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  • 25Aug

    Make Free Phone Calls from Gmail

    Gmail, Google Voice No Comments
    Gmail added a long-awaited feature: making phone calls. If you install the voice and video chat plug-in, you can call phones in the US and Canada for free. You can also call in other countries, but you'll have to pay. Fortunately, Google's rates are really low and the service is cheaper than Skype.

    "Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan — and many more countries — for as little as $0.02 per minute," informs Google.



    If you have a Google Voice phone number (anyone in the US can get one), you can also receive phone calls in Gmail. Now that Google Voice integrates with Gmail, a lot more people will use it.


    To try the new feature, make sure that your Gmail interface language is set to English (US) and that the voice and video chat plug-in is installed. You get an initial calling credit ($0.10), but unfortunately you can only add credit if you're in the US.


  • 24Aug

    Hide Gmail’s Links to Contacts and Tasks

    Gmail No Comments
    Gmail tweaked the interface two weeks ago and many users complained about the links to the contacts manager and to Google Tasks, which are now displayed at the top of the page, above the Compose button. If you rarely use the contact manager and you don't need a task management app inside Gmail, the two links can become annoying.

    Google added a small button that lets you collapse the group of links, but the setting wasn't preserved when you reloaded the page because of a bug. Now you can permanently hide the links to "contacts" and "tasks".


    If you ignore the blue bar at the top of the page and you don't click on "Mail", you'll no longer see the two links. Gmail could add an option to move the horizontal navigation bar below the list of labels, even as a Gmail Labs experimental feature. I partially solved this problem by enabling "Quick Links" in Gmail Labs and adding links to the contact manager and to a mail view (is:unread).


    Another option is to use this userscript that moves the links below the labels. The script should work in Firefox (Greasemonkey is required), Chrome and Opera.


    Apparently, Gmail's links bar is quite important and it's likely that Gmail will add links to other services. A Google employee detailed its purpose:

    "Gmail is home to a few different apps, including Mail, Contacts, and Tasks. The links on the left below the app navigation change depending which app you're using, while the app navigation links remain consistent so that you can go between apps. If you're in the Contacts app, the big action button becomes the way to add a new contact. We use this button as the way to create things in other products like Google Docs and Google Calendar, too."


  • 23Aug

    Google’s iPhone App Adds Notifications for Gmail and Google Calendar

    Gmail, Google Calendar, Mobile No Comments
    I rarely use the native email clients from Android and iPhone. Gmail's mobile web app has a better interface and it's easier to use than those applications, but there are some limitations that force you to switch to the native apps: you can't attach files and there's no support for notifications. Until mobile browsers add support for these features and integrate with the operating system, native apps will continue to be more powerful.

    The latest version of Google Mobile App for iPhone solves one of these issues by adding push notifications for Gmail and Google Calendar. You no longer have to use Google Sync to get notifications when you receive an email message or an event is about to occur.

    "Now Google Mobile App can help with push notifications from your Google account to your iPhone -- an icon badge shows you’ve got new mail in Gmail, and Google Calendar event reminders appear right on your home screen."


    After updating Google Mobile App 0.6, it seems that Google only shows a badge when you get a new message, just like the native mail client.

    Update: Google's mobile blog says that "you will only receive pop-up messages and sound/vibration for calendar alerts - new email is shown using the unread count on the Google Mobile App icon and in the apps tab".


  • 23Aug

    Caitlin Roran Makes an Unexpected Appearance

    Gmail No Comments
    You probably remember the name "Caitlin Roran" from Gmail's promotional pictures. Many screenshots from Gmail's help pages showed messages received from people like Caitlin Roran or Nathan Wood.



    Gmail's fictional characters are now at Facebook. Someone spotted Caitlin Roran and Nathaniel Woodward in Facebook's privacy page. Go to Facebook privacy settings, then choose "Custom" and click "Customize settings." Under "Include me in 'People Here Now' after I check in," click "See an example." You should see some of your friends, plus Caitlin Roran and Nathaniel Woodward.


    It's worth pointing out that Paul Buchheit, the ex-Googler who created Gmail, is now a Facebook employee and he's not the only former Gmail engineer who works at Facebook. According to Christopher Harley, Caitlin Roran is a fictitious name used by Ana Yang, while Nathan Woodward borrowed Casey Muller's photo. Ana Yang and Casey Muller got married last year.

    "Ms. Yang and Mr. Muller met in May 2008 while working at FriendFeed, a startup social networking Web site in Mountain View, Calif. 'I was the first employee hired,' said Ms. Yang, who enjoyed being part of the hard-working, fun-loving group. They spent 10 to 12 hours at desks in a cavernous work space in which they also rode bicycles and played Ping-Pong. She loved sports, yet her colleagues, though all male, were not big fans. Then Mr. Muller joined the company, which was sold to Facebook in August, and told her how much he liked basketball."

    "Before FriendFeed, Ana worked on product marketing at Google for four years, leading Gmail marketing for three years," mentions FriendFeed's site.

    Don't miss this brilliant story about Caitlin Roran found in a Wikipedia page that has been deleted.


  • 22Aug

    Gmail Improves “Undo Send”

    Gmail No Comments
    Gmail has a very useful Labs feature called "undo send" that lets you "unsend" a message immediately after sending it. If you accidentally clicked on the "Send" button or you realize that you forgot to attach an important file, you have a few seconds to click on "undo" and continue to edit the message.


