Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Trying on the new Dynamic Views from Blogger
September 27, 2011
As you may have noticed, the Gmail blog looks a lot different today. That’s because we—along with a few other Google blogs—are trying out a new set of
Blogger
templates called Dynamic Views.
Launched today
, Dynamic Views is a unique browsing experience that makes it easier and faster for readers to explore blogs in interactive ways. We’re using the Classic view, but you can also preview this blog in any of the other six new views by using the view selection bar at the top left of the screen.
We’re eager to hear what you think about the new Dynamic Views. You can submit feedback using the “Send feedback” link on the bottom right of this page.
If you like what you see here, and we hope you do, we encourage you to try out the new look(s) on your own blog—read the
Blogger Buzz post
for more info.
Posted by Peter Harbison, Product Marketing Manager
Gmail and Gmail for mobile go global again, available in Persian
September 22, 2011
Posted by Ian Hill, Localization Project Manager
At Google, we want to make our products universally accessible and useful, and that means providing them for as many people as possible in the language they speak. The Gmail and Google Localization teams have worked together to bring Gmail to people around the world in
53 languages
. Today that number grows to 54, because we’re proud to announce that through working with the Persian Initiative Team, we are able to release Persian (Farsi - فارسی), as the newest language available in Gmail. If you or someone you know speaks Persian, they can change the language in Gmail by selecting it on the Gmail settings page, under the language dropdown.
Gmail for mobile is also now available in Persian through your mobile browser.
To read this announcement in Persian, visit the
Google Persian blog
.
Introducing multiple sign-in and preferences on Gmail for mobile
September 21, 2011
Posted by Posted by Dominic Leung, Mobile Software Engineer
The Gmail for mobile team works hard to bring you features that make you more productive on the go. Today, we will highlight some new features for Gmail in your mobile browser.
Multiple sign-in support
Just like on your desktop, you can now to sign into multiple accounts simultaneously. To sign into an additional account, click on the account switcher at the bottom of the threadlist, then click ”Sign into an another account.” You can quickly switch between accounts by selecting the desired account from the Accounts menu.
Mobile-specific signature
We know that autocorrect and other mobile spell-checks can be frustrating as you are typing on the go. Let your friends know that you are responding via your mobile phone so that they understand why you might have sent a message that you are meeting for "monitors" and not "mojitos". It's an easy way to make them understand why your message might be short or have a few typos. To create a mobile signature, from the menu view, press the new settings icon,
choose your signature, and then check the box that tells us you want to activate it. If you ever want to disable the mobile signature, you can uncheck the box and we will use your desktop signature instead.
Vacation Auto-Responder
Ever forgotten to set your out-of-office auto-reply in Gmail before going on a trip? You don’t have to worry about that anymore, since you can now set your auto-reply using the mobile interface. Simply choose a start and end date and specify your message, just like on the desktop interface.
As part of added multiple sign-in support, we’ve updated URLs so that each account can have a separate bookmark. For those who have previously bookmarked Gmail for Mobile, please update your
bookmark
. If you haven’t, now is a great time to head to
mail.google.com
on your smartphone or tablet browser and
add a bookmark
to your home screen.
Never run out of calling credit with auto-recharge
September 20, 2011
Posted by Posted by Ilya Frank, Senior Software Engineer
Cross-posted from the
Google Voice Blog
If you're calling internationally from Gmail a lot, you may have noticed that your calling credit goes a very long way... which makes it easy to get caught off guard when it runs out.
So based on your feedback, we implemented the ability to auto-recharge your account: just go to your
billing page
(click on the add credit link next to your balance) and select the recharge amount. When your calling credit dips under $2 or 2€ we will automatically charge your credit card on file for the selected amount.
This feature becomes available after your first purchase and can be changed or disabled at any time.
Improved accessibility for Google Calendar
September 14, 2011
Posted by: Florian Niemann, Software Engineer
Today we
announced
some of the updates we’ve released recently to make Google’s applications more accessible to the blind community. Google Calendar now has new keyboard shortcuts and better
screen reader
support for our blind users. Members of the blind community can now use
JAWS
,
VoiceOver
and
ChromeVox
to manage your calendars, create and edit events or simply browse your events. Here are a few examples of how screen readers and keyboard shortcuts work with Google Calendar:
In your
calendar lists
, you can use the up and down arrow keys to navigate between your calendars. For each calendar in the list, you’ll hear its name and can use the spacebar to turn the calendar on or off. To remove a calendar from the list, use the delete key.
