Russian Gmail art
27/02/2008, 10:57:49 ب.ظ Test
Posted by Arielle Reinstein, Product Marketing ManagerWe've seen people recreate the M from the Gmail logo out of dominoes and even sand, but until our colleagues in Google's Moscow office created this video, we're pretty sure no one had ever made a giant Gmail interface with:- 162 meters of gray tape- 45 lego pieces - 32 sticks of plasticine- 18 brushes- 18 square meters of batten- 12 cans of spray paint- 10 liters of white paint- 4 reams of paper- 2 kilograms of millet porridge- 1 printer- 1 hair dryer- 1 mop- 1 sawAnd the actual M at the end of the video? That's 3 sweaters, 3 balls, 3 pillows, 2 dumbbells, 2 pair of gloves, a set of child's plates, a hockey stick, a scarf, a paper folder, hats and slippers. All in red of course.

Invisible mode is here for Gmail chat
26/02/2008, 05:33:51 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Jonas Lindberg, Software EngineerSometimes you need to chat with someone about an urgent project, but can't be bothered by anyone else. And going "busy" just isn't enough -- you might still get that unwanted ping. So, as some people have already noticed, we rolled out invisible mode for the latest version of Gmail chat last Friday. With this feature, you can appear offline, and still send and receive messages. If you're using AIM in Gmail, invisible mode also makes you appear signed out on the AIM network. Invisible mode is one of the most requested chat features and so we're happy to add this option, starting in Gmail Chat, and in the future all Talk clients.As some of you have already noted, chat could be less useful if lots of people go invisible. We'll keep an eye on it and look for your feedback to be sure we're doing what's best for the community.

Del-eat your spam
22/02/2008, 12:56:46 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing ManagerEven though I've worked on the Gmail team for about six months and have been a fan for years, I continue to notice new things in the product all the time. Like the other day, when out of curiosity, I checked out my spam folder to see what kind of bank scams or enlargement pills were being filtered from my innocent eyes, and I noticed something below the search box. Was that really a recipe for spicy SPAM kabobs?It sure was -- and it didn't end there. I found all sorts of SPAM recipes including savory SPAM crescents, SPAM primavera, and for the health conscious, a gingered SPAM salad. I figured this was either the result of savvy ad targeting or a few Gmail engineers had a soft spot for the canned meat (which wouldn't be entirely surprising given the team's copious consumption of canned energy drinks). I decided to do some reconnaissance.At first I was told that these recipes "were placed there by elves when we weren't looking" (real cute), but Keith, one of Gmail's Product Managers, eventually divulged the real story. Turns out that when they came up with the idea for Web Clips, they didn't think it made sense to show these RSS feeds and ads in the spam folder. After all, these clips should be useful and fun, but spam (of the email variety) is neither of these things. Not knowing what to put here, Keith searched for "spam recipes" and decided to make a feed out of the results. As he said, "it was just one of those late night ideas" -- probably a consequence of too many said energy drinks.After relentlessly scouring recipes for the most delicious sounding concoctions, they came to the conclusion that spam -- a painful phenomenon plaguing email inboxes -- can actually lead you to a delightful Sunday brunch. Who's up for breakfast burritos this weekend?

New version of Gmail soon available in 37 languages
14/02/2008, 10:05:10 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Robby Stein, Associate Product Marketing ManagerTonight, we're starting to roll out the new version of Gmail in 37 languages.* As we first announced when we launched in English, this version, available for IE7 and Firefox 2, has an entirely new code base, which allows us to add new features more rapidly and share components with other Google applications (we now use the same rich text editor as Groups and Page Creator, and the contact manager can be seen in several Google apps). So if you were using English, you can now change your default language from the Settings menu to take advantage of a bunch of features that have recently launched in your preferred language, including:
Colored labels
Group chat
Rich emoticons
A new contact manager with a three-pane layout
A number of smaller features, such as new shortcut keys and the ability to bookmark individual emails with your browserOne side effect of this change is that it may disrupt some third-party Gmail extensions -- unsupported scripts that directly modify Gmail's code. If you don't use them, you don't need to worry about this. But if you do, we've contacted a number of the developers behind some popular extensions and many of them have updated their scripts, so make sure you're using the latest version or check back with them if you encounter any issues.*The newest version of Gmail is not yet available for Croatian, Icelandic, Hebrew or Arabic, but you can continue using the older version in these languages. The newest version also is not yet available for Google Apps for your domain.

