Possible Gmail Redesign

Gmail is thought to be undergoing a redesign that will radically change the way people interact with Google email.

The interface change, revealed by leaked screenshots of a test version published by technology site Geek.com, shows a shift towards the simplified design already used by the Google Plus social network and Google’s intelligent digital assistant Google Now.

It could be the biggest change in the way Gmail looks and operates since the service was created in 2004.

Removing clutter

The design focuses on Google’s search, which can be used to find and highlight emails in a long list, replacing the need to file email in folders or categories. The cluttered sidebar that contained email labels, folders and Google’s Hangouts instant messaging service has been removed in favor of a sliding menu, already used by Google’s social network and other Google services.

Google's simplified interface for Gmail. Photograph: Geek.com

Buttons for composing a new email, setting reminders and other quick actions are now in the bottom right-hand cover, and the tabbed interface that allows users to switch between email, contacts and tasks has been removed. Google Hangouts now drops down from a menu in the right-hand top corner. Google’s starred emails, which are used to flag important conversations, have been replaced by “pins”. Emails can also be snoozed, to be returned to the top of the inbox at a later date.

Google has only made small, gradual additions and changes to Gmail in the past, with some changes remaining entirely optional for years for its 425-million-plus users.


It is possible that the redesign is an internal Google change that will not be released to the public, but it appears to match that of leaked design change of Google’s mobile email interface. It also brings Google’s email service more into line with newer Google online services in look and workflow.

Google Blocking NSA With Gmail

This is hopefully going to be the norm. We must continue to fight against the government for our privacy.

CNN Reports that Google just beefed up the security of Gmail to make mass surveillance of its customers' email nearly impossible. It's not quite NSA-proof, but it's close.

To accomplish the feat, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) secured how you connect to its servers. Gmail is now strictly using a secure communications protocol called HTTPS, which encrypts your email on its entire journey: from your computer to Google, between Google's servers, and from Google to the person receiving your email.

In a blog post Thursday, top Gmail security engineer Nicolas Lidzborski said the increased security was in response to disclosures about government surveillance made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

"This ensures that your messages are safe ... something we made a top priority after last summer's revelations," Lidzborski wrote.

Google is trying to limit the abilities of the U.S. government's secretive PRISM program, which can spy on citizens' communications. The NSA declined to comment for this story.

As the New York Times explained last year, government spies have been tapping the fiber-optic cables between big tech companies' data centers. Data typically travels unencrypted between giant computer server farms, allowing for easy interception.

But by encrypting the flow of data between company servers, Google has made that kind of mass collection technologically unfeasible.

"That should be effective," said Mikko Hypponen, a top security researcher in Finland. "By protecting the connection between you and Google servers, they protect you against tons of attackers."

Hypponen explained that the HTTPS encryption method is essentially uncrackable at the moment.

That doesn't stop the federal government from eventually worming its way into your personal data, though. The FBI could still send Google a National Security Letter demanding client records -- something it does all the time. In 2012 alone, Google received Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests on the content of 20,000 to 22,000 users' communications.

Google is taking the kind of approach to combating surveillance that top privacy researchers advocate: Make mass collection unfeasible by making it more difficult and more expensive to accomplish.

"I wouldn't call it NSA-proofing," Eugene H. Spafford, a computer science professor at Purdue University. "But they're doing something reasonable to protect against that and any other similar kind of eavesdropping."

That includes hackers that routinely spy on unsecured Internet connections, including hackers that lurk on public Wi-Fi connections and employers that snoop on workers in the office.

Privacy experts say Google's encryption is long overdue.

"This is something they could have done years ago," Spafford said. "It was a known problem with known solution. They and others have been very slow to adopt it."

The solution also only works if the email stays within Google's walls. The fix won't work if a Gmail user emails someone with a Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) or Yahoo (YHOO,Fortune 500) account, because those companies don't yet support encryption between email providers, according to Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Why haven't they made the change yet?

"Because they're lazy," Soghoian said. "It takes engineers. And these are not features that are salient to regular users. Companies prioritize features that users notice."

In November, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said her company is working on encrypting information that moves between Yahoo servers and its users. She made no mention of that working with outside email providers. But Microsoft is working on all of the above, according to a December blog post from its top attorney, Brad Smith. 

Gmail Offers Full-Screen Compose Again

The link to the full story is here

Google has just launched a brand new, but ultimately ineffectual, feature for Gmail users: a full-screen compose option.

Enabling this option will push the compose window to the center of your inbox, expanded across the majority of the screen for a better viewing experience.

Google launched a brand new compose a few months ago, which gave users a bevy of new tools to build out their emails, as well as a new design to let you open a compose window without ever leaving the inbox. However, it appears that some users enjoy a more full-screen compose experience, not unlike the Gmail compose of Yore.

By default, the formatting toolbar will stay on in the full-screen compose.

Users can switch to full screen by clicking the expand button in the top right window or set full-screen as the default by selecting the “Default to full screen” option in settings.

If you don’t see full-screen compose functionality just yet, have no fear. According to the Gmail team, it’ll be up and running for all users over the next couple of days.

Google Brings Hangouts In Gmail To India

The link to the full story is here



Just before launching its latest general update to Google Hangouts, Google also recently announced that it is bringing its new group video chat tool to India. Just like in other countries, Google is replacing its current plugin-based Gmail video chat system with Hangouts in India, allowing its users there to chat with up to 9 people at a time (or just have a 1:1 chat like before).

With today’s larger update, Google introduced a bandwidth slider that allows users to switch of to adjust how much bandwidth they are using for Hangout – something especially important in countries where high-speed connections aren’t all that prevalent. Google also made an audio-only made available with this update (other participants will just see your avatar) and the service already offered an ultra-low bandwidth mode since last year.

Google first introduced Hangouts in Gmail in the middle of last year.

Gmail’s New Compose View Now Gives You The Ability To Add Labels And Stars

The link to the full story is here




If you haven’t jumped ship on using Gmail’s desktop app, you might be happy to know that its recently released compose view has gotten a few new handy features. Today, the team announced that you can now add labels and stars while you’re composing a message, rather than waiting until you actually send it.

This isn’t really all that earth-shattering, but it’s extremely handy, much like the compose screen itself.


By clicking the “More options” menu in the bottom right, you can hover over label and add the appropriate one. Why is this handy? Well, when you’re writing emails, you should be able to do everything you need to do before you click send. That way, you can go on your merry way and get to the next…email. Stars are a nice way of reminding yourself that the conversation is an important one, and you can sort your email by what’s starred. Labels are self-explanatory, but are a way to filter your email in a fluid way, rather than having to create static “folders.”

As with every product at Google, the process is an iterative one. As you look at all of its most successful services, like search and email, small tweaks keep coming, thus making it a better and better service. Rather than shipping something that is “complete,” which is an old way of thinking, in a way, all of Google’s products will always be in beta mode. Whether it has that label or not.