Google has been working on a new look for Gmail for last several months. In June this year, they had made available the sneak peek into this new look. I had tried it that time but changed immediately back to the “classic” look because I felt more comfortable (and perhaps used to) with the good old version. At that time, Google had said that this new look will soon become the default one.
Yesterday, Google officially announced that the new look is now available for all the users. The upgraded interface of Gmail has a number of useful features. Let’s examine these features and see what they all for:
Elastic Email Density: Now you can choose how many emails you want to see on one screen. This can be set by going to Settings > General tab
High Definition Themes: Google has added many high-definition background pictures to pepper your Gmail experience. You can select any of these themes to get rid of the regular look.
Story of Send shows you how your Gmail message travels.
Advanced Search: Search now has many more options (like, searching only within unread emails)
Smarter Sidebar: You can drag and change the height of chat box. Content automatically expand on mouseover
Compact Conversation Thread: Design of the conversation thread has also been enhanced. Now it looks more compact and easier to manage long email conversation.
All these changes help you in managing your emails in much better way. The general look and feel of Gmail has also been enhanced to match with the new aesthetics of Google websites. Jason Cornwell, User Experience Designer of Gmail reported these changes on official Gmail blog yesterday.
I like the new look except for the fact that the list of chat contacts does not scroll when we scroll the page. One has to move the cursor to the left side of the screen and scroll the chat list separately.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfW5e6jVsMs
How do you like this new avatar of Gmail? Are you happy? Or you find it falling short on expectations? Share your experience with me. I would love to hear judgement on Google’s work. Stay connected with TechWelkin.
I use Gmail but also Apple's Mail, because unlike Gmail, Apple lists received emails under the name of the person or company that sent them. Gmail just puts all sent emails under my name. I have never understood why. If anyone could enlighten me I would appreciate it.
Debbie, there is no clear answer to this. Probably, Google wants to keep Gmail different from Apple's Mail. Or probably, Google has some other and better idea in mind that it will roll out in future.
Have just switched to the new look of gmail after reading the article. The new look rocks :-)