We just brought you a host of features that Google has changed to it’s Custom Homepage. We also recently brought you the changes Gmail has gone through.
Now, Gmail has finally added something that ideally, should have been included a long time ago. A contact chooser. Following this announcement on the Gmail Blog, we noticed this new addition. Most of us use Autcomplete in Gmail to add addresses from our contacts list so that we can choose whom to send to. That helps when you know whom to send. However, it is only when scrolling through your entire contact list that you recall you just might have forgotten someone. The new contact chooser helps overcome that barrier.
Go to Compose Mail on your Gmail, and click on the To, CC or BCC links in the compose window. A new pop-up will open in a new window that will display the contact chooser. Now you can search as you go and add contacts by clicking on those that appear. The option is also open if you have Grouped your Contacts. You can add names by clicking on them, and they go to the bottom where you can just as easily remove them by clicking on them. So, no longer will you have to save a draft, go to your contacts section, copy an email address, and paste it in the compose window if you have no clue who all you want to mail to. The search section also acts as a cool filter to choose the recipients of your email.
As Lifehacker cleverly points out, the irritating bit about the new contact chooser is that it opens in a new window. Those with pop-up blockers and those more suited to using multiple tabs as opposed to windows would find that irritating. Though I forget where, someone was commenting on the possibility of including such features in Google Talk as well. Feel like sending an instant message (as offline or otherwise) to more than just one person? Seems worth considering.
Of course, there’s scope for quite a few additions to all e-mail clients. The list of features in Gmail Labs is just the starting point. Let us know though, what other features that you consider “essential” would you like to see incorporated? I considered the concept of Social Sharing like Reader did with e-mail, but that seems quite contradictory to the concept of personal mail. Any ideas/comments?
