The Future of Gmail

When you spending so much time on the web, it is more than likely that you'll develop a sixth sense of what's missing from services that you're using on a daily basis. I often find myself thinking about new features that in my opinion should have been integrated a long time ago (or at least it feels like they should).

My most used service is email. In my case it's Gmail, so this whole post is about my point view on that. However, you could apply it to any other web-based mail platform I guess.

For some reason, we all think about our email as a temple of top secret information, and the common assumption is that email is confidential and not shared (although we actually do it all the time, by forwarding emails, for example). But what if Google gave us the tools to share and publish pictures & files right from within the email itself, and on to public services and social networks? What if I got a great post from one of the blogs that I subscribed to by email and want to share it trough Twitter, Facebook etc..?

Here's what I think the Gmail email should look like in the year of 2009:

File Viewer:

This should be the easy part for Google - Making the right connections with their own services: Picasa and Youtube. It's so crucial that Picasa hosts my email pictures automatically, like they're doing with their Blogger platform for a year or so now (don't worry, it is saved to a private folder). Also a must-have would be the ability to finally watch a Youtube video from within an email - how hard is it to enable that?

Shared Labels:

This might make you a little nervous, but try to keep an open mind about this one: I truly believe that this could be a very helpful tool for groups. If I'm working with someone on a project, and open a label where I'm gathering all the correspondence between us, I think it's only logical to allow this person access (partial or full) to those emails. I'd love to have the option to share a label with the contacts I choose, so they'll be able to review the content and conversations whenever they need to for our shared project.

Shared Files:

As mentioned above, I think this is the core of this post: a more social email is needed.
Instead of downloading then uploading a file somewhere else to be able to share it, a much more useful way would exist if Gmail uploads all the images to Picasa and allows the users to share them from the email, and even create a short URL to make it available to services like chat, microblogs, social networks and so on.
For video files, some suggestions:

1. Ability to privately upload any video file to youtube as well.
2. A nicer way to watch video file from the email - like the MP3 player but for videos.
3. If someone sent me a Youtube link by email, ability to watch it right from there - and also share it externally.


RSS Reader Gadget:

If you enabled Gmail lab, you probably saw the Googledocs and Google Calendar gadgets. I think the Calendar gadget is more useful because it can really give you a glimpse on events and occurrences that you might have forgotten. There's definitely a place for a dynamic Google Reader Gadget, I don't even think I need to explain why...

Speaking on Gmail Lab..

As you probably noticed, the list of tools in the lab is getting longer, and it's getting harder to follow all the new releases. I think Google should create a better index of those tools, make it searchable, divide it to categories, and allow other people besides them to write the applications.

Bring back the Web Search!

I seriously can't understand why Google is taking off the one thing they do best - Search. For years, I have been searching on the web from my Gmail account. They could at least explain to me (and other users) why they took this feature down, leaving us to find and get used to another less convenient arrangement. What I had liked about it so much was that it simply opened another tab (or window) and it was the easiest way to search for something especially for people who practically exist within their email account. But here's a compromise: Why not enable users to get this feature back from the Lab?

I guess I can go on like this forever, but those are the most important features that I'd like to see in my future Gmail account.

Can Google Latitude get my stolen phone back?

Not yet – but with a bit of inspired app design, it could help.

We all know how annoying it is to lose your mobile phone, especially if you never did get round to backing up those valuable contacts. But with location-based services becoming ubiquitous, isn't there a way to track down your lost or stolen handset?

That was exactly what San Francisco-based Nick Strada thought when he realised he left his Nokia E71 in the back of a cab: he'd activatedGoogle's Latitude location service a few days earlier, so surely he could track down the culprit?

When he logged into Latitude online, he was surprised to see his phone floating around a good 3,000 miles away – in central Boston. When phoning and texting his own number failed, Strada realised the phone's keypad had probably locked, and eventually the phone's battery died, taking its location with it. Surely there's some interesting potential here to help retrieve, or at least protect, a stolen handset?

