Suggested times in Google Calendar

Posted by: Lode Vandevenne, Software Engineer

Creating an event is easy, but finding a time that works for everyone is sometimes tricky and time consuming. To make this easier and save you time, we’ve added a new 'Suggested times' feature to Google Calendar.

To get started, create a calendar event, add guests and click Suggested times. The resulting list will include upcoming times where all participants are available. For example if you want to create an hour long meeting with Kara, and she already has an hour long meeting at 3pm, then times like 2pm and 4pm will be suggested.


As part of our ongoing commitment to accessibility, the list can also be navigated using the arrow keys and is accessible with a screen reader.

For more information, please visit the help center.

Introducing the Gmail app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Posted by Matthew Izatt, Product Manager

Update: 11/2/11: Earlier today we launched a new Gmail app for iOS. Unfortunately, it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app. We’ve removed the app while we correct the problem, and we’re working to bring you a new version soon. Everyone who’s already installed the app can continue to use it.

Waiting. Walking. Watching TV. Working out. Winding down. Waking up. We check email pretty much everywhere these days. And when we do, we want easy access to our important messages so we can respond quickly and get back to life -- or slinging birds at thieving green pigs.

With that in mind, we’ve created a new Gmail app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. We’ve combined your favorite features from the Gmail mobile web app and iOS into one app so you can be more productive on the go. It’s designed to be fast, efficient and take full advantage of the touchscreen and notification capabilities of your device. And it’s one more reason to switch to Gmail.

Speed
We want to give you the information you need quickly, with minimal effort and distraction. So we’ve included some time-saving features:

• Get alerted to new messages with push notifications and sounds
  
• Find an email in seconds with search across your entire inbox
  
• Autocomplete email addresses from your Gmail contacts or select from your device’s address book
  
• Upload photos with a click using the new attachment button in compose view
  
• On iPad, navigate your inbox and read your mail simultaneously with split view
  

Upload photos	Reply, move, label and more

Efficiency
Our inboxes overflow with dozens and even hundreds of messages a dayâ€"and this can be even more challenging on a smaller screen. The new Gmail app helps organize your mail so you don’t have to go wading through your inbox to find that key message from your boss or loved one:

• Focus on your important messages first with Priority Inbox
  
• Quickly scan countless emails on the same subject with threaded conversations
  
• Organize your mail by archiving, labelling, starring, deleting and reporting spam
  

Threaded conversations on the iPad
Touch
We’ve also optimized the interface so you can perform common actions in Gmail with the lightest touch:

• Pull down your inbox to rapidly refresh if you’re eager for new mail
  
• Swipe right to view your labels without ever leaving your inbox
  
• Swiftly scroll through dozens of emails just by sliding your finger
  

Pull down to refresh	Swipe right to view labels

We hope the Gmail app makes checking email on the go a little easier. It is available in the App Store today and works on all devices running iOS 4+. For more information, check out our help center.

Gmail’s new look

Posted by Jason Cornwell, User Experience Designer

Back in July we showed you a preview of Gmail's new look, and we’ve been working this summer to make even more updates and improvements. Today, we’re giving you an in-depth look at the new design. If you like what you see, over the next few days you’ll be able to switch to the new look by clicking on Switch to the new look in the bottom-right of Gmail.


Streamlined conversations
Conversation view has been completely redesigned to help you read through your email threads. You’ll now see profiles pictures for your contacts, so it’s easier to keep track of who said what. We also stripped out as much as possible so you can focus on communicating with your friends and colleagues.


Elastic density
We know that you use Gmail from a variety of screen sizes and devices, so now the spacing between elements on the screen will automatically change based on the kind of display you’re using. If you prefer a denser view all the time, you can change your density manually in the Settings menu.


New HD themes
Themes have been completely rebuilt to enable us to bring you a new set of beautiful high resolution themes with imagery provided by iStockphoto. We've updated most of the old favorites as well and your theme will be automatically carried over to the new look. Go to the Settings menu to take another look at themes and choose the one that fits you best.


Smarter navigation
The navigation panel on the left keeps your labels and chat contacts in view at all times. It's also more customizable: you can resize the labels and chat areas if you want to see more, or hide the chat area entirely via the chat icon in the lower left. You can also use the arrow keys to navigate around the interface.


