Google Voice In Your Gmail Inbox (Screenshots)

If you haven't heard the news just yet, Google has rolled-out the ability to make Google Voice calls directly from your Gmail account (among other things).  I gave it a try and it looks more than just promising.  Why not get your geek on and check it out for yourself?  Or, check out the links and some screenshots below to get a better idea of what it's all about...

The rates are posted for international calls and they're competitive, if not insanely low.  Calls in the U.S. and Canada are free in 2010.

Get The Sauce From The Source

• Get more info on the official Google Voice blog.


• Watch videos on Google voice and video chat.

A Few Screen Scraps

Official Tweet Buttons In Action

The Bell Curve Rings

 
I love to try new stuff and I'm definitely an early adopter in terms of new products and technology, art and design, and a host of other things. That said, I recently noticed a few posts on an "Official Tweet Button" which I initially thought was a rumor, then did a little surfing and found that — not only was it real, but it was already out in the wild!  

Crazy.  

It's tough to keep on top of things.  

Surf, read... share.  

Not Quite the Speed of Light, but...

 
The reason for my post on the topic is that I was amazed at how quickly things progressed. Yeah, rumors and blog posts about Twitter abound — it's ubiquitous — but this particular item struck me as unusually quick to come to life. I obviously understand that the typical web development cycle can and usually does take time, and I'm sure the process of designing and creating this new feature involved a team of people and plenty of thought, time and effort — but this one felt like it came to fruition at close to the speed of light.

Sharing is Sexy

I thought I'd add an example of the new Official Tweet Button in action because I think it'll really do well, I love to share stuff so I plan to use it a LOT and it's incredibly easy to implement (see the example at the bottom of this post). Adding it is cut-n-paste easy.

Here's an example of one super-simple method (there already are several ways to do it). Just add this to your code:

<script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<a href="http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" title="Tweet it!">Tweet</a>

And you should get an Official Tweet Button like this:

Tweet

...have fun sharing! Oh, and feel free to follow me on Twitter and tweet this post if you found it useful, why not? Sharing is caring ;-)

New Gmail enhancements

I'm the type of guy who almost always checks my email before doing anything else in the morning when I first sit-down in front of my computer. The only thing I do before this, of course, is make a fresh pot of coffee and pour myself a mug...

It's a ritual.

Historically Geeky

I've used Gmail as my primary mail client since it was first available in 2004, and it just keeps getting better. I love it's simplicity, and the way Google has been rolling new features into it over time rather than a big "upgrade" or "redesign" as I've witnessed and experienced in other products.

I like the subtle changes and there's a feeling of 'delight' that this type of staggered (i.e.: Agile) feature roll out approach offers for the user. It also makes it possible for the developers to really focus on the implementation and get feedback early and often to squash any bugs and resolve any unforeseen front-end glitches more effectively as well. With this approach, everybody wins.

It's Delightful & Delicious

Today I had a pleasant surprise when I noticed some minor, yet really nice improvements in the way that Gmail presents their Tool-tip (a.k.a.: "HoverCard" information). These are admittedly not Earth-shattering changes, but they were a nice surprise nonetheless, so I thought I'd blog about it to see if other folks are also seeing these changes in their Gmail client.

Hover Info; Chat Column

The presentation of info is much better when you hover over a user's name in the chat column — much cleaner and more like a business card where the order of elements is better organized, and the buttons are placed on the bottom of the card. I really like this because the structure makes more sense, and it feels more natural to me.

Hover Over Sender Info

The other improvement I noticed isn't a huge change, but it is better in my opinion. When you hover over the sender's name you get the same presentation, treatment and structure as you do with the user's name. Same look, same feel, same structure: buttons on the bottom. I'm a big fan of consistency and this is also important in terms of usability.

If you're not using Gmail, I suggest you take a look at it and consider doing so. If you are using Gmail already, then I also think it's a good idea to check the Google Labs section every now and then or subscribe to the Official Gmail Blog RSS feed to find out if there's anything new you might want to try.