Thousands of application developers have begun to flex their creative muscles, and some have already started to address the problem.

Apple's App Store offers Password Trap, which tries to identify a thief's location while luring them with false personal data; the optimistic Owner Information, which is supposed to makes it easy for whoever finds you phone to return it to you; and GPS Thief Tracker, which, if the thief happens to open it, will send a discreet email with the phone's location.

On Google's Android platform, meanwhile, there's plenty of inspiration for a stolen phone tracker that could be "plugged in" to Latitude.

Textecution is designed to stop drivers texting, and so disables the phone if it moves faster than 10mph. Could a new app disable the whole phone if it is taken more than five miles from your home location? Or maybe Latitude's regular security alert messages could be reconfigured remotely so that your thief is bombarded by infuriating alerts every 15 seconds? Or how about a simple remote lock, that makes the phone unusable?

The more severe the repercussion, the more you'd have to trust the application. Strada's fantasy about a remote mobile detonator may be taking things a bit far, but this is a fascinating creative challenge and, for the developer that cracks it, could be a lucrative business.

And however you find out where your phone is, you will still end up with a more practical problem: how do you confront the thief? We don't know how seriously the police would take GPS "evidence", so you may just have to borrow some muscle.

Google plans to make PCs history

Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals' personal data.

The Google Drive, or "GDrive", could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet.

The long-rumoured GDrive is expected to be launched this year, according to the technology news website TG Daily, which described it as "the most anticipated Google product so far". It is seen as a paradigm shift away from Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs inside most of the world's computers, in favour of "cloud computing", where the processing and storage is done thousands of miles away in remote data centres.

Home and business users are increasingly turning to web-based services, usually free, ranging from email (such as Hotmail and Gmail) and digital photo storage (such as Flickr and Picasa) to more applications for documents and spreadsheets (such as Google Apps). The loss of a laptop or crash of a hard drive does not jeopardise the data because it is regularly saved in "the cloud" and can be accessed via the web from any machine.

The GDrive would follow this logic to its conclusion by shifting the contents of a user's hard drive to the Google servers. The PC would be a simpler, cheaper device acting as a portal to the web, perhaps via an adaptation of Google's operating system for mobile phones, Android. Users would think of their computer as software rather than hardware.

It is this prospect that alarms critics of Google's ambitions. Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, a charity defending computer users' liberties, did not dispute the convenience offered, but said: "It's a little bit like saying, 'we're in a dictatorship, the trains are running on time.' But does it matter to you that someone can see everything on your computer? Does it matter that Google can be subpoenaed at any time to hand over all your data to the American government?"

Google refused to confirm the GDrive, but acknowledged the growing demand for cloud computing. Dave Armstrong, head of product and marketing for Google Enterprise, said: "There's a clear direction ... away from people thinking, 'This is my PC, this is my hard drive,' to 'This is how I interact with information, this is how I interact with the web.'"

Google's PowerMeter to let users track electricity usage

The New York Times is reporting Google will announce a free web service tomorrow called PowerMeter that'll let users track energy consumption in their homes or business, provided there's a means to upload the data. That part of the equation's gonna be up to other companies to create compatible devices, and while no manufacturing partners have been named, we'd suspect strange bedfellow GE will probably jump aboard pretty quickly. The service is expected to roll out in the next few months. Ready to give the boys in Mountain View even more access to your life?

Update: The official site has launched. According to the FAQ, PowerMeter is currently in closed beta. There's also a video about the program, which you can peep after the break.

AdSense launches AdSense for Mobile Search

If you have a site with a lot of mobile traffic, you might want to check out the latest addition to the AdSense family, AdSense for Mobile Search.  Instead of using your own mobile search tool on your site, you can instead use the Google Mobile Search tool, and share in any generated revenue when your visitors click an ad in those mobile search results.

