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Google Begins "Gmail 2.0" Rollout

Posted by kdawson on from the still-the-same-primary-colors dept.

Stony Stevenson writes "Google on Tuesday confirmed it is giving Gmail a new look. This blog post has screenshots of a new Gmail interface that has been made available to a limited number of users. They are calling it "Gmail 2.0" even if Google isn't. Google confirmed the update is underway at its new San Francisco office, just prior to a briefing on an unrelated upcoming Google announcement. A Google spokesperson said that the new look has been made available to about one percent of all Gmail users and is being rolled out the rest on an ongoing basis."

13 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. 2.0? by Sporkinum · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess I didn't realize that gmail was past 1.0 yet. I thought it was still a beta.

    --
    "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    1. Re:2.0? by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm afraid google use the term 'beta' correctly. They just have higher standards than you.

      --
      There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
    2. Re:2.0? by alexgieg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You prefer that users expect 1.0 to mean 'beta'?
      Thanks to Microsoft, I think most already do. Isn't it common nowadays for users in general, and those in TI in particular, to expect any new OS developed by them to only work correctly after its first service pack? I know I do. 2000 wasn't good. 2000 SP-1 (or more, I don't remember) made it good. XP wasn't good. XP SP-1 was. Vista isn't good. Vista SP-1 probably will be. And so on and so forth.

      Actually, even back in the days Microsoft used numbers to differentiate product versions, it was common sense that "x.0" versions weren't worth it. Those who knew advised users to prefer a previous version with a higher number after the dot, as by then it would be stable and actually working as expected...

      In short: whenever Google decides to remove the "beta" tag from Gmail, I doubt they're going to call it "Gmail 1.0". It wouldn't be good for business.
      --
      Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
  2. JavaScript back-end? by jeks · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...thanks to a JavaScript back-end rewrite...

    I highly doubt that GMail uses JavaScript on the back-end. In fact, it is pretty well known that GMail is written in Java and only uses JavaScript on the front-end.

    1. Re:JavaScript back-end? by BESTouff · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's the frontend's backend. What's hard to understand here ?

  3. Faster access due to pre-fetching and caching by jbarr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently, one of Google's goal in releasing this new version is to provide a new code framework that will help them to speed up Gmail's response time in a number of areas. One feature of note is that Gmail now pre-fetches and caches messages in the current view, so when you click on a message, it loads almost instantly. On my broadband connection, I see much improved response--clicking a message now displays it almost instantly--no lags or delays.

    -Jim
    http://gmailtips.com/

    --
    My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
  4. Re:still in beta by hcmtnbiker · · Score: 5, Funny

    What is a beta of a beta?

    A Microsoft beta

    --
    If i had one dollar for every brain you dont have, i would have $1.
  5. Re:[whine]... by Gleng · · Score: 5, Informative

    IMAP seem to be only rolled out to people with English(US) language settings at the moment. To enable IMAP, I had to:

    1) Change the language setting from English(UK) to English(US).
    2) Go back to settings, and then into the newly available "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab.
    3) Enable IMAP.
    4) Configure my client (Thunderbird) and make a successful connection.
    5) Go back into the settings, and change the language back to English(UK). The "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab changes back to just "Forwarding and POP".
    6) Continue using my sweet, sweet, IMAP.

    This method is hit and miss it seems. But hopefully some people might be lucky.

    --
    "Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
  6. What I REALLY want is... by MrZeebo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's great that they're improving the interface, and being able to access mail stored on Google's servers via IMAP is a nice addition. But what I REALLY want is to be able to store my mail on MY server, and access it via Google's awesome interface. Really, just use Google as an IMAP client to my mail server.

    I know they offer to do that via POP, but I want the "live" copy of my mail to remain on my server, and for Google to access it via IMAP. I don't like the idea of all my mail being stored on someone else's server, especially when I'm not paying anything for it and therefore should have no real expectation of it still being there tomorrow.

    Google for domains seems at first glance to do this, but your mail is actually still stored on Google's servers.

    Has anyone ever heard of this sort of feature coming in the future?

  7. But by witte · · Score: 5, Funny

    is it compatible with Comcast ?

  8. Just start there by chphilli · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just set your bookmark to https://mail.google.com/ - you'll start & stay in SSL. I've been doing this for a really long time ( I can't remember when I even created the bookmarks I have in all my browsers to do exactly this. )

    --
    Please ignore any obvious problems in this post.
  9. version 2 had better sync ! by johnjones · · Score: 5, Interesting

    first of all lets me get this straight I think Gmail is good client and the IMAP access has gone a long way to make it even better BUT

    gmail does NOT SYNC with anything e.g. my contacts in my phone

    solution = syncML !

    contacts, calendar etc lots of others e.g. plaxo (annoying interface) and ZYB have this sorted and here I am fumbling around with CSV files

    I hate it I try and sync with many differant devices and just wish there was a nice way
    hell there is a thunderbird plugin there is a outlook plugin and MOST phones support it....

    please please google gmail 2 should focus on contacts and introduce syncML !

    regards

    John Jones

  10. "I just want" by zippthorne · · Score: 5, Funny

    I just want...


    **shiver**

    The three scariest words in IT. Actually... pretty much any business.
    --
    Can you be Even More Awesome?!