Better search
Click the dropdown in the search box to see a new advanced search panel, which makes it easier and faster to find exactly what you're looking for. You can use the same panel to create a filter from any search in just a few clicks.


We’re excited to finally share Gmail’s new look with you. We’ll be bringing these changes to everyone soon, but if you’d like to make the switch right away, we’re rolling out a Switch to the new look link in the bottom-right of Gmail over the next few days.

Faces of Gmail: Forum Top Contributors

Posted by Sarah Price, Gmail Community Manager

Usually for Faces of Gmail, we talk to a Googler who works on Gmail. But this month, we’re talking to our forum Top Contributors. Top Contributors (TCs) are volunteers who post in the Gmail Help Forum. When we’re impressed with the amount they are posting and the quality of their answers, we give them the TC title. We have dozens of Gmail TCs around the world posting in all different languages.

About a month ago, we got to meet some of these wonderful volunteers at the Global Top Contributor Summit. Now you can meet a few of them, too! Below we’ve included excerpts from a group interview with five of our TCs.

Gmail Forum Top Contributors at the Global Top Contributor Summit in September

Name: Brett (bkc56) Location: N. California, US Favorite Gmail Lab: Message Sneak Peek. It's so useful for quickly dealing with short messages.	Name: John (Deman_Nu) Location: Woodstock, NY, US Favorite Gmail Lab: Undo Send. It’s amazing how many times I notice something wrong in the seconds after I hit “Send.”
Name: LMckin51 Location: South Carolina, US Favorite Gmail Lab: Undo Send	Name: Tito Dutta Location: Kolkata, India Favorite Gmail Labs: Inserting Image, Add any gadget by URL, Extra Emoji
Name: wdurham Location: Hampshire, UK Favorite Gmail Labs: Sneak Peek, and after years of using Outlook, the Move Icon Column which puts the attachment paperclip in a more obvious place.

What is your Gmail expertise?

Brett: To be in the Gmail help forum is to be always learning. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I tend to focus on topics like account recovery, account security, missing messages, labels versus folders, and account backup.

LMckin51: I like teaching users how to keep their accounts safe, and how to avoid scams. I also like to help them learn about all the Gmail settings.

What do you like about participating in the forum?

wdurham: It's great to feel you are helping people get more comfortable with Gmail, or solve particular problems they're having. What's even greater is the amount I learn myself each time I help someone solve a problem. Best of all is that "Eureka!" moment, when you spend ages explaining one of Gmail's unique concepts, like labels, and the light suddenly dawns for the user.

Tito: It’s a great place to learn new things. The forum has taught me to think deeply. When an asker replies to my post in the forum, it helps me to assess my own answers.

What's your most memorable forum experience?

wdurham: When people give out the wrong email address, the real owners of that address find themselves receiving mail meant for someone else -- like a “wrong number” phone call. Sometimes they don’t understand what happened and incorrectly think it’s a Gmail problem. I answered one such query a few months back only to have the "someone else" join the thread and ask for her missing mail to be sent on to her because she gave out the wrong address - thus conclusively proving my point!

John: I was helping one woman who had accidentally deleted a number of emails that were important to her. Using search queries, I was able to help her find some of messages she thought she deleted. She emailed to thank me and I was overwhelmed by what she said: "I honestly am warmed to be reminded that there are selfless people helping others that they don't even know. It means a lot! So even if I never find the rest of the emails you've still helped me to feel better."

What are you doing when you're not posting in the forum?

Brett: I have a full-time job as a software engineer plus a wife and four kids. I also play guitar, collect Legos, and watch movies (often sci-fi).

LMckin51: In my spare time I create and maintain websites. I also take photographs at events at my church.

What words of advice do you have for Gmail users?

Tito: Explore Gmail settings pages and Gmail Labs. Use and play with web browser extensions, plugins and and reliable userscripts. And the old rule: if you have any question on Gmail (or anything), don't forget to search in Google first.

