. This has probably led to me missing the contents of few emails actually, as it's easy to overlook a mail in the conversation. Especially if there are several people answering to the same conversation at the same time, and mails coming in while you're reading one.

So, Google finally gave in - and offers users the possibility of turning it off. How? Easy!

1. Click "settings" in the top right corner of your GMail interface
2. In the "general" tab (which is on by default) you'll find a new category called "Conversation view"
3. Two options are available. Either it's On or it's Off. Decide what you want.
4. Save the changes

That's all. I'm gonna give it a try myself, how about you?

(and now I'm also going to turn this annoying Britney Spears album off which I've got playing on Spotify. I gave that a try, and it didn't disappoint me. I expected not to like it, and indeed I hate it)

Note: After some Googling I realized that this feature has been possible since September 2010. Guess that's how infrequest I chech which settings are available ;)