Future English: Previous and Next

I have noticed that, apart from pop-up ads and spam protection, email systems also differ in the way that they allow users to navigate back and forth through messages without returning to their inbox.

In my Gmail account, I have noted with approval that to get to a more recent message I click on "newer"; to get to a less recent message, I click on "older." This is very fine, and in keeping with Google's pledge not to be evil.

In my Yahoo and Fastmail accounts, on the other hand, "previous" means newer and "next" means older. In other words, previous means next and next means previous. This is perverse. It doesn't even make sense from a spatial point of view, because everyone knows that the newest message appears at the top.

I don't know if lexicographers of current English have picked up on this. But when I'm old and the barista at Starbucks says, "Can I help who's previous?", I'll know where it all began.