The following is is a posting from the Official Gmail News Blog:

Posted by Mark Knichel, Software Engineer

We launched Gmail Labs over a year and a half ago as a playground where engineers can come up with new features and let your input help decide which are good ideas and which don’t quite work out. Any engineer at Google can come up with feature, code it, and launch it quickly to tens of millions of users.

Labs started out with 13 features and quickly grew to 60, with even more on the way. We’ve received countless comments and kept an eye on our stats: some of these experimental features were adopted by millions and others trickled along with little usage. A couple have already graduated from Labs and we’ve already retired one: Tasks was the first to become a regular part of Gmail, Right-side Labels was retired when we updated the way labels work, and Offline Gmail graduated a couple months back. Today, true to the original intent of Gmail Labs, we’re graduating six more features and retiring five.

Graduating:

1. Search Autocomplete
2. Go To Label
3. Forgotten Attachment Detector
4. YouTube Previews
5. Custom Label Colors
6. Vacation Dates

Retiring:

1. Muzzle
2. Fixed Width Font
3. Email Addict
4. Location in Signature
5. Random Signature

These decisions were made based based mainly on usage, taking feature polish and your feedback into account. We’ve also tweaked some of the graduating features to improve them before making them default Gmail features. For example, we’ve combined Go To Label with Search Autocomplete, making it easier than ever for you to find what you’re looking for.

Search Autocomplete and Go To Label
Start typing in the Gmail search box (English only for now), and Gmail suggests terms that might help you find what you’re looking for — from contact names to labels and advanced search operators.

We’ve integrated Go To Label into this search box as well. If you have keyboard shortcuts turned on, type “g” then “l” and instead of getting the old “Go to label” pop-up, you’ll be in the search box with the “label:” operator filled in for you. Start typing the label you want to go to, and autocomplete will take it from there. All you have to do is hit enter. If you want to send your cursor to the blank search field, the keyboard shortcut “/” will do it.

Forgotten Attachment Detector
From time to time, we all forget to attach a file and sheepishly send another email with the forgotten attachment. To help save you from that embarrassment, Gmail looks for phrases in your email that suggest you meant to attach a file and alerts you if it looks like you forgot an attachment.

YouTube Previews
If you’re like me, your friends probably often email you links to YouTube videos. Instead of having to clicking on the link and wait for a new window to load before you can watch the video, Gmail now shows YouTube previews right below the message. All you have to do is click the play button and enjoy.

Custom Label Colors
Why settle for a restrictive palette when you can choose from over 4000 possible color combinations to help distinguish and organize your labels? Just click on “Add custom color” from the regular labels interface.

Vacation Dates
If you specify which dates you’ll be away in advance, you won’t have to remember to turn on the vacation responder when when you’re actually on vacation. Set your dates in advance, and let Gmail do the rest.

Retiring features is always a tough decision — we invest in building and maintaining them and we realize some of you are probably fans of some of Gmail’s lesser-used features. But Labs are experimental features, and from time to time they may break (that’s why there’s a quick way to disable them), or even disappear. Over the next few days, you’ll see Muzzle, Fixed Width Font, Email Addict, Location in Signature, and Random Signature stop working and disappear from the Labs tab.

We’ll keep working on new Labs to help make your Gmail experience even better, and we’ll continue to graduate successful features and retire the ones that don’t work out to make room for new ones. Thank you to all the engineers who have worked on Labs features — especially Bruce, Darick, Jon (the intern), Ibrahim, Chris, Keith, Chad, Michael, and Marco! Please continue to send us feedback and remember that you vote for your favorite Labs features by using them and leaving comments.

More here:
Gmail Labs graduation and retirement

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The following is is a posting from the Official Gmail News Blog:

Posted by Anna de Paula Hanika, Android Product Marketing Manager

Not only does the just-announced Nexus One have a beautiful display, snappy processor, and five megapixel camera complete with flash and geotagging, but you can also buy it online with or without a service plan. Plus, it runs Android 2.1, which adds a couple of new features to the native Gmail application:

• Quick contact badge: Press the contact status icon within Gmail, and a handy box shows all of the ways you can reply to a contact — including email, chat, SMS, and Facebook.
• Voice input: Swipe the keyboard, then just speak to select contacts or write an email, complete with punctuation. Period!

