New Gmail: What you need to know
Gmail is sporting a slick new look, and a few new moves to boot.
The mail makeover that Google teased back in July started rolling out on Tuesday, and most Gmail users (including those with Google Apps accounts) will notice an invitation to 鈥渢ry the new look鈥� over the next few days. The changes are mostly cosmetic, but some of Gmail鈥檚 underlying behavior has also been tweaked 鈥� and the new look-and-feel extends to some other Google services, too.
The first thing you鈥檒l notice when you look at your updated inbox is that the navigation panels on the left side 鈥� including labels and chat 鈥� now stay with you as you scroll. You can adjust the amount of space given to the list of chat contacts, or, if chat鈥檚 not your thing, hide it entirely by clicking the icon in the lower-left corner.
In the upper-right corner, you鈥檒l also notice a gear icon that lets you adjust the density of these lists (as well as the rest of the layout) to 鈥渃omfortable鈥� (generous spacing), 鈥渃ozy鈥� (medium), or 鈥渃ompact鈥� (very little space between lines of text). This is welcome news for anyone who needs to check Gmail from more than one platform, since you can adjust to fit a computer, browser, or smart phone.
Conversation view, which is arguably one of Gmail鈥檚 strongest features, also has a cleaner look to match the rest of the layout. Profile pictures appear to the left of contacts鈥� messages, a feature which Google in a blog post will make it 鈥渆asier to keep track of who said what鈥� in a conversation (this will probably be most useful for long conversations with multiple participants). Many of the elements that used to appear along the sides or top of a conversation thread are now represented by small grey icons, or rolled into dropdown menus 鈥� for example, replying to or forwarding a message is now done by typing directly under a response or clicking the appropriate option from a menu next to the date stamp. You might have to expend an extra click to access some features, but everything鈥檚 still there 鈥� and the upshot is that you get more screen real estate for the messages themselves.
Search is central to everything Google does, so it鈥檚 no surprise that Gmail search has been revamped, too. Type into the search box at the top, and everything will work just as it did before 鈥� but clicking the grey dropdown arrow brings up more robust options including the ability to search by date, keyword (or lack thereof 鈥� for when a message doesn鈥檛 have certain words), attachment, or date. Gmail also lets you make a filter from your search terms without a hassle.
Google Reader, the company鈥檚 popular RSS application, got a similar facelift this week 鈥� as well as closer integration with the Google Plus social network. And we can probably expect that other Google products will gradually adopt the new look, especially as the company continues to focus on developing Google Plus.
What do you think of Gmail鈥檚 new look? Do you like the layout, or do you have some suggestions for improvement? Or is all this irrelevant, since you鈥檙e rocking a desktop mail program? Whatever your take, let us know in the comments 鈥� we鈥檙e listening.
