I actually somewhat empathize with lotus's view that Gmail should just be Email and that's it. I think it is bad UX if people who just want email and not these confusing new "social" business have their software change in their face with disruptive noises.
I think Google is moving in the right direction when they introduced that account page / dashboard thing that acts as a hub for Google services. Unfortunately there isn't much besides just the list there for now. What I'd hope is for Google Me to expand on this idea and actually show people how they are related to the data Google has about them, and more importantly, what they can do with it.
Look at what they did with iGoogle. I don't like its loss of simplicity, but it would be a much better 'control center' for all these various offerings...
I think Google is moving in the right direction when they introduced that account page / dashboard thing that acts as a hub for Google services. Unfortunately there isn't much besides just the list there for now. What I'd hope is for Google Me to expand on this idea and actually show people how they are related to the data Google has about them, and more importantly, what they can do with it.