The Future of Gmail
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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.
If you have any additional suggestions, please share them in the comments.
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.
If you have any additional suggestions, please share them in the comments.
17 Comments:
Orli - good call on the video stuff. And you're right about the Google Labs in the settings - I think you could get lost in there. My favorite gadget so far is the "Break Time" app which turns Gmail off so I can get to work.
יש תוכנה נפלאה לג'ימייל בפיירפוקס שאני משתמשת בה, היא משמשת אותי גם להצגת וסידור קבצים וגם תמונות, ואפשר דרכה גם לשתף בפורוורד עם שדה להוספת כמה משתמשים שאני רוצה. שמה
XOOPIT
אבל ממש לא הייתי רוצה כפתור שיתוף למיילים ברשתות חברתיות. זה יכול להביא צרות צרורות, ואני גם חולקת עלייך, עדיין האי מייל הוא מקום פרטי והייתי מעדיפה שכך ישאר, למרות שאני חיה ברשתות חברתיות כמוך.
I believe that, using Gmail Labs, you can add any iGoogle widget to your Gmail page. Therefore, isn't there an RSS reader gadget for iGoogle that you could add to your Gmail page?
Orli,
Your vision is fascinating and it seems like a required next step of our social media activity.
Gmail as an email client works well. The calendar, like most calendar's isn't very intuitive. Google Reader is a good start. It's not nearly as useful or intuitive as NetNewsWire. There are things I can do with both Google Reader and NetNewsWire that I can't do with the other program, so I have to make use of both. A real time waster. Search works well for me and Google is my default spell checker.
This isn't exactly a feature I'm begging for, but it would certainly be nice: being able to enter contacts' birthdays/anniversaries/etc.. with the rest of their contact info (email/address/number/etc..) and having that integrate with the Google Calendar. Just a side project for gHeadquarters to consider. :)
But on another note, I definitely second all of your suggestions! I have no idea why video hasn't been integrated with email yet.
I second all your suggestions, and just this night I was thinking about something in Gmail. I don't know if it's even doable. An option to filter contacts/addresses and tell it NEVER to show in my quick contacts list OR Contacts.
I often reply to my Disqus comments via email, and I get a long row of Disqus in my contacts. There's no easy way to tell it NOT to add them.
This is a great post that I think most people have thoughts about.
D'you know, that bit about Search in Gmail- it's something I've never done & never even knew could be done (I tend to use Firefox & the search box in the top right for any page that I'm on, [or occasionally the search box in iGoogle - but even then I'm more likely to use the browser based one])
I guess we all have our own way of working don't like to have to change it.
As far as the calendar goes, I don't find it particularly difficult to use - indeed, in many ways it's easier than the work one we have -with one exception. I've an idea that when it was first introduced, it was possible to add emails with dates in directly as a calendar entry - so yo0u could have all the info in the email assocaited with a particular event on the right day. At the time it annoyed me, as it kept wanting to add things that I didn't.
Now I'd like to (not for everything, mind - just somethings) and I can't. I've an idea that I had to disable something at the outset, but blowed if I can find what it was I disabled, nor where it was. (We are talking the days of gmail when you only had 6 invites mind!)
I don't know if it's possible but I would love to see the ability to embed and share widgets right from within an email.
thansk you..
Thank You very much for this blog...
Thank you very much.As to me its good job...
Couldn't agree more about web search. For years now my default search came from Gmail ("search web"). I don't understand why they want to split it.
Now I just click on "web", then search. Or use the google toolbar. But everything was much simpler when everything was being done from one window.
I guess sometimes evolution doesn't work for the best.
nice ideas, you guys should pass them on to google:
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=suggestions.cs
http://groups.google.com/group/gmail-labs-suggest-a-labs-feature/topics
Can you gmail someone a number of fields from a spreadsheet, which automatically updates with MY information (the sender) if someone goes back open that original email again? That would make the gmail a live document, and we wouldn't have to check versions all the time. With friend connect, you could even "log" when people came back to look at it....
I start my day with Gmail,and it practically makes everything work a lot better as I am able to access all my accounts and blogs from the same Id so hail Gmail
Loved this post, Shared Labels is a great idea, would make my Gmail experience so much better.
I'd also like to have the ability to assign Labels to e-mail as i'm composing it, right before i Send.
As to YouTube videos & flash embedding, seeing it implemented now is a bliss! http://www.flickr.com/photos/majento/3367468156/
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