From Google’s Mobile Blog:

Today, we’re happy to announce a new AdSense product for both mobile network operators and mobile website owners across the globe. AdSense for mobile search is a quick and easy way for carriers and mobile publishers to embed a Google search box on their mobile portals and web sites. Whether they are day-dreaming of Hawaii or trying to find the perfect Valentine’s day gift, mobile phone users will get instant access to Google search including comprehensive web search, local, image, and news results — all formatted for their phones. Mobile operators and website owners share in the ad revenue generated by searches originating from their sites.

AdSense for mobile search is a Google-hosted solution, which means users will experience the same speed, reliability, and innovation that they’ve come to expect from Google. And even though the results pages are served by Google, the pages can be cobranded with publishers’ logos and linked back to their sites.

Here are some screenshots from the blog:

The program is in beta right now, but you can apply here.

Reading Gmail Offline

Web-based mail is great — until you don’t have an Internet connection. To ease the separation anxiety, Google recently introduced a feature called Offline Gmail, which downloads a copy of your mailbox and all the recent messages when you do have Internet access, and then keeps it all available in your Web browser for when you don’t.

To turn it on, log into your Gmail account on the Web, click the Settings tab and then, in many browsers, the Labs tab. Click the Enable button for Offline Gmail and then the Save Changes button.

To start downloading your mailbox, click the new Offline line on the mailbox page. Google has more information and a video about Offline Gmail at snipurl.com/bdil0.

Google Error Sends Warning Worldwide

Google’s Internet search service malfunctioned for nearly 55 minutes Saturday morning, upending users around the world with search results that carried false safety warnings and Web links that did not work.

The company acknowledged Saturday that all searches produced links with the same warning message: “This site may harm your computer.” Clicking on any of the links led to an error message stating that the desired site could not be reached.

“What happened?” Google explained in its blog. “Very simply, human error.”

Google said it periodically updates its list of sites suspected of carrying dangerous software that could harm computers, and that Saturday morning a Google employee mistyped a Web address for one such site, causing all sites to be flagged harmful.

There was some momentary tension when Google seemed to imply that the glitch was caused by StopBadware.org, the company that helps Google determine which sites are unsafe. Google later posted a statement that took the blame for the error.

“We have a good ongoing relationship with StopBadware.org,” a Google spokesman, Gabriel Stricker, said in a telephone interview. “In our post, we tried to clarify our role in this error.”

Google is not known for glitches, but there have been other recent ones. Google Maps had a software glitch last month that sent drivers trying to get to different points within Staten Island, specifically zip codes 10302 and 10308, on a 176-mile detour to Schenectady instead.

The glitches in Google Maps and Google search were unrelated, Mr. Stricker said. As for Saturday’s search engine failure, he added: “Our Web search is extremely reliable, and that’s why when an interruption occurs, even if it’s for a matter of minutes, for a Saturday morning, people notice it.”

Now you can buy Youtube videos

YouTube includes a new section for "My Videos": a list of purchased videos. A YouTube help page has more details about the new feature:

You have the option of downloading and storing your favorite Partner videos and watching these videos even without an internet connection. To download Partner video:

1. Find the video you'd like to download.

2. Below the video's play bar in the lower left hand corner, you'll see a 'Download' button.

3. Click the 'Download' button to indicate that you'd like to download the video.

Videos are available to download in the MP4 format and some of them can be downloaded for free and they're even licensed as Public Domain or Creative Commons. An example of channel that offers Creative Commons-licensed video downloads isStanford University. If the download requires payment, you'll be directed to a Google Checkout page where you'll find the price of the video.

Multiple Views in Your Gmail Inbox

Gmail released another Labs experiment and this one converts your Gmail inbox to a structured dashboard that shows multiple views. The improperly-named "Multiple inboxes" lets you add up to 5 lists of search results next to your Gmail inbox: in the right side of the inbox, below or above the inbox.