Nexus One also features the Gmail updates of Android 2.0, including:

• Multiple Gmail accounts: Sync multiple accounts to the same device and switch between them without leaving the app.
• Undo: A handy ‘undo’ link makes it easier to retrieve messages when you hit archive or delete by mistake. (Note: you can’t yet undo send as you can with the desktop version of Gmail).

For more information on Nexus One visit google.com/phone. To learn more about Gmail on this and other Android devices, check out the Gmail page on mobile.google.com/android, or watch this video:

Read the original here: 
Gmail on Nexus One

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The following is is a posting from the Official Gmail News Blog:

Posted by Maya Moufarek, Regional Marketing Manager

Recently, I reunited with some colleagues in our Moscow office (the same team that brought you this Gmail art video last year) on a set of animated videos showcasing some of Gmail’s features: messages grouped into conversations, great spam protection, built-in video chat, offline access, and themes. Some of the humor in these videos may be uniquely Russian — they revolve around a character who imagines what the world would be like if everyday objects worked like Gmail, like this video that compares unthreaded conversations to a mess of laundry:

In case the Russian version is too confusing, we’ve translated all the videos into English here.

See more here: 
More Russian Gmail videos

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The following is is a posting from the Official Gmail News Blog:

Posted by Sarah Price, Online Operations Strategist

Like many of us nowadays, I get a lot of email. So much email that going on vacation can be a little scary because I know I’ll have a mountain to wade through when I get back. A few messages I receive each day are time-sensitive or very important — but only a few. Lots of my mail can wait a few hours or a few days or even a few weeks, or in the case of that mailing list I’ve always meant to unsubscribe from, forever.

Thankfully, Gmail has a lot of features that keep me organized, from filters to archiving to keyboard shortcuts to Tasks, as well as a whole bunch of Labs features, like Superstars. I’ve developed my own system for dealing with all my incoming mail, but I’m always curious to hear about how other people manage their messages.

If you’re a Gmail expert and an organizational wizard, we want to see how you do it. So submit a short video at youtube.com/gmail to showcase your tips and tricks for managing your inbox. Submit a great one by August 15th, and your video could end up in our Help Center, our forum, or even on this very blog. And if you aren’t into making your own video, check out the videos that others have submitted and let us know what you like.

You can discuss these videos in the official thread in our new forum. The Gmail Help Forum isn’t just about “help” — it’s also a great place to connect with other Gmail users and share tips and tricks. We recently gave it a complete makeover, so if you haven’t been there in a while, check it out.

Original post: 
Submit a video: "So much email, so little time"

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The following is is a posting from the Official Gmail News Blog:

Posted by Corey Anderson, Software Engineer (and puzzle creator)

Flying 500 miles per hour at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, it always seemed odd that I could use approved electronic devices, but I couldn’t get online to chat or send an email. Luckily, the Wright brothers have been catching up with the cloud, and airlines like Virgin America have rolled out in-flight WiFi across their fleet.

To celebrate, we’ve teamed up with Virgin America to provide complimentary WiFi on all flights on June 24th, and we’re co-hosting a timed online scavenger hunt called the Day in the Cloud Challenge. Whether you’re going to be in the air or on the ground on that day, you’re invited to participate in the challenge and can sign up at www.dayinthecloud.com.

If you use Gmail, there’s a good chance you already have a leg up because some of the questions will involve your knowledge of Gmail (plus, you’ll need a Google Account to play). To give you a little practice, we’ve just revealed some practice questions.

Curious how some people are getting ready for the challenge? Check out this video:

Read more: 
Like puzzles? Get ready for the Day in the Cloud Challenge on June 24th

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