24 September 2007

Gmail revamp in the works

Google is currently working on a new version of its free web-based email service Gmail. In the past, the service has drawn many favourable reviews from users for its unique organisation. However, there has been criticism concerning Gmail's privacy policy and its web interface, which has remained largely untouched since its initial launch in April 2004.

Evidence for a revamped Gmail service has been revealed by a translator. Rather than employing professional translators to convert Google services into multiple languages, Google asks users to translate snippets of text for their applications.

Among other things, these snippets of text uncovered Google's plans to integrate Google Gears with Gmail. Google Gears offers software that enables offline access to services that normally only work online. It installs a database engine on the client system and locally caches the data to be used when a user works offline. The data in the local cache is subsequently synchronised with the online service.

Additionally, a new feature concerning email account access is about to be integrated with Gmail. Users will soon be able to check how many computers or browser sessions currently are in their account. This new feature will enable users to check current as well as past account activity and identify IP addresses of computers accessing the account.

Other Gmail features on which the web community is speculating are increased storage, the ability to easily switch between different Gmail accounts and further improvements to the interface. Multiple attachment selection, the option to view messages from the inbox or in a new tab and the introduction of sorting options are also considered desirable.

Currently, only very few Google employees and select trusted testers outside the company have access to the new version of Gmail and a release date cannot be anticipated. However, the new Gmail is likely to be equipped with some innovative new features in an attempt to gain ground from Yahoo! Mail, who is currently the most popular web mail service in terms of overall usage.

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