Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Making it easier to video chat, voice chat, and group chat in Gmail
June 8, 2010
Posted by Josh Teague, User Experience Designer
Update (5:28PM, June 30th):
And we're back! You'll see the redesigned chat window the next time you start up a chat.
Update (4:59PM, June 9th):
Bad news: we discovered an issue with the new chat design that impacted a small number of Google Apps users. Rather than have them experience problems with chat, we've pulled back this change to fix it. We plan to have this out again in the next week or so — thanks for bearing with us.
-----
Video chat, voice chat, and group chat have all been available for some time within Gmail, but they've been curiously tucked away. Getting them up and running required fidgeting with a little menu at the bottom of each chat window. Starting today, all of these features will be just a single click away.
One of the more subtle benefits to surfacing these chat options is that it's easier for people to get started who don't yet have the
voice and video chat plugin
.
If your chat buddy doesn't have the plugin, clicking on this icon
in the chat window will invite them to install it. As soon as they're done, you can carry on with a face-to-face video chat. Since we launched
a similar feature on iGoogle and orkut
a little while ago, we've seen a dramatic uptick in people using video chat.
Finally, you'll find oldie but goodie features such as "Go off the record," "Block", and "Send SMS" in a more aptly named "Actions" menu of each chat window.
Google Maps previews in Gmail and Google Buzz
June 7, 2010
Posted by Mark Knichel, Software Engineer
I often receive emails containing addresses in them — where to meet for dinner, the location of my friend's new apartment, etc. To find out where these places actually are, I have to copy the address, open up
Google Maps
, and paste it in. Today, we're making it easier to see maps of all the addresses you receive in Gmail and Google Buzz.
Enable "Google Maps previews in mail" from the
Gmail Labs tab under Settings
, and any time you receive an address or a Google Maps link in an email, a preview will appear containing an interactive Google Map of that location. Any Google Maps URL will work, but we currently only extract US addresses (we're working on making addresses around the world work).
Additionally, when you paste a Google Maps link into the post box in Google Buzz, it'll automatically fetch an image preview of that location that you can associate with your post.
Please
let us know
if you have any feedback.
Gmail sweatshirts
June 3, 2010
Posted by Arielle Reinstein, Product Marketing Manager
When Gmail came
out of beta
, we embroidered the Gmail logo onto sweatshirts for the team. Any given day in the office, a couple of people are wearing them. When other people asked us where they too could get their very own Gmail sweatshirt, we didn't like replying with "Oh...they're not really available, it was just something we did for the team," so we made them
available in the Google Store
.
"Reshare" in Google Buzz
May 27, 2010
Posted by Sam Goto, Software Engineer
The other day I posted
this video
to the version of Buzz we use inside of Google. A few people commented on it, 13 liked it, and 68 of my coworkers thought it was interesting enough that they wanted to share it with their own followers. Collectively, thousands of people watched it, many of whom were many degrees away from me.
For the last couple weeks we've been testing reshare — and today we’re excited to roll it out to everyone. If you don't see the "Reshare" link quite yet, hang tight. It should be on for everyone by the end of the day.
How reshare works
When you find an interesting buzz post you want to reshare, instead of copying and pasting it (and maybe attributing the original poster with an @reply along the way), you can now reshare posts with two clicks.
First, click “Reshare”:
Then type up anything you want to add and click “Post”:
Your post will include a link to the original post:
Note that this only works for
public
posts;
private
posts won't have the reshare link since the original poster intended to limit the audience of their post.
A little more background
Reshare has been one of our
top user requests
, so we hope we've made a number of you happy. We realize that just as many will likely wonder why we decided to implement it the way we did. So, here's a bit more background for those who are curious:
First, back to those two clicks: one click vs. two click reshare was a hard choice (I know, it doesn't sound so hard, but we spent a lot of time on this!). Ultimately, we chose to go with two clicks because we want people to be able to reshare publicly
or privately
and also encourage resharers to add their own new content to the post.
If you follow a bunch of people who all reshare the same thing, the last thing you want is for that same post to appear over and over again. When this happens, similar posts get collapsed, so you should only see each thing once.
You'll notice that resharing creates a new post, effectively forking the conversation. To fork or not fork was a decision we debated for a while. Ultimately, we think forked conversations help create more varied, intimate discussions around a single item. We realize people may want a non-forking version too, so we're thinking about how to do that as well.
When there is a chain of reshares, the names of all of the people who publicly reshare the post appear on the original item, even if they're not directly connected to the original author. If you share something that ends up getting passed around by lots of other people, it's pretty cool to see that.
