I love my Gmail.

No kidding, I'm a Gmail slappy. It's simple and it works. Its spam filters are 99.9% right in my experience, and with spam making up as much as 80 percent of all email, you know that's a time-saver right there. Plus, I can check my Gmail anywhere I have access to a web browser, even on my little not-quite-a-smartphone Samsung SCH-u740. I don't even have to pay for a data plan. I recommend Gmail to everybody. Or I have been until now.

Gmail has one nagging problem which is threatening to drive a wedge between us. While Gmail is supportive of me in so many ways, it's lacking in its support of HTML and CSS standards. Not just a little; I'm talking hardly any support at all. So I never get the full experience of the lovingly crafted HTML emails that other clever web designers have created for me, just Gmail's limited interpretation of their intended appearance.

You might say, isn't that a good thing? After all, email should be all monospaced, with no graphics. Everything would run a lot faster that way. And I'd agree with you, if this was still 1990.

The main issue here is compliance with web standards. As a web designer, I know the frustration of having to create multiple versions of pages for specific browsers, because each one handled the interpretation of HTML a bit differently. While the major browsers have come a long way towards standardization (and Microsoft's about face regarding Internet Explorer 8 last month was another big step in that direction), both desktop and web-based email clients support web standards anywhere from completely to not-very-much-at-all. And Gmail falls into that second category.

It's not like it can't be done. Yahoo! Mail supports HTML/CSS standards very well, as tested by the Email Standards Project. So does Mozilla's desktop email client, Thunderbird. So why not Gmail?

Google, it's time to show the love back to your Gmail fans. Consider the recommendations from the Email Standards Project, and make Gmail compliant with web standards. Your users - and thousands of web designers - will thank you for it.

Email Standards Project - Gmail Grimaces from Mathew Patterson on Vimeo.

Hat tip to Amy Stephen of OpenSourceCommunity.org for the info about the Email Standards Project.