December 7th, 2005

More new Gmail features

Posted by Garett Rogers @ 3:39 pm

Categories: Gmail

Tags:

It’s only been about a week since Google introduced Anti-Virus capabilities into Gmail, and now the Googlers are now ready to start offering a few more interesting features that may raise a few eyebrows.  Their "What’s New" page has changed once again and outlines a few extra features that aren’t yet available.

One of the new features is "Web Clips".  They will enable you to view your favourite RSS feeds right in Gmail just above the archive and report spam area.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like it will be integrated with Google Reader.

Viewing some types of attachments is also getting easier.  For Microsoft Office, Open Office or PDF attachments you will be able to view them as "HTML" by clicking the link similar to the one you find on search engine result pages.  This will save time by allowing people to view their attachments without downloading anything.

Google will now also scan your emails and display relevant information about things it finds in your email, such as driving directions and package tracking.  This mashup information will be displayed on the right hand side of the screen — probably above the Google ads.

Update:
The web clips feature seems as though they are attempting to mimic the relatively new RSS feature in Yahoo! Mail’s beta test.  From what I can tell, the Web Clips feature won’t be accessible like a folder, but more like a simple news ticker which makes it slightly different.

Update 2:
As many of the readers of this article have mentioned, these features have been available for quite a while for some users.  That said, many users still do not have these features — including myself — which makes me believe the news should more accurately be that they are going to release these features to *everyone* in the coming days.