If you "like" a reshare, you don't automatically also "like" the original post. Imagine what would happen if I reshare a very positive movie review and write "What a joke! This movie was terrible!" Someone who likes my post probably doesn't want their "like" showing on the original post praising the film, too.
Overall, we’ve made a lot of progress since my original ASCII mockups...
...and after a lot of debate, we even settled on what to call it...
...but reshare is still very much a work in progress. We wanted to launch and iterate so be sure to let us know what you think in the
forum
or on Buzz.
10 tips for using Gmail at work
May 26, 2010
Posted by Michelle Lisowski, Product Marketing Manager, Google Apps
Working with a lot of small business owners who have moved their email over to
Google Apps
, we’ve found that many started out managing their work email through their personal @gmail.com accounts. So, in honor of
National Small Business Week
and the estimated 27.2 million small businesses in America, we wanted to share some tips we’ve picked up from them (and other people at Google) on how to get the most out of using Gmail at work.
1. Get a Gmail account at your own domain (e.g. michelle@yourdomain.com) with
Google Apps
.
Google Apps is a suite of communication and collaboration tools, including Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs, which run on your own domain, so instead of using your @gmail.com email address, you (and other employees) can have email addresses @yourdomain.com. Using a customized email address can help build an identity around your business and make you look more professional along the way.
2. Add a custom signature to the bottom of your email messages.
Email signatures are automatically inserted at the bottom of every message you send, and can be a great place to add your title, contact information, and even the latest news from your company. Just go to Settings at the top of your inbox and enter your signature text in the box at the bottom.
3. Manage multiple email accounts from a single interface.
If you’re like a lot of business owners, you probably regularly receive email in several different accounts. By centralizing your correspondence in Gmail, you’ll be able to keep track of it all more easily. To do this, either forward your other email addresses to your main Gmail account or route them there using Gmail’s
Mail Fetcher
, which downloads messages via POP from up to five other accounts. To set it up, visit the
Account and Import tab
under Settings.
4. Set up custom “From” addresses.
This feature allows you to send messages from Gmail with one of your other email addresses listed as the sender. Once you set it up, you can choose the address you want to reply from while composing messages in the "From:" address drop down. This too is under Settings on the
Account and Import tab
.
5. Embrace labels
. Folders are familiar, especially when it comes to work email. If you want to organize your emails in a similar way, make sure you’re using Gmail
labels
. Combined with
filters
, they can be a powerful tool to manage your mail. Create labels for projects, vendors, customers, weekly reports, launches, to-do’s -- the list goes on. You can also add custom colors to your labels, order them based on priority, and search the contents of specific labels. And don’t forget that you can drag messages into labels, just like you can with folders.
6. Use chat and video chat to communicate with colleagues, or provide real-time customer support.
No matter where everyone is located, you can communicate in real-time as though you were in the same room with video chat or just chat via voice or text. Try using “
Reply by chat
” at the bottom of each message if you want to reach the sender quickly. To add video chat capabilities to Gmail, all you need is this small
plugin
and a webcam.
7. Keep track of your to-do’s with Tasks.
You spend a lot of time in your inbox, so why not keep track of what you have to do there too?
Tasks
allows you to create multiple lists, add notes to each task, assign due dates, and get the satisfaction of checking off completed items.
8. Use offline Gmail anytime you're not online.
Despite having Internet access almost everywhere, work may take you to places where you just can’t get online. Turn on offline Gmail from the
Offline tab under Settings
, and Gmail will download a local cache of your mail which synchronizes with Gmail's servers while you’re connected. When you lose connectivity, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, so you can continue to work, and your replies are automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.
9. Create canned responses and quickly reply to common questions.
When it comes to emailing at work, you’re probably used to sending out weekly reports, or answering the same questions from customers or colleagues multiple times. That’s where
canned responses
can save precious time: turn on this feature in
Gmail Labs
, compose your response once, save it, then use it over and over again.
10. Make sure you have the right Bob before hitting send.
If you’ve ever accidentally sent a personal email to the wrong co-worker, or emailed your internal meeting notes to an external contact, then you'll want to turn on “
Got the wrong Bob?
” from the
Labs tab under Settings
. Based on the groups of people you email most often, Gmail will try to flag when you've accidentally included the wrong person.
For more tips, check out
gmail.com/tips
. To keep up with the latest news on using Gmail and other Google products at work, follow us on the
Google Enterprise Blog
.
