Recently updated GMail brings with it ads disguised as Emails

It’s well known that Google generates specific and targeted ads in the Gmail service based on looking at the emails of its users. It’s a practice that’s not well liked by some people and even Microsoft has slammed Google in the past for how it handles ads in Gmail.

Now it looks like Google is actually sending ads that look like emails directly into the inboxes of at least some Gmail subscribers. This new “feature” was noticed by some users last week. VentureBeat reports that the ad messages are found in the “Promotions” tab, which is typically filled with newsletters, ads and press releases.

In a statement to VentureBeat, Google tried to explain the nature of these new “messages”:

Instead of ads always appearing at the top of your inbox, they’ve been relegated to a more appropriate place in your Promotions category. In addition, we’ve raised the quality of these ads and won’t show you an ad unless it’s relevant — which means you may sometimes see no ads at all in your Promotions tab. You can also dismiss the ads you see in your Promotions tab by clicking the “X” button on the right-hand side.

The ads only appear with the recently updated Gmail interface, which separates emails as “Primary,” “Social” or “Promotions” by default. If you opted to stick with the old tabless UI, then they won’t appear. However, the fact is that some people actually like to go through the “Promotions” tab to find deals based on newsletters they signed up for. That Google is now putting their own ads disguised as emails could be considered by some, and rightfully so, as spam right in their Promotions box.