Have Gmail do your laundry
07/02/2008, 11:03:13 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Erik Wong, Consumer Operations AssociateGmail has a lot of great features, but maybe there's this one thing that you really wish it could do. Well, we'd like to know what it is. We're constantly building and testing new features, and many -- like free automatic forwarding, signature options, and IMAP access -- have been brought to you by popular demand.So do you want colorful background themes? We'll look into it. Want Gmail to do your laundry? Well, it never hurts to ask. If you'd like to suggest a feature, click "Help" at the top of any page in your Gmail account. On the right side of the Gmail Help Center, you'll see a "Let us know" link in the "Suggest a feature" box. I work on the team that regularly reviews and analyzes the requests you make, and I look forward to seeing your ideas.

IMAP on Windows Mobile devices
31/01/2008, 02:23:02 ق.ظ Test
Posted by Jamie Nicolson, Software EngineerSince we added IMAP access to Gmail in October, we've heard from a number of Windows Mobile users that their Gmail IMAP experience wasn't great -- some were receiving blank messages and others could read headers but not entire messages. There are a lot of email clients out there, each with its own quirks, so making IMAP work across all of them can be tricky. We've worked with Microsoft engineers to debug the incompatibilities with Windows Mobile and made some tweaks to our code. As some people have already noticed, these fixes went out last week, so you should now have a better experience reading and sending Gmail messages using IMAP from your Windows Mobile device. If you haven't yet set up IMAP, just follow the configuration instructions to get started.

Gmail/Greasemonkey API issue
30/01/2008, 01:48:24 ق.ظ Test
Posted by Dan Pupius, Gmail engineerFirst off, this update is only for those of you who write or run Greasemonkey scripts. If you don't have any third-party extensions installed or don't know what we're talking about, you can ignore this post.Ok... looks like some of you are still reading.We recently pushed a change so Gmail Javascript now loads in an iframe. The Greasemonkey bindings we expose still work as described in the Gmail/Greasemonkey API; however, there may be a side effect to how some scripts work. Since the "gmonkey" object is now loaded in the context of the JS frame, "window" in the Greasemonkey script is now a reference to the JS frame and not the main window. Some scripts depended on this behavior to modify aspects of the page without going through our APIs. If you're the author of a Gmail Greasemonkey script, you should be able to work around the update by changing the window object used -- Mihai P. posted an update to his Macros script on Friday. If you are accessing the "gmonkey" object via a different mechanism, then you can reference it using top.js.gmonkey for now, and an update will be pushed this week that creates an alias in the main window's context.

Gmail Help Discussion to the rescue
26/01/2008, 08:31:31 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Sze-jun Tsai, Consumer Operations AssociateHere's the scenario: you decide to try out a new Gmail feature and suddenly you have some questions. What do you do? Come on down to the Gmail Help Discussion Group.The Gmail Help Discussion Group is an interactive user forum where Gmail users communicate with one another. You can get quick and easy access to information for troubleshooting technical problems, share your wealth of experience with other users, get a fellow user's perspective on something that is confusing you, or just stay up to date with Gmail -- all through this community forum.Here are some tips to help you along:Tip #1: Someone may have already posted about your topic or question, so search or browse for previous threads before posting a new one.Tip #2: If you're troubleshooting, try to provide as many details as possible. Specific error messages and specific actions that you took can help others understand what you're experiencing and what you've already tried. For instance, if you're having problems sending messages, specify exactly what occurs, any error messages that you receive, and your computing specifications (such as browser type and operating system) to help the group identify if your problem can be easily remedied or if it will require direct assistance from the Gmail team.Tip #3: Keep an eye out for the "Gmail Groupies," a particularly active and helpful bunch of Gmail users who really enjoy sharing their knowledge and expertise. You can recognize them by scanning previous posts and looking for frequent contributors.Whether you want to provide other users with help or have a question of your own, you can join the growing community of more than 200,000 members.