Use the advanced search operators to build searches like label:name-of-label,subject:linux or is:unread -in:inbox. If you were expecting to actually see the inboxes of multiple email accounts, you can achieve this by using Gmail's mail fetcher, which automatically labels the messages fetched from other accounts and archives them. You can then create panes that have the following format: label:myotheraccount@gmail.comor to:myotheraccount.com.


"After you turn on Multiple Inboxes from the Labs tab under Settings, you can configure what you want to see, as well as set the number of messages displayed and the positioning of your panels from the Multiple Inboxes section under Settings," explains Octavian Costache, who created this feature.

"Multiple inboxes" works especially well if you have a high resolution monitor and if you use filters that automatically archive some classes of messages.

YouTube Feed View

                       There's a new option to customize YouTube's homepage when you are logged in: the feed view. YouTube orders chronologically the videos from all the other sections you've selected: featured videos, promoted videos (which can't be disabled), videos from your subscriptions, recommendations, friend activity.

    
Unfortunately, YouTube's promoted videos can't be filtered, recommended videos constantly change and there's no actual feed generated by YouTube. You can obtain a feed that aggregates the latest videos from your subscriptions using a Yahoo Pipe.

YouTube shows a similar recent activity view in your channel, but you need to explicitly make it public. The activity view can show your latest ratings, recent comments, video uploads and subscriptions.

Google Latitude Tracks Your Friends in Real Time

Google Latitude is a new service which promises to find where your friends are and what they’re up to? Latitude will let you see your friends’ locations on a map, and also be in touch directly via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail, or by updating your status message.

Google Latitude is a new feature for Google Maps which is available on your mobile device and also an iGoogle gadget for on your computer. On your mobile phone - visit google.com/latitude from your phone’s mobile browser to download Google Maps for mobile with Latitude. They support most popular smartphone platforms like Android, Blackberry, Symbian S60, and Windows Mobile. On your computer - visit http://google.com/latitudefrom your browser and add the Latitude gadget to your iGoogle homepage.

Privacy issues have been taken care off well and you control exactly who gets to see your location, and also what location that they see. This video shows you tips on how to adjust your privacy settings in Latitude.

By tracking your friends in real time, Google Latitude brings in a new level of social interaction like never before. It is now available in 27 countries and 42 languages!

Google Earth 5 : Explore the Oceans

The latest version of Google Earth 5.0 is released and promises to provide breathtaking views beneath the seas and oceans of the world.Download Google Earth and check out where the deep oceans lead to.

Google Earth provides amazing satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and 3D buildings. From galaxies in outer space, now you can dive beneath the surface and visit the deepest part of the ocean till the Mariana Trench, goexploring the ocean with top marine experts including National Geographic and BBC, learn about ocean observations, climate change, and endangered species and discover new places including surf, dive, and travel hot spots and shipwrecks.

The new Google Earth 5 also features historical imagery from around the globe, which lets you move back and forth in time to reveal imagery from years and even decades past, revealing changes over time. Its also allows simplified touring with audio and voice recording. Here is an introductory video.

Download Google Earth and start by opening the “Ocean” folder in the Layers panel to explore the 20 content layers from over 100 partners. Double click on the “Explore the Ocean” layer and it will fly you to my Ocean Overview video and ten focus areas with National Geographic video clips.

Google Internet Bus Project ( India )

The Google Internet bus is visiting a city near you to spread awareness about the Internet. The Google Internet Bus Project aims to educate people about the Internet and how it can help people improve their life style. 

                                

Flagged off from Chennai on 3 February 2009, the customised Internet-enabled bus is currently travelling across Tamilnadu, India, to spread awareness about the internet and its use in daily life.

The bus is designed to make a simple introduction to the Internet for a new user. With a focus on the four themes of education, information, communication, and entertainment, the Internet Bus will be loaded with useful and informative content in English and Tamil. We’ll showcase how the Internet can make everyday life simple through services like search, email, social networking, maps and others. We strongly believe the Internet is a great equalizing force, and this project represents another way Google is directly engaging with people in India.