    When Gmail launched this feature, you only had 5 seconds to undo sending a message, but Google constantly added new periods: 10 seconds, 20 seconds and now 30 seconds. You can change the "send cancellation period" from the settings page.


    Probably a better idea would be to add an outbox, so that you can set a longer delay. Another benefit would be that you could also schedule sending an email message.

    { Thanks, Shimmy. }


  • 20Aug

    Gmail Voice and Video Chat for Linux

    Gmail, Google Talk No Comments
    After two years of waiting, Gmail's plug-in for voice and video chat is finally available for Linux users. "Voice and video chat for Linux supports Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions, and RPM support will be coming soon," says Tristan Schmelcher, from Google.


    Justin Uberti says that adding Linux support was really difficult. "This release required significant engineering to develop an all-new video rendering solution and an all-new PulseAudio-based audio handler, along with work to support 64-bit and countless webcam compatibility tests. We spent a lot of effort to make it fully feature-complete, with all the same goodies as the Windows and Mac versions, and we're happy to now support Google voice and video now on all major desktop platforms."

    Now that video chat is available on Windows, Mac and Linux, when will it be ported to Android?


  • 19Aug

    On Gmail’s Widget for Selecting Messages

    Gmail, User interface No Comments
    Gmail updated the interface last week and many people complained about the changes. Some didn't like Gmail's new hybrid button for selecting messages. To select unread messages or starred messages, you need an extra click. Apparently, many Google employees hated this change, as well.


    Michael Leggett, Gmail's lead user interface designer, explains how he came up with this widget:
    It IS odd. And yet, both the checkbox and the menu part tested very well in the lab. The people who hated the widget outside the lab also understood how to use it but promised others wouldn't b/c it was so "weird."

    We tried a few things (like putting the select actions under "More actions") but I didn't have high hopes for any of them except the widget that launched. It tested better than I had hoped (all of the participants in the usability study were able to select all, unread, and none). We launched it to all Googlers months ago and listened to feedback (everyone was able to figure it out... some just hated the change).

    More about why the change: The "Select all" link is used by <1% style="font-weight:bold;">I wanted to simplify the interface and give back that space to users.

    Since features like "select unread" or "select starred" were used by a lot less than 1% of the users, it made sense to hide them. Power users can always learn how to use keyboard shortcuts and an extra click doesn't mean too much for a feature that's rarely used.

    Michael Leggett also says that the link to Buzz will be added at the top of the page, next to Contacts and Tasks, and users will be able to hide the links to service they don't use.

    { via Ignore the Code. Thanks, Jérôme Flipo. }


  • 19Aug

    Gmail’s New Bug Reporting Interface

    Gmail No Comments
    Go to Gmail and click on the "Report a bug" link at the top of the page. You might see a completely different interface that looks just like the Google Feedback extension tested in March. The main difference is that it works in almost any browser and you don't have to install an extension to use it. (If you don't see the link, then this feature is not yet enabled in your account. Adding your email address to this page might help.)


    After clicking on "Report a bug", Google shows this message: "Please scroll until the issue becomes visible. Next, click anywhere in the window to take a screenshot." Click in the window and Gmail loads a new page that lets you highlight the problem, black out personal information and describe your problem. It's a really cool feature which will probably be added to other Google services in the near future.


  • 16Aug

    Gmail’s Hidden Groups

    Gmail, Google Buzz, Google Contacts, Tips No Comments
    In a previous post, I mentioned a trick that lets you create a Gmail group for the people you follow in Google Buzz. The downside was that the group doesn't update when you follow other people in Google Buzz.

    It turns out that Gmail already has a built-in group for Google Buzz contacts. The group doesn't have a name and it's not displayed in Gmail's new contact manager, but you can find it in the old version of Gmail: it's the only one without a name.


    Since the group doesn't have a name and it's hidden in the interface, you can't use it to send email messages or to post private Buzz messages, but you can select all the contacts and add them to another group.


    There's also a hidden group for Google Latitude friends, which includes the people that can see your location in Google Latitude.

    Another group lists all your Gmail Chat/Google Talk friends. Some of these people were automatically added by Google if you didn't disable "Automatically allow people I communicate with often to chat with me and see when I'm online" in the settings.

    For those who miss the "all contacts" group in the new contact manager, here's the built-in group that includes both the people you've manually added ("my contacts") and the people automatically added by Google ("other contacts").


  • 13Aug

    Search Google Docs and Google Sites in Gmail

    Gmail No Comments
    Gmail Labs has a new feature that extends Gmail's search by showing results from Google Docs and Google Sites. If you enable Apps Search, you'll see a list of results from Google Docs and Google Sites below Gmail's search results. For some reason, Apps Search has a bug and returns incorrect URLs for Google Docs results, but I'm sure this will be fixed.


    It's interesting to see that the Gmail Labs feature has been developed by the Apps Search team, which suggests that it's part of a bigger project. Most likely, Google will let you search all your data stored in a Google account from a single search box. If Google's universal search can combine images, videos, books, tweets, news articles in a single search results page, why can't Google develop an unified search service for Gmail messages, Google Calendar events, Google Reader subscriptions, Blogger posts, Picasa Web photos, contacts, tasks, Google Voice history and more?


    Tip: If you want to search Google Docs and Google Sites, without displaying Gmail results, add -type:mail to your query.

    Unexpected bonus feature: After enabling Apps Search, Gmail will show a "did you mean" message if your query includes misspellings:



    { spotted by Jérôme Flipo }