Your Gmail stories
24/01/2008, 07:42:10 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing ManagerA few weeks ago we invited you to share your Gmail stories with the world, and over 1,500 of you responded with emails and videos describing the creative and productive ways you use Gmail. Many of you were practical, lots were sweet, most were clever, several were talented, and some of you provided a good laugh. We can't keep these to ourselves any longer, so we created a collaborative video that combines many of the stories we received. We also want to share some of the great emails you sent, so head to gmail.com/yourstory to check them out. We hope that you'll enjoy the stories as much as we do, and maybe even find some new ways to use Gmail along the way.P.S. It's never to late to share your story.

New "e" shortcut archives every time
16/01/2008, 01:37:59 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Vivek Gupta, Engineering ManagerIntroducing: shortcut "e." It's a new shortcut key that archives email. You might be thinking, "Doesn't shortcut key 'y' archive email too? Why make a new way to archive?" Well, let me explain. I'm a heavy Gmail user, to say the least--I get 1,000+ emails a day. So to manage it all I have filters that auto-label emails while still showing them in my inbox. Sometimes I read them from my inbox, but many times I click on the label name to pull all of my new mail from a certain category ("label view"). In reading mail from these two views, I noticed a quirky instance where you cannot use shortcut keys to archive email while in label view.Shortcut "y" archives when you are reading mail from your inbox, but it actually removes the label if you read email from your label view. This is because technically, "y" removes the conversation from the current view. In inbox it removes from inbox, and in label view it removes the label. So to archive in the true sense of the word (removing it from inbox view) in "label view," I had to click the "more actions" drop-down menu and actually hand-select "archive." After enabling shortcuts in Settings, tapping "e" will now archive your message no matter what. No more unnecessary mouse movements for me, and hopefully for you.

Important changes to email deletion on the iPhone mail client
16/01/2008, 01:15:58 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Keith Coleman, Product ManagerThere's a new software update for the iPhone. The next time you sync your iPhone with iTunes, your iPhone will be updated to version 1.1.3 of Apple's software. It has a nice new feature -- the built-in Mail app on the iPhone will now use IMAP to access your Gmail account, rather than POP, like it used to. IMAP is way better -- it keeps your mail in sync wherever you read it. If you read a message on your iPhone, it will be marked as read in your Gmail account. If you move a message to a folder on your iPhone, it will be moved to that label in Gmail. If you delete a message on your iPhone, it will be moved to the Trash in Gmail and permanently deleted in 30 days. This is different than what used to happen! Before, deleting a message on the iPhone had no effect on your Gmail account. But now, delete actually deletes! :)If you want mail you delete on your iPhone to get archived in Gmail rather than moved to the Trash, you can manually set up IMAP using the "Other" menu option and follow the instructions in the Gmail Help Center or in our instructional video.If you have already manually configured your iPhone to access Gmail using IMAP via this "Other" menu option, then nothing will change for you, and you're good to go. (When you delete a message on your iPhone, it will get archived in Gmail, not moved to Trash. Just as it always has.)

New Gmail for the iPhone
14/01/2008, 11:23:03 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Alex Kennberg, Google mobile teamWe've just released a new look and feel for the mobile version of Gmail on your iPhone. Our goal: make Gmail fit nicely as part of the latest Google on your iPhone experience. This means that we had to make Gmail faster and more fluid.To do that, we decided to use AJAX--a powerful set of web development techniques that make web pages more responsive. We also implemented two of the coolest and most requested features for this release: pre-fetching and auto-complete. Now when you use Google on your iPhone, Gmail will automatically pre-load all your most recent messages for you. So when you decide to read a message it will be on your screen in a snap.Address auto-complete is my favorite new feature--and one of the most requested. I wanted to be able to type a full email address in under two seconds on the iPhone. With auto-complete you can often get the right email address on your screen within 2-3 key strokes.Finally, our user experience designer worked hard to develop a very fluid interface that fits the whole Google experience on the iPhone. These changes take into account that you have to tap the virtual buttons with your finger, so we made sure to size everything appropriately.To get to Gmail on your iPhone and get the full new Google experience, just go to www.google.com in your web browser, hit the Gmail tab and sign in. Google Apps users with custom domains can also use this new Gmail interface by visiting mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com. Please leave comments on the Google mobile blog and let us know what you think.

