Why would I want to write letters in a little box in the corner of my screen, with the center full of a list of irrelevant information?

Imagine this on the desktop, "Oh, time to write code! Lets fire up the IDE, fill the center of my screen with my list of source files, and get to writing in a little window in the corner!"

Google's solution to this problem appears to be this:<p>"You want to focus on writing? You can do that! Here's a popup window!"

Haven't you heard of tabs? This is a desktop web interface. Users almost never want popups, as they create a mess of interleaving windows instead of a list of buttons to switch between contexts in a single click.

My strongest association with popup windows is with the "hot singles in your area" side of the internet. I know I'm not alone in this thinking, and it's a shame that Google is forcing this connection on users when their team has put so much consistent effort in the elimination of spam and noise in the actual inbox.

Please rethink your strategy?