In the
agenda view
, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move between events and use the left and right arrow keys to move between dates. To expand an event and expose the event details, press enter. To go to the event details page, type ‘e’. To remove an event, press delete. Although agenda view provides the best screen reader experience today, we are also working on improved accessibility for other views.
In the
guest list
on the create/edit event page, you can navigate around using the up and down arrow keys. Use the spacebar to switch a guest's status between optional and required. To remove a guest from the list, use the delete key.
Additional keyboard shortcuts make it easier to use Google Calendar no matter which view or screen you’re on. Type ‘c’ to create an event, ‘/’ to start a search, and ‘+’ to add a calendar.
For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts and to learn more about using Google Calendar with screen readers, please visit the
help center
. With these new accessibility features, we hope to make it easier for everyone to use Google Calendar. Please use
this form
to share your feedback directly with the accessibility team so we can continue to improve our products.
Gmail account security in Iran
September 9, 2011
Posted by Eric Grosse, VP Security Engineering
Cross posted from the
Google Security Blog
We
learned last week
that the compromise of a Dutch company involved with verifying the authenticity of websites could have put the Internet communications of many Iranians at risk, including their Gmail. While Google’s internal systems were not compromised, we are directly contacting possibly affected users and providing similar information below because our top priority is to protect the privacy and security of our users.
While users of the Chrome browser were protected from this threat, we advise all users in Iran to take concrete steps to secure their accounts:
Change your password. You may have already been asked to change your password when you signed in to your Google Account. If not, you can change it
here
.
Verify your account recovery options. Secondary email addresses, phone numbers, and other information can help you regain access to your account if you lose your password. Check to be sure your recovery options are correct and up to date
here
.
Check the websites and applications that are allowed to access your account, and revoke any that are unfamiliar
here
.
Check your Gmail settings for suspicious
forwarding addresses
or
delegated accounts
.
Pay careful attention to
warnings that appear
in your web browser and don’t click past them.
For more ways to secure your account, you can visit
http://www.google.com/help/security
. If you believe your account has been compromised, you can start the recovery process
here
.
Gmail: It’s cooler in the cloud
September 7, 2011
Posted by David Jacobowitz, Program Manager, Green Engineering and Operation
Cloud computing is
secure
,
simple
, keeps you
productive
and saves you money. But the cloud can also save energy. A
recent report
by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Verdantix estimates that cloud computing has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by millions of metric tons. And Jonathan Koomey, a consulting professor at Stanford who has led several studies on data center energy use, has
written
that for many enterprises, the cloud “is significantly more energy efficient than using in-house data centers.”
Because we’re
committed to sustainability
, we sharpened our pencils and looked at our own services to see how they stack up against the alternatives.
We compared Gmail to the traditional enterprise email solutions it’s replaced for
more than 4 million
businesses. The results were clear: switching to Gmail can be
almost 80 times more energy efficient
(PDF) than running in-house email. This is because cloud-based services are typically housed in highly efficient data centers that operate at higher server utilization rates and use hardware and software that’s built specifically for the services they provide—conditions that small businesses are rarely able to create on their own.
An illustration of inefficient server utilization by smaller companies compared to efficient utilization in the cloud.
If you’re more of a romantic than a businessperson, think of it this way: It takes more energy to send a message in a bottle than it does to use Gmail for a year, as long as you
count
(PDF) the energy used to make the bottle and the wine you drank.
We ran a similar calculation for YouTube and the results are even more striking: the servers needed to play one minute of YouTube consume about 0.0002 kWh of energy. To put that in perspective, it takes about eight seconds for the human body to burn off that same amount. You’d have to watch YouTube for three straight days for our servers to consume the amount of energy required to manufacture, package and ship a single DVD.
In calculating these numbers, we included the energy used by all the Google infrastructure supporting Gmail and YouTube. Of course, your own laptop or phone also consumes energy while you’re accessing Google, so it’s important to
choose an efficient model
.
There’s still a lot to learn about the global impacts of cloud computing, but one thing we can say with certainty: bit for bit, email for email, and video for video, it’s more efficient in the cloud.
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