Create personal mailing lists through contact manager
11/01/2008, 02:05:34 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Robby Stein, Associate Product Marketing ManagerI have about eight friends from high school I like to keep in touch with frequently. We all email updates or the occasional funny YouTube video to the group, but every once in a while I'd forget to include one of them or I'd accidentally use one friend's obsolete school address. I found a really useful solution for emailing small groups like this one that is easier to use with the new contact manager interface, which we launched in Gmail for IE7 and Firefox2. You can create custom "groups" of contacts so you don't have to remember individual names or email addresses. You don't create a true mailing list, per se -- it's just a simple way to email a handful of people at once.To create contact groups, click "Contacts" from the left-hand navigation list and then click the groups icon:


After naming your group, browse for contacts you want to add to it. You can find them by clicking "All Contacts" or by searching by name or email address. Once you locate the contact you'd like to add to your group, click on the contact name, and select the "Groups" drop down menu in the right-most pane. You can add any contact to a group this way -- or make impromptu new groups. (You can also add people to groups by clicking a group name and then typing email addresses or names in the search box at the bottom of the middle pane).
The great thing about creating contact groups is that they "auto-complete": you can type the group name as you normally would type email addresses or contact names, and by selecting the group from the drop down menu, the group's contacts are automatically inserted. Your email recipients will not see your group name when they receive the email, but instead will see all the individual contact names and email addresses listed as normal.While this feature is great for creating efficient ways to email small groups, we encourage you to use Google Groups to manage large ones.

We're taking a break, but you don't have to
21/12/2007, 11:41:10 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Robby Stein, Associate Product Marketing ManagerWe've had a busy year re-coding Gmail and providing you with a slew of new features before this holiday season. Now it's time for a break. We'll be back in January, but until then, we've assembled a list of things you can do using Gmail in case you get bored over the holiday*:
Try one of three new chat features to keep in better touch: group chat with your family, reconnect with your long lost AIM friends, or add some spirit to your smiley.
Grab a video camera and share your Gmail story with the world.
Send out your holiday cards by email -- it's cheaper than stamps and they're searchable that way.
Change your labels to holiday colors to make your inbox more festive.
Playing with your iPhone this holiday season? Then try out free IMAP access and sync your Gmail inbox across devices. Thanks for all the feedback you've given us this year, and we hope you enjoy the newest features. On behalf of the entire Gmail team, happy holidays and have a wonderful New Year. See you in 2008.*Some of these features only work in the latest version of Gmail, now available for English IE7 and Firefox 2 users.

Colored labels with filters: A new way to read your inbox
20/12/2007, 10:15:08 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Robby Stein, Associate Product Marketing ManagerColored labels make it easier to keep track of emails, and by using them with filters, I realized they can provide an almost entirely new way of visualizing my inbox based on context rather than order. By setting up filters so emails from certain senders (or on certain topics) automatically appear with colored labels, I can scan my inbox just by looking at the colors.For example, I have filters that apply a red "Important!" label to emails sent to me by my manager, a purple "Vacation" label to emails that have "vacation" in the text, and a green "Industry News" label to emails that are sent to industry lists I subscribe to. Now when I open my email and see a bunch of red labeled messages, I know I have a lot of responding to do right away.To set up a filter with a colored label, simply click the "Create a filter" link next to the search box. Add senders or certain words you want to keep a better eye on, click next, and assign a label by checking "apply the label" and choosing an appropriate one. Then just pick a label color by clicking the color swatch next to the label title in the left-hand navigation menu. Give colored labels with filters a try and see if it changes the way you read your inbox too.

What's your story? Part II
18/12/2007, 10:28:46 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing ManagerA few days after inviting you to share your Gmail stories, we're already impressed with the results. Among many others, so far we've heard from:A father who uses Gmail as a digital journal for his son:A soldier stationed in Iraq:A record producer who completed an album without ever speaking to the artist in person:A multi-tasking college student:We've seen stories that are heartwarming, interesting, funny, and informative. Some people are singing, others are drawing, and some are using special effects. If you don't have a story to share, the responses might inspire you to think of a new way to use Gmail. (I'm already looking forward to starting that digital baby journal in a few years!)Keep those stories -- and ideas -- coming; we can't wait to see what you'll think of next.