Brett: Gmail’s servers are very reliable, but it’s always a good idea to do regular backups in case you accidentally delete mail you need, or in case your account is compromised by someone getting your password (for example, if you reused your Gmail password on another website and it was stolen from there). Personally, I like Got Your Back as a backup/restore utility. Another resource for exporting and saving your data is Google’s Data Liberation Front.

John: Forum posters, please remember that we are volunteers who are here to help you. We recognize that you are often angry or upset when you come to us with serious problems, but it is much easier to help when your posts focus on providing the information we need rather than on your emotions. Feel free to ask questions if you don’t understand us and let us know if we misunderstood something about your situation. We also greatly appreciate it when you let us know when your questions have been answered!

Learn more about ads in Gmail

Posted by Alex Gawley, Product Manager

We don’t want ads to be a mystery, so with our new “Why these ads” link, you can find out why an ad is being shown to you. By clicking the link - now next to ads in your Google search results and coming very soon to Gmail - you’ll be able to see information about why a specific ad appeared. In addition, we’re giving you greater control through our improved Ads Preferences Manager, where you’ll be able to block advertisers or turn off personalized ads.

To learn more, check out this video from our lead software engineer, Diane Tang, or read our post on The Official Google Blog.

Google+ is now available with Google Apps

Posted by Ronald Ho, Product Manager

Google Apps fans, today we’re ready to add you to our circles. Google+ makes sharing on the web more like sharing in the real world, and now Google+ is available to people who use Google Apps at college, at work or at home.

Starting now you can manually turn on Google+ for your organization. Once Google+ is turned on, your users will just need to sign up at google.com/+ to get started. For customers who use Google Apps for Business or the free version of Google Apps and who have chosen to automatically enable new services, Google+ will automatically become available to all of your users over the next several days.*

Google Apps users will have access to the same set of features that are available to every Google+ user, and more. In addition to sharing publicly or with your circles, you’ll also have the option to share with everyone in your organization, even if you haven’t added all of those people to a circle.



Google+ at home, at work and at college
You use Google Apps in lots of different ways, and we expect the same for Google+. Apps users from artists to doctors to parents to students to teachers have told us that they are ready to join the 40 million people already sharing on Google+.

Circles is a great way to share relevant content with the right people. With Circles, your photography crew doesn’t have to get an update about your morning workout, your triathlon team doesn’t have to see all your thoughts on the latest camera gear, and your project teams can be kept separate from all of this.



Hangouts with extras, which combines multi-person video chat with screen sharing and collaboration in Google Docs, lets you work together on projects even when your team can't be in the same room. Whether you’re out of town, working on a project with a distributed group, or just don’t feel like walking to the next building for your meeting, Hangouts with extras can give your team the productivity boost it needs.



Google+ coming to a campus near you
Many students and teachers have sent us their ideas about how they can use Google+ to teach, learn, work, and play. These are a few Google Apps for Education universities from around the world that are bringing Google+ to their campuses today:

• Abilene Christian University
• American University in Cairo (Egypt)
• Arizona State University
• AT Still University
• Boise State University
• Central Piedmont Community College
• Dublin City University (Ireland)
• ESSEC Business School (France)
• Leeds Metropolitan University (United Kingdom)
• Loughborough University (United Kingdom)
• Saint Louis University
• Strathmore University (Kenya)
• Universidad Panamericana (Mexico)
• University of Ferrara (Italy)
• University of Maryland Baltimore County
• University of Minnesota
• University of Notre Dame
• University of Pavia (Italy)
• University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom)
• University of Washington
• Vanderbilt University
• Wake Forest University

Just the beginning
For those of you who’ve already started using Google+ with a personal Google Account and would prefer to use your Google Apps account, we’re building a migration tool to help you move over. With this tool, you won’t have to rebuild your circles, and people who’ve already added you to their circles will automatically be connected to your new profile. We expect this migration option to be ready in a few weeks, so if you’d like, you can go ahead and get started with your Apps account today and merge your connections once the tool is available.

It took more technical work than we expected to bring Google+ to Google Apps, and we thank you for your patience. This integration is just the beginning. We’ll continue to add features and improve the way that Google+ works with Google Apps, and we encourage you to share your ideas.


