Don’t you hate it when a supposed “advance” becomes something to be feared?  Think of the iPhone updates, or Yahoo’s switch from Musicmatch Jukebox to Yahoo Music Jukebox.  Luckily, an upgrade to Gmail for mobile really is better in almost every way.

The one questionable matter involves a “Sent from Gmail for mobile” footer that’s attached to the end of every message.  “Spam,” some might call it.  But certain types of people could like this (“look at me, I’m typing on a cell phone”), and settings can be changed to disable the message.

Otherwise, the new version is aces all around.  On the Official Gmail Blog, Joanne McKinley states that “emails are saved for later re-editing if connection drops or if you want to perform another task before sending out the message.”  Also, there are a few handy timesavers, making Gmail for mobile “more than 30 percent faster overall, and 80 percent faster for some tasks.”

The Gmail mobile team appears to have been listening to users’ suggestions; it’s this sort of thing that will greatly increase the adoption and popularity of their product, and in turn, greatly increase the product’s potential for monetization.