'?' answers your shortcut questions
18/12/2007, 05:20:08 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Anatol Pomazau, Software EngineerGmail shortcuts can save you a lot time, and recently we've added even more. But with so many shortcuts it can be a challenge to remember them all. For example, did you know that "s" applies a star, "!" reports spam, and "#" moves a message to the trash? For this reason, we added a shortcut reference menu you can call up by holding "shift" and hitting the "?" key while logged in. It's easy to remember: just type "?" any time you have a question about a shortcut and need a reminder. Then click anywhere off the shortcut menu in Gmail to dismiss it. This feature works in the latest version of Gmail, currently available for English IE7 and Firefox 2 users. Don't forget to enable shortcuts in Settings --"?" is a shortcut itself. Happy shortcutting and happy holidays.

What's your story?
10/12/2007, 10:42:41 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Miriam Schneider, Associate Product Marketing ManagerYou might remember that we were inspired to launch Gmail in 2004 after hearing one frustrated emailer's story. Many years and iterations later, we're still listening -- whether you have a bug to report or a feature to suggest. It keeps us motivated (and entertained) when we hear stories about what you've done using Gmail. A man in Jakarta told us that he uses Gmail on his mobile phone to stay productive during his four hour daily commute, while an author in Florida wrote to us describing how he relies on Gmail in every step of his writing process.To continually remind us of why we work so hard on Gmail, we started pinning these cool stories on the walls around Google. We quickly realized, however, that this wasn't very resource-friendly (and despite a past April Fool's announcement, we are quite eco-conscious) and it definitely wasn't the best way to share them with the rest of the Gmail community. So to save some wall space -- and paper -- we'd like to give you the opportunity to make a video of your Gmail story to share with the world. All you need is a story about how you've used Gmail and a video camera. You don't even need to be creative; you can just tell it like it is. But if creativity is your thing (and we know you have it in you after all the awesome submissions we got from our last collaborative video), feel free to spice it up however you'd like. Just make sure it's 30 seconds or less and submitted by December 31st. Go to http://gmail.com/yourstory to find directions on how to submit yours.We look forward to hearing – and seeing – your stories. And saving a tree or two.

Gmail + chat + AIM = crazy delicious
04/12/2007, 11:31:22 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Michael Davidson, Software EngineerI was pretty excited when we launched chat integration in Gmail. Finally I could chat and email in one place--but I couldn't chat with friends using other instant messaging services.From the beginning, Google has been committed to open standards and interoperation for instant messaging. So when our friends at AOL agreed to let Gmail users talk to users on their network, we jumped at the chance.Today we are happy to tell you about a new feature we've started to roll out which will enable you to sign into your AIM account and chat with your AIM buddies right inside Gmail. When you log in to AIM through Gmail chat, your AOL buddies will appear in your chat list with friends from your Google Talk network, and you will see the yellow "running man" logo to the right of your AIM friends' screen names. To your AIM friends it will look like you are logged in to AIM as usual.Having more friends to chat with is always more fun and we hope you enjoy this new feature, which we are rolling out today to English Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 users.P.S. If you own a large IM network and would like to work with us, have your people contact our people.

Group chat and rich emoticons now available in Gmail chat
04/12/2007, 08:47:52 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Sergey Solyanik, Software EngineerThe new Gmail Seattle team is happy to announce two additions to Gmail's built-in chat capabilities: group chat and enhanced emoticons.To start a group chat, click "Group chat" from the "Options" menu when chatting. Enter the names of the people you want to add, and, bingo, you're in your very own chat room. All the familiar features such as chat archiving and taking the chat off the record still work as well.You'll also now notice a smiley face in the bottom right-hand corner of your chat window. You can still use regular emoticon keyboard shortcuts, such as :) or =P, but this menu lets you select the style of the emoticons you send. Beyond the good old classic Gmail smileys there are two brand new, rich emoticon styles.These features only work with the latest version of Gmail, which we are still rolling out to IE6, international and Google Apps users. We're looking forward to using Gmail's new modular architecture to bring you more features like these with faster turnaround.

