techcrunch.com/2008/06/05/live ...

Gmail Labs for new features... YATA :)

“users will be able to influence Gmail’s design.”

I hope they don't implement every little user request into Gmail. Keep focusing on making it faster and more functional.

I hope they will launch things that will make users forget what Greasemonkey is.

gmail-labs.blogspot.com/

TOMHTML you are the best :)

Luka, weird! That Blog*Spot address was actually available but for some reason they were just redirecting the root of the domain to Gmail. Check this out:

gmail-labs.blogspot.com/2008/0 ...

;-)

Excellent Tony! :-D
You have the first blog without home page :)

Yes. All these subdomains gmail-*.blogspot.com are redirected to Gmail.

Ionut's right (as always): gmail-whatever-you-like-here.b ...

:-)

You can use this to see the homepage:
gmail-labs.blogspot.com/search

The TechCrunch post has been updated:

* Gmail Labs goes live at 6pm Pacific time.
* 13 new lab features available at launch.
* New labs tab in the Gmail settings page.
* Any Google engineer can add features to Gmail Labs.

The post also says the most popular add-ons (features) will eventually be built into Gmail. I wonder how long it will take to see these features as standard Gmail features.

Will there be a "delayed sending" experiment? :)

Or even a "Custom Time" experiment? ;-)

mail.google.com/mail/help/cust ...

What is 6 o'clock in UTC?

1 am, I think.

Mike, it will launch in around 2 hours 15 minutes (according to Google's schedule).
Here's a time zone converter (timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/ ... – careful, it has some usability pitfalls) but when it comes to Google you can also search Google for [time in san francisco] and check the onebox.
google.com/search?hl=en&q= ...

Colin: look at the Todd Jackson (Google Project Manager) interview ... he says popular experiments may become *standard* features.

Jackson:
".. if something gains traction... people think this is great... it helps to put it on a path to a bigger product... we want to help graduate them and put it as corporate features..."

The live coverage has now been turned into a standalone wrap up post:

techcrunch.com/2008/06/05/gmai ...

Thank you Ionut, I didn't know that.

Techcrunch said: "Signature tweaks: Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply". Yahoooooooooo!

TOMHTML: signature above quoted text (feature) exists/existed as a GreaseMonkey... it was added to the "Better Gmail" (Lifehacker) add-on but then removed. Thank goodness it's permanent now.

TOM! How dare you speak the devils words upon these pages as an expression of celebration, as punishment me and david be taking your gmail account.

It's 6pm PST and no labs tab yet!

Can't see the features here and it's after 6.

Looks like somebody didn't push the bouton on time :)

Don't they have an EASY button somewhere in the Gmail office?

From Techcrunch : "Gmail Labs is essentially a stage for Google employees to develop new features for Gmail under the public eye. Starting at 6pm PT tonight, all Gmail users in the US and UK will see a new tab in the settings area called “Labs”.

-- Does it mean the Gmail display language or the user location ? At this time no labs tab for me yet

I think this feature is like the other one : It takes some time to spread... People will have it for sure in the coming hours (maybe days)

Yeah Luka, it seems like you're right.

I can't login to Gmail now,it keeps "Loading"..

Does this means Gmail Labs is on the way?

Maybe, maybe not!

Still not seeing the labs tab here in the US.

Ow, I can't see it but I want it! I need it before I know if it will be helpful.

Anyone find it strange that there isn't an official post about this on either the Gmail blog or Google blog?

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't post something until it's out for a lot of users, but it's possible Techcrunch got the timeline wrong. However, the product manager did say they're releasing labs today:
techcrunch.com/2008/06/05/inte ...

it is online

mail.google.com/mail/#settings ...

hebbet: yep, i've been refreshing my gmail since 6pm PST... now its released at 10pm PST .... and i'm in the east coast (1am)!!

I haven't gotten it here yet in the midwest.

Me neither, also in the midwest.

"We are currently in the process of rolling Labs out to English users."

gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/06 ...

Anyone read this link at the bottom of the labs tab?
Want to write your own Labs features and make Gmail better? Join the Gmail team (linking to
mail.google.com/mail/help/join ...)

No feature to PGP encrypt messages :(

none of these are that cool but it's exciting that a gmail labs now exists

farm4.static.flickr.com/3150/2 ...

farm4.static.flickr.com/3112/2 ...

farm4.static.flickr.com/3058/2 ...

I've got it here in London.

It's a nice idea. The examples in there at the moment aren't particularly notable, but I think that's probably not an accident.

of course... Nothing on Google Apps...classic..

