gmail

Gmail grows up with offline e-mail access

Significantly increasing the utility and competitiveness of its Web-based e-mail service, Google is enabling an experimental ability to read, write, and search Gmail messages even while not connected to the network.

Google believes almost religiously in cloud computing, the idea that computer applications and data live on the Internet rather than on PCs. But there are times when the network is inaccessible, and generally Web-based applications like today's Gmail effectively seize up under those circumstances.

Offline sidesteps that problem, the classic example being a busy executive traveling on a plane. And offline Gmail access begins a new chapter for … Read more

Google stuff we missed this week

Between its big earnings call and rolling out a snazzy New York visitors' center, Google's been pretty busy this week. Here are five bits of news that slipped through the cracks:

Watch YouTube videos in Gmail Chat. Having YouTube video links turn into videos in Google Talk is nothing new, but the feature is now a part of Gmail too. Web users who had lusted over the desktop software's feature are now able to do the same right in the browser. Dropping in any YouTube URL will insert the video into your conversation stream, where it can be … Read more

Inside Google's Gmail: What's next?

Earlier this week, I sat down with Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson to talk about the future of the service and to find out what's been keeping the team busy behind the scenes. Here are five tidbits from our meeting you might find interesting.

1. More Themes are coming--including ones designed by you.

No new Gmail Themes have been added since the feature launch in late November, but Jackson says more of the skins are coming. "We want to keep adding Themes. People like it. We don't know exactly how we'll do that yet. The 30 Themes that we chose were hand-designed to look great in Gmail."

Jackson says the team was split on whether to open up the design process to third parties, like what's been done on Google's customizable start page, iGoogle.

"We've thought about continuing to do it the way we did, and we thought about opening it up for other people to (design them)." Most of the hesitation has centered around Gmail's design, which makes skinning tricky business. "Gmail's structure is an application that's written all in JavaScript. It's a different beast. The detail level we did on Themes--we went pretty deep."

That complexity doesn't mean that the Gmail folks are beyond letting users design their own themes. When pressed if there would one day be a design-your-own Theme tool, Jackson said the closest thing users might be getting is a tool that lets them choose the colors of each Gmail element, similar to the color picker used for Gmail's labeling system.

As to when new Themes are coming, Jackson wouldn't say. However, I got a peek at a few rejects and early mock-ups, including several iterations of plaid that would get the lumberjack or golfer in all of us a little excited.

2. No iPhone Gmail app in the works

For iPhone users who are fed up with Apple's built-in Mail application and wish that they could get a native Gmail application like the ones for Android and J2ME phones--don't hold your breath. "We could make one for mail, potentially," Jackson said, "but we'd also have to make one for Palm and BlackBerry. For each platform, it's time consuming."

Instead Jackson thinks the future of Gmail on phones centers around improved 3G coverage and new standards such as HTML 5 that will make using Gmail on your handset's browser less painful. "If we can design for the Web and give you the client-like experience that you're used to getting with Gmail on your browser, it's going to be a good experience."… Read more

Send+archive combo button economizes Gmail

Google has added a Gmail Labs option that lets people send and archive their e-mail at the same time.

The send function is obvious, but for those unfamiliar with Gmail, the archive is a potentially giant repository of all messages that aren't in your inbox or deleted. Stuffing a message there is a good way to file it; it's still available through search or by clicking on any label you attached to it, and if somebody replies to it, the conversation thread pops back into your inbox.

I switched this on the moment I heard about it. First, … Read more

5 little Gmail annoyances Google needs to fix

Last week, I discussed why Gmail is the best e-mail service on the Web and took a look at all those features that earn it that title. But just because it's the best doesn't mean that the e-mail service doesn't annoy me sometimes. In fact, Gmail has a handful of quirks that Google needs to address.

E-mail scans for advertising

Call me a privacy nut or just way too worrisome, but I don't like that Google scans my e-mail to deliver more relevant ads. It's not that I'm against relevant ads--I think that's … Read more

Gmail for the desktop

Are you a Gmail user with a huge inbox and archive? Mailplane gives you desktop-app functionality with the security of keeping your mail safe on the gServers. Mailplane works just like Gmail, offering the same functionality you've come to expect online right on your Mac desktop.

Along with e-mail, you can continue to have conversations with friends, labels for easier sorting, global access to e-mail, spam protection, and more. But even better than the online client, Mailplane integrates seamlessly with iLife apps, so you can browse and attach photos from iPhoto and music from iTunes. Drag-and-drop support makes attachments … Read more

What Gmail does better than its competitors

As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time wading through e-mails, finding the best e-mail service is paramount in my life.

Realizing that, I've done my fair share of shuffling from one e-mail program to the next--trying to find the best service that not only offers speed and stability, but also reliability and spam control. And although e-mail services are getting better, it's abundantly clear that few offer the kind of experience I'm really looking for in an e-mail client. But Google's Gmail app is different. It's better than its competition on a number … Read more

Gmail gets one-button dump option

Turning your Gmail into an editable document used to be as simple as one, two, three clicks. Thanks to a new Gmail feature, however, it's now as simple as, well, one click.

Created by Jeremie LE and David K, the new feature, when activated, lets you turn the contents of an e-mail into a Google document with the click of a button.

To activate this feature, from your Gmail account click on Settings, then click on the Labs link. Scroll down to the Create a Document section. Check Enable and click Save changes. Now, you'll see a Create … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 872: Butt-squeezing death trap

It's a racy Buzz Out Loud as Natali Del Conte and Molly Wood double-team Jason Howell. Yes, by the way, that was the most blatant click-bait I've ever written. We discuss who's the bigger liar: Google or the Wall Street Journal. Plus, mobile news galore, including FCC approval of the Garmin Nuviphone. And then it gets too hot to remain in the studio and we flee to cooler climates.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 872

Does Google want Net priority? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122929270127905065.html http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2008/12/net-neutrality-and-benefits-of-caching.html … Read more

Gmail gets a proper PDF viewer

Gmail's integrated software-free PDF viewer has received a nice upgrade courtesy of Google Docs. Now opening up a PDF in Gmail won't fire up your native PDF viewer (like the slow-to-load Adobe Acrobat), and instead will send you to the document reader built into Google Docs.

There are two other benefits to this, the first being the updated page view which lets you hop around the document a whole lot faster. The other is the built-in zoom, which scales the text to fit your monitor with a higher degree of detail than the text resizer found in your … Read more