The next evolution of labels
04/12/2007, 06:18:38 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Dave Cohen, Software EngineerBack in the Paleolithic Era, the world was a very different kind of place. People were hunter-gatherers, lived in caves, and kept all their email in folders*. You can't really blame them. Between tracking woolly mammoths, fashioning crude stone tools, and auditioning for commercials, having a highly tuned system for organizing email wasn't their highest priority.But people changed. We moved out of caves and into skyscrapers. We hunt for bargains at the corner grocery. And we play video games simulating ourselves playing video games.As we've changed, so too have our demands for email. Out of the email primordial ooze, Gmail was born with evolutionarily advantageous features like threaded conversations, a mitochondrial symbiosis between mail and chat, and labels. Most email solutions make users slot their emails into bland manila folders, classifying their contents as either black or white, with no subtle shades of gray. But where do you put the heated debate about M&M color superiority: the "ridiculous philosophical discussions," "all things brown," or "chats with mom" folder? With labels, you no longer have to choose. You can sort it all three ways.Today, we're happy to announce the next evolution of labels: the colored label. Until now the label has been a little inconspicuous creature, subtly suggesting categorical associations in its simple green coat. Oh, we've seen the colored label here and there, its precursors surfacing in various experiments and Greasemonkey scripts; but the label has never before been so brazen, so bold. How will it use its new colors? Will it disguise itself with the chameleon's camouflage or clamor for attention with the monarch butterfly's vivid contrast?Me? I'm subscribed to a lot of mailing lists: "The Britney Spears Fanboy Club," "Foie Gras Lovers Anonymous," and "UFO Sightings Daily," just to name a few. I get so much mail from my lists, I filter and archive most of it right away but I add labels just in case I need to find it again later. Those labels are my chameleons draped in subtle tones of green and blue. They're there doing their job, but I barely notice them. Every once in a while I get mail that's really important. These emails get my monarch butterfly labels, sporting bright red and yellow. Thanks to colored labels, it's easy to scan my inbox and immediately find all the emails that are really important to me.Evolution is a great thing.*P.S. We actually kinda like folders. In fact, we're doing some work to add some folder-y-ish functionality. Stay tuned.P.P.S. Several new features we've launched, including colored labels, only work in the newest version of Gmail, currently available for IE7 and Firefox 2. Please upgrade your browser to start using those features now.

Tips from a Digital Mom - Getting 'cultural' with the family during the holidays
27/11/2007, 08:24:48 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Jen "Digital Mom" Grant, Group Product Marketing ManagerEvery once in a while my husband and I wonder why we don't do more "cultural" things with the kids, especially around the holidays. We're so busy and we just don't have the time to keep up with what's going on around town or around the area. Usually, when we do go somewhere it's because we bump into someone who tells us that the local dance group is doing The Nutcracker, not because we read the paper or got any announcements.But just the other day, I discovered the public calendar search button in Google Calendar. Of course, I had known it was there, but it had never occurred to me that events in my local area would be included. Just to experiment, I typed in Palo Alto, CA kids and found a fabulous calendar that showed me every day that there are events for families during the holiday season. One example I found is "Helicopter Santa" on Dec. 1: cookies, candy canes, and Santa at the Hiller Aviation Museum. I added this calendar to my own and now I can quickly check what's going on at any time.My husband wonders how I suddenly seem to know everything. I just smile.

5 little-known Gmail features you may not yet know about
17/11/2007, 06:49:00 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Robby Stein, Associate Product Marketing ManagerWhen we began rolling out a new Gmail code architecture a few weeks ago, we also launched some new features to help improve the speed and convenience of managing email. I've been using several of these new additions over the last few weeks, and while they might seem small on their own, they really can add up to save you a lot of time and hassle. That's why I decided to list my five favorite new features that are so new, you may not have noticed them. We are still rolling them out to IE6, international and Google Apps users, but for those of you who noticed a new contact manager among other recent improvements in our latest version, here they are:5. "Archive and next" shortcutWe added a bunch of new shortcuts to Gmail, but one that I've found to be a true time-saver is what I call the "archive and next" shortcut. When I have a lot of mail, it can be really annoying to have to open a message, click "Back to Inbox" and then select the next email I want to read. So once you enable shortcuts in Settings, you can simply press the left bracket key "[" while viewing a message to archive it, and then immediately open the next oldest one. When I see a long list of unread messages, I like to open the first one and then just hit "[" to swiftly move through my mail and archive as I go. (P.S. By clicking the right bracket "]" you can also move the other way if you want to open newer messages after you archive).4. Share mail searches with friendsHow many times do your friends tell you, "I can't find that email you sent me." Now you can prove that you did indeed send that message, despite the accusations. All you have to do is search for the message using your expert mail searching skills, and when you find it listed in the results, just copy and paste the URL and email it to your friend. When he or she goes to that link while in Gmail, your friend's Gmail will run the same search you ran and will be able to locate that "lost" email instantly. For example, if you wanted to share a search for "pick me up at airport," so flight information can be located, you would send over this URL: http://mail.google.com/mail/#search/pick+me+up+at+airport.3. Browser navigation and historyYour web browser is now a great way to navigate Gmail. Instead of having to find the right links on the page to move from inbox to messages to other Gmail views, you can use the browser navigation buttons (back and forward) to jump back and forth between emails. You can also open your browser history and click on specific emails that you've read to go right back to them. This allows you to quickly access certain emails without having to re-read your inbox. Browser history is something that often doesn't work well on complex web apps like Gmail, but we've gone to great lengths to make it work right.2. Bookmark emailsI frequently need to save a single email for a period of time, such as a message that includes an important phone number. But I don't want to create a separate label for one message, and I also don't want to archive all the email that comes in after that message just to keep that thread near the top of my inbox--and hopefully the top of my mind. This problem is now easily solved by a new ability to bookmark specific emails. All emails now have dedicated URLs, so just by adding a browser bookmark while viewing a message, you can return to it whenever you want, just like a regular web page--although you will still have to log in to Gmail if you've signed out.1. "Filter messages like this"I find filters to be one of the most useful features in Gmail, but sometimes it can be hard to set them up quickly. So we added a new capability that makes a filter based on the message you are reading, so you can keep track of future similar emails. By clicking on the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner of every email (the upside-down triangle), you can now see the option to "Filter messages like this." Not only can you easily create a filter based on the sender, but this is especially handy if you are trying to filter emails sent to mailing lists. We automatically set up a filter for you based on the "list ID" header, which does a better job of finding emails sent to mailing lists.

