Monday, October 29, 2007

Gmail 2.0 Screenshots

Google during the recent Analyst Day announced they want to release an updated version of Gmail that’s supposed to be faster than the current one, thanks to a JavaScript back-end rewrite. Also, the new version aims to improve contacts management. “Gmail 2.0” – possibly the announced update – was also mentioned in Google’s internal company goals last year, the aim being to achieve “70% user happiness" for that version.

Now Drew from Arkadium.com sent us the news that he’s seeing a link at the top of his Gmail reading “Newer version”. Clicking on it – the URL is https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2 – he doesn’t notice many changes on the surface yet. However, he does have a new contacts manager, as the screenshots (with grayed-out areas to protect privacy) show. He also noticed a “browse” files box below the message compose box, slightly redundant on the surface as you can already attach files above the compose message box. (Perhaps the browse box mentioned was unrelated to the new version? I saw another 2.0 test account that didn’t have it, so until I know more, I’m striking this.) Plus, Drew says he can’t hide the chat anymore. I asked Drew if he thinks the new version is faster, and he replies that he’d say “it feels faster – at least the contacts does.”

[Thanks Drew!]



When you add a picture for a contact, you can pick a file straight from Google’s Picasa Web Albums. Skipping the hard disk might seem like no big deal but we may see more and more of this in the online OS/ online office.



The “More Actions” menu has been turned into an HTML layer; in Gmail 1x it was an actual select box element. The menu now also includes the new entry “Filter messages like these” which opens a partly pre-filled “Create a filter” dialog.

>> More posts