* Google+ requires Picasa Web Albums for photo sharing and Google Talk for chat, so if these services are not enabled then Google+ will not automatically become available, even if your domain has chosen to automatically enable new services. The option to automatically enable new services is controlled in the Domain settings tab of the administrator control panel. More information about using Google+ with Google Apps is available in the Help Center.


Update: For Google Apps for Education customers, we're starting with higher ed institutions and are looking into making Google+ available to K-12s at some point in the future.

Faces of Docs: Vance Vagell, User Interface Software Engineer

One of my favorite things about being the community manager on the Google Docs team is working alongside people with a myriad of backgrounds, interests, and talents. From learning of one of teammate’s pro cricket player past or another’s literary aspirations, I’m constantly discovering new things about the people I spend my workdays with. I thought you might enjoy reading about them, too--which is why we’re taking a cue from our friends at Gmail to bring you “Faces of Docs,” a series that will spotlight the people that make up our team.

Photo by: Antonella Pavese

Name:
Vance Vagell

What do you do on the Docs team and how long have you been at Google?
I lead a team of user experience (UX) prototypers. We build realistic-looking prototypes of new Google Docs features, so that our researchers can try them out with people. This lets us improve them before our engineers build the real thing. I’ve been here two years, but things move so quickly it may as well be 10.

What’s your typical day like?
I hop on the subway, read a few chapters of whatever sci-fi novel I’m working through (currently “Olympos” by Dan Simmons), and get to the office in about an hour.

Grab a coffee, then try to tackle my email inbox. Afterwards, I’m usually doing one of three things: building a prototype, preparing for a study, or running brainstorm and design sessions. My mind is usually at least one year in the future, although sometimes people force me to think about near-term problems.

What do you like most about what you do?
Watching someone enjoy a feature I’ve helped revise a few timesâ€"once we’ve finally gotten it right. I like being an advocate for what’s truly useful, and what people need. On the other hand, occasionally I get to work on bigger changes that help push technology in new directions, and that’s a blast too.

What’s the most challenging part of your role?
There are so many teams that want to see their ideas prototyped, that sometimes I have to put a few on the backburner. That said, we always prioritize, and then squeeze in a few “blue sky” projects so we keep moving forward and never get stuck in the status quo. We call a project “blue sky” when it’s unrealistic by today’s standards, but could be a great direction tomorrow.

What did you do before joining Google?
I’ve always worked in NYCâ€"love the east coast (as I alienate myself from my west coast colleagues with this post). Started out as an indie game developer, then worked in voice technology for a few years. I was delighted to discover a posting for “User Interface Software Engineer” at Google NYC, and haven’t looked back since. I focus more on UX than engineering these days, but there’s an important intersection between the two that I represent.

What are the three Docs features you wouldn’t be able to live without?
Can I list ones that haven’t launched yet? Probably not. Okay, in that case: @-mentions in document comments that shoot off emails to people, Google Forms to quickly gather feedback, and real-time editing to bang out ideas as a group. These are all critical to my daily work.

What do you do when you’re not working on Docs?
Far too much computer gaming. Some of my favorites: Everquest (original and EQ2), Planetside, Eve Online, and City of Heroes.

Also love to go bird-watching. My favorite spot is Central Park. People are often surprised that you can spot over 20 bird species in a single afternoon there with a pair of binoculars. Did you know there’s a family of red-tailed hawks in the park that has reared several seasons of chicks now? Google “Pale Male”. On one outing, one of those hawks dove not more than a foot above my head to pick up a mouse beneath a tree across from me. Promptly carried it to a nearby branch and … dined. Very cool experience.

What kind of desk flair do you have?
Souvenirs from aquariums and zoos I’ve visited, and a photobooth print out of me and my partner at one of the Google NYC holiday parties. At last year’s, they had caricature artists, but I’m not ready to share that particular image of me yet. :)

What’s your pet peeve?
Apathy. Be passionate about something, and don’t be afraid to stand up for it.

What do you do in your downtime?
Between projects I like to catch up on UX blogs and papers. Some of my favorites are UX Matters, Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, and Don Norman’s essays.

What would your last meal be?
Definitely my partner Ray’s vegetable curry, it’s sublime, and you can’t beat home-cooked!

Posted by: Teresa Wu, Community Manager