New in Labs: Move the attachment and other icon column
May 25, 2010
Posted by Greg Bullock, Software Engineer
The icon column in Gmail helps to easily distinguish the various types of items in your inbox (e.g. messages with attachments, chats, calendar invitations, Buzz posts, and more). It's usually all the way over on the right of the screen, but with screen sizes becoming increasingly wider, I chose to make a very modest addition to Gmail Labs to try and give these icons greater visibility.
I found it much more useful to have this column situated on the far left of my inbox -- and it turns out that many of my colleagues did too.
If you’d like try out "Move Icon Column," simply visit the
Labs tab under Gmail Settings
, find this new Lab in the list, hit enable, and then save. It’s not big and it’s not clever but hopefully this lab might just be helpful for you too; it's the little things in life after all.
A new look for Google Calendar
May 19, 2010
Posted by Joe Ashear, User Experience Designer
When I came to Google four years ago, a small group of engineers was putting the finishing touches on a calendar application. A few of us started using it, and I remember thinking, "Wow! It's so fresh and shiny and new!"
But over time the shiny new Calendar started to feel a little bit old, a little out of step with other Google Apps. So we rolled up our sleeves and we tweaked the layout, we twiddled the colors and we tuned the text...and this week we're pleased to show off a fresh new look for
Google Calendar
.
If you use Tasks in Calendar, you'll discover another change: we've removed the old Tasks link. Now to turn Tasks on and off, just click the Tasks calendar in your calendar list. If you only want to see tasks with due dates — the ones above your calendar — you can hide the task list by clicking the tall blue bar that separates the calendar from the task list.
Drag images into messages
May 11, 2010
Posted by Michael Davidson, Software Engineer
Recently, we
launched a feature
that allows you to drag an attachment from your computer right onto Gmail.
I've always been a fan of the
inserting image lab
, so I naturally wondered if it would be possible to combine the two.
Today we're launching a feature that allows you to drag images from your computer into a message. You don't have to have the insert image lab enabled for it to work. Just drag the image in, resize it if you want, and send.
Currently, this feature only works in Google Chrome, but will be coming soon to other browsers.
Update 7/12/10:
This
now works in Safari
too.
Comment via email and view entire photo albums in Google Buzz
May 7, 2010
Posted by Henry Wong, Software Engineer
One of the things people like best about Google Buzz is the ability to have conversations in the comments. But until now, if you were reading a post in an email client (like the native mail app on your phone or Outlook), you couldn't easily join in on the conversation -- you could only email the original poster. Today, we rolled out a new Google Buzz feature for you to try out: comment via email. Now, you can comment on the post simply by replying to the email message.
Plus, last week we made it possible to
view entire photo albums
in Buzz (rather than the handful of photos from a given Flickr or Picasa album you could see before). So if you share an album with tons of photos, people can now click through all of the photos in the Buzz photo viewer.
We're chipping away at the feature requests we've been receiving, so
keep them coming
. And if you want to keep up with everything Google Buzz related, follow our team at
buzz.google.com/googlebuzz
.
Google Mail is becoming Gmail in the UK
May 3, 2010
Posted by Greg Bullock, Software Engineer
As a Brit, my friends and family often tell me they're miffed that they get an @googlemail.com address instead of @gmail.com. Today I have good news for them: Google Mail is soon becoming Gmail again in the UK.
If you already have a Google email account in the UK, you'll soon have the option to switch your existing @googlemail.com address to the matching @gmail.com one, but you're also free to stick with @googlemail.com. And starting later this week, anybody who signs up for a new account in the UK will get an @gmail.com address. Since "gmail" is 50% fewer characters than "googlemail," we estimate this name change will save approximately 60 million keystrokes a day. At about 217 microjoules per keystroke, that's about the energy of 20 bonbons saved every day!
We'll be making this transition over the next week, and will update this post as the changes roll out. So to Aunty Pamela, Uncle Maurice, and everyone else in the UK, welcome to Gmail!
Update (6:30 pm PST, May 5th)
: We've updated the homepage in the UK to show "Gmail" instead of "Google Mail," and from now on, all new accounts will get @gmail.com addresses. If you're in the UK and would like to change your @googlemail.com address to @gmail.com, just click "switch to @gmail.com" in the Accounts tab under Settings (this link will only show up if you're eligible to change your address).
Switching will only affect your address; your account settings, contacts, and existing mail won't be modified. And you won't miss any mail if you make the switch -- any mail sent to your old @googlemail.com address will be automatically delivered to your new @gmail.com address. If you want, you can send messages from your @googlemail.com address by
setting up a custom "from" address
, or if you change your mind you can even switch back to your @googlemail.com address. If you have any questions about how this change affects you, check out the
FAQ
in our Help Center.
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