Code changes to prepare Gmail for the future
10/11/2007, 05:43:45 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Dan Pupius, Gmail engineerWhen Gmail launched in 2004, the web was a very different place: people's expectations were different, browser capabilities were less advanced, and certain terms that are now commonplace on software engineer résumés hadn't even been coined yet.In the past three and a half years we have launched a number of cool features: deep chat integration, voice mail, Google Docs integration, and most recently, free IMAP. During this time we've learned a lot about building large web applications and what happens when you push web browsers to their limits.So recently the Gmail team has been working on a structural code change that we'll be rolling out to Firefox 2 and IE 7 users over the coming weeks (with other browsers to follow). You won't notice too many differences to start with, but we're using a new model that enables us to iterate faster and share components (we now use the same rich text editor as Groups and Page Creator, and the Contact Manager can be seen in several Google apps). A few other things you will notice are some new keyboard shortcuts and the ability to bookmark specific messages and email searches.We have also been fanatical about speed. Even on a fast Internet connection, it can take a second to request and render a new web page, and when you read a lot of mail, these seconds can accumulate to hours waiting for email to load. We've spent a lot of time profiling all parts of the application, shaving milliseconds off wherever we can, and figuring out workarounds for some pretty deep-rooted issues with the current browser implementations. Some of the most common actions should be faster now. For instance, we prefetch messages in the current view, so when you open an email your browser doesn't have to talk to Google's server; it just displays the message. These techniques really shine on newer browsers and computers. Using an alpha version of Safari 3 on a MacBook, we're seeing sub-200ms times when opening messages—pretty quick.One side effect of this change is that if you're using third-party Gmail extensions, they're likely to stop working. We've contacted a number of the developers behind some popular extensions and provided them with an opportunity to create fixes, so check back with them for updates. We're sorry that it may be a bit of a inconvenience, but we're trying to make this change as smooth as possible.The team has a bunch more things in the works, so stay tuned.Update (11/9): While we (like most web services) don't officially support third-party extensions like Greasemonkey scripts, we realize that some of our most active users want to write and run them. Because these scripts directly modify a web service's code rather than using a stable API, they tend to be fragile to even small changes in a web app's code (and can even create bugs in the web app itself).To make this easier on our Greasemonkey users, we've recently added an experimental Gmail/Greasemonkey API that should make these types of scripts easier to write and more robust to code changes. (Note that this applies only to users who have installed Greasemonkey scripts -- if the term "Greasemonkey" evokes little more for you than an image of an oily mechanic, then you needn't worry about any of this.)

