Gmail Features

I’ve been quiet on Gmail because I wasn’t sure it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day prank, but it appears that it’s not. The view seems to be that it’s simple, powerful and feature-packed.

What features could you put in webmail? Here are some I’ve seen referred to (see sources below):

• easy email threading, where connected emails are viewed, one atop the other;
• a green button at the bottom of the window indicating what mail is below the screen;
• use of keywords, not folders, to store relevant emails, based on content. These are called labels;
• ability to use Google search on your emails (including whole threads, not just individual messages). This issue has raised privacy concerns, which I’ll take a closer look at later);
• assign a star to an email and it gets assigned to a special starred folder;
• use of terms like ‘newer’ and ‘older’ rather than ‘forward’ and ‘back’ highlight attention to the user’s point of view;
• chevrons (>>) to distinguish between emails sent directly to the user or to a mailing list;
• ads don’t seem to be intrusive (for now); they pop up every 3 or 4 message pages. Often they’re ‘eerily relevant’ according to Kevin Fox of Fury.com;
• composing email will bring up relevant entries from your contact list;
• no ads appended to outgoing emails.

Sources:

Fury.com
Miscoranda
Gmail faq