Nothing over in the deep south U.S., can't wait to take a look at it though, thanks for the heads up.

The Feature Take A Break seems to be having drawback that if user itself wish to stop timer then there is no option

I missed. Its there. If user want to stop the timer cancel can be used.

Google is doing great job with great new ideas. Carry on Google........

Josue R.: hehe.
When i commented it was 6.40 am in Germany ;)

ok they still don't have HMTL for a signature- whats with that ?

Shame its not available on Google Apps yet... Seems like opting for Google Apps means that we are always the last set of users to benefit from Gmails upgrades...

David T

I tend to take the opposite view--I like the idea of public GMail being a testing ground of sorts. It gives the (perhaps illusory) perception that Apps Mail is the stable, mature codebase. Also, for those of us who help companies switch to Apps, it's nice to be able to have a head-start when it comes to learning about (potential) new features. It's hard to support things you don't even know about yourself, especially Alpha features which may disappear without notice.

Too bad you can't write your own add-ons. There is this one feature I'd do anything for – to be able to see count of messages in "Starred" folder. I star things I have to revisit letter, but than I always forget, because there is no indication that there are starred items waiting for me.

Philipp, they said there is a way to protect yourself if one of the labs features completely breaks your gmail...you navigate here:

mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0

Bill Mac

I haven't really thought of it that way before as I'm a home user of Apps... You make a good point!

All the same, I'd personally still like to have the option to experience upgrades to Google Apps quicker than at current!

Ludwik Trammer: If you're really desperate for this feature, switch to the old version of Gmail (the option on the top right) and install greasemoney and this userscript blog.persistent.info/2005/03/a ... which adds persistent searches with read/unread count. The search you're lookinjg for is 'is:starred'.

> I star things I have to revisit letter, but than I always forget, because
> there is no indication that there are starred items waiting for me.

Alternatively, add a label and mark them as unread rather than star them. Then you'll see how many there are.

Not that related, but this website rate email clients according to their performance in the email acid test:
email-standards.org/

Gmail is rated as "Poor" since it doesn't really support CSS.

I'm having serious loading issues with Gmail today. Whether I use "?labs=0" or not, the loading bar slowly fills and empties anywhere between 3 and 12 times before I can get into my account. I've tried logging out, restarting my browser, etc. but it makes no difference.

Is anyone else seeing this?

its been pretty sluggish..loading is slow, but it gets me there..

how about changing the colors?

Gmail wass also rather slow for me aswell, however it has improved over the afternoon.

Looks like it's only available to those who use the yucky ui=2.

Now in linkbar:

img359.imageshack.us/img359/46 ...

gmaillabsblog.blogspot.com/
my latest blog ;)

If only there were a sort by attachment size capability... oh well...

cool. not that exited about the features but at least there is something new to play with. still waiting for an offline version of my address book, by google. an option to change the colors and layout of my inbox will be great, too.

<<Update: Labs is now out to all English users (US and UK), and administrators using Google Apps can choose to enable Labs by checking the "Turn on new features" box in Domain Settings. >>

I have "Turn on new features" on my apps accounts, but I still don't have the option.... ohh well..

It may take some hours/days

> I have "Turn on new features" on my apps accounts, but I still
> don't have the option.... ohh well..

Ditto.

<<It may take some hours/days>>

I've had it on for months..... I guess we just have not gotten the update yet.

Travis,
You do know it's for IE7 and FF only, right? :)

David,

I use IE7 with Google Apps and I still don't have the labs feature.

Hurray. I now have the labs feature in my Google Apps account.

Me too. And I love how it says this:

<< Want to write your own Labs features and make Ruscoe.net Mail better? Join the Ruscoe.net Mail team >>

heh.

I saw that too. :)

Just checked... I have it today too!

David... I use FF

Instead of the general quotes feed in Gmail Labs "Random Signature" feature, you can use your own selection of quotes feeds by any tag, author or your personal favorites offered by www.QuotesDaddy.com (see how-to in top right hand corner). Maya

The custom shortcuts feature has been temporarily removed.

<<We ran into a few problems with this feature, so we're temporarily turning it off while we fix it. It'll be back once we're done. Thanks for all the feedback on this and other features so far. As we mentioned, Labs features are less baked than our normal features, so temporary (and sometimes permanent) disappearing acts like this will happen on occasion. >>

groups.google.com/group/gmail- ...

Wonder if they'd disclose if those were security problems...