With a touch of style, Gmail gets some new threads
10/11/2007, 02:00:23 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Kevin Systrom, Associate Product Marketing ManagerCongratulations to Robert Gould, the winner of our Threadless t-shirt competition. With much deliberation, we picked his design out of 420 submitted designs to win a pretty sweet prize package that includes an iPhone and some other goodies. His winning design is entitled 'Hello Dave': We'd like to thank all the contributors for their snazzy designs - we loved all of them. If you'd like, you can pick up a copy of Robert's winning t-shirt over at Threadless, and even post a creative picture of yourself wearing the shirt.P.S. We aren't making any money on this; all proceeds go to Threadless.

IMAP access now available for all users
01/11/2007, 07:49:55 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by David Murray, Associate Product ManagerLast week we announced we were providing you with free IMAP access and said we would roll out the feature over time as fast as we could. I'm happy to say that all Gmail users can now enable IMAP and sync their inbox across devices. Right now you'll only see IMAP settings in Gmail if you're using the English (US) interface, but IMAP will appear for all languages in the coming weeks. Check out our Help Center to learn more about IMAP, or watch our video to learn how to quickly set it up on the iPhone.Update: I'm also pleased to say that Gmail users with custom email addresses (through Google Apps) can now enable IMAP too.

How our spam filter works
01/11/2007, 12:26:36 ق.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by Todd Jackson, Gmail Product ManagerI got lucky in April 2004, when Gmail had just launched, and I snagged one of the first invitations (I didn't work at Google at the time, but had a few friends who did). One of the first things I noticed was the spam filter. I had used another webmail service for the previous few years and was used to seeing spam in my inbox every day. With Gmail, I almost never did, and what's more, I didn't have legitimate email ending up in the spam folder (I eventually just stopped looking there). This is still true today, even though I've had my email address for 3+ years and use it on many sites around the web.Now that I work on Gmail, not only do I keep an eye on my personal email, but I also monitor Gmail-wide stats which rigorously measure how our spam filters are doing. And despite an increase in spam targeted at Gmail, we're keeping more unwanted messages out of your inbox than ever before:
We get mail and read posts all the time from people who've noticed these results:
"None of my real emails have slipped into the spam folder and I remember only one spam reaching my inbox in the period I've been using Gmail. Spam is the bane of the Internet and it is refreshing to see Gmail put up such a good fight against it." - Eric, who wrote into our support team
"I've been using Gmail as my main email account ever since I started receiving an average of 2,500 emails a day...of which 70 percent are...personal health products, free software, and more! If not for this wonderful spam filter of Gmail, I'd have to spend 48 hours sitting in front of my mail 24/7 just to keep up!" - Nicholas, CNET blogger To help explain how our spam filter works, we put together a video starring some of our anti-spam engineers. Enjoy!

Sync your inbox across devices with free IMAP
24/10/2007, 04:32:11 ب.ظ Robby Stein
Posted by David Murray, Associate Product Manager
There are two online petitions I've signed in my life. One was for a "Xena: Warrior Princess" movie. The other, which I signed a few months before starting at Google, was for Gmail IMAP. As some of you know, IMAP is the best way to access your email from multiple devices (e.g. phone or desktop). It keeps the same information synced across all devices so that whatever you do in one place shows up everywhere else you might access your email.For example, I can:
read an email in Gmail, then
move it to the "Starred" folder on my iPhone, then
archive it by moving it to "All Mail" in Thunderbird, then
see all of those changes on my Blackberry (or any of the above devices for that matter).For the past few years, we've offered POP access, which is similar to IMAP but lacks one critical feature: your changes made on other devices aren't seen in Gmail when you log back in. Instead you are presented with a list of unread mail, and you must re-read and re-sort everything. For this reason, as soon as I started at Google, IMAP was one of the first things I asked about. Since then, I've seen countless blog posts, requests, chats, and just about everything else asking, "Are you guys ever going to do IMAP?" Well now I can say: Yes. Yes, we are doing IMAP. In fact, we are doing it for you for free on all devices and platforms.As we roll out the feature over the next couple of days, you will be able to use Gmail at work, in your car, or just about anywhere on any device, and actions you take will be automatically synced with Gmail on the web (and remember it works the other way too: anything you do on the Web will be seen on your phone or in your mail client). Just click the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab in your Gmail "Settings" and turn it on. (Psst. If you don't see the "IMAP" in the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab, then check back soon. We are giving it to users as fast as we can).Now if only they'll make that Xena movie...