September 23rd, 2007
Two new Gmail features in the queue
After discovering that Google is testing a new version of Gmail yesterday, I decided to take a closer look at more of the snippets that need to be translated for Gmail. Most of them seem to be straight forward and correspond to existing features, however there are some interesting ones that don’t seem to fit anywhere.
Here are two new features that will be launched either before, or after Gmail 2.0:
Google Gears integration
It was hinted at in recent reports, but there has been no hard evidence of Google’s plans to integrate Google Gears with Gmail until now. Two snippets of text are in the translation queue that, to me, prove beyond any doubt that Gears will be a part of Gmail. The two snippets of text are “Gears not installed” and “Disable Local Store” as seen in the screenshots below.
View account activity
Have you ever had the suspicion that someone has been logging into your email account? Or do you just want peace of mind knowing that you are the only one accessing your account? You will soon be able to see how many computers or browser sessions are currently in your account and their IP address. In addition to real-time account activity, it appears you will be able to see past account activity too. Here are some of the snippets of text that will be used: “This account is currently being used in {number} other locations”, and “Last account activity: at IP [details]“.
Gmail is due for some serious updates — it’s been too long since anything has changed on the service, and you know its developers aren’t sitting around wondering what to do. I don’t have any guesses as to the timeframe for the release of these features or Gmail 2.0, but this is definitely a promising sign of good things to come.
Garett Rogers 
is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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