Google ready to roll out revamped Gmail service

By Jeremy C. Owens via MercuryNews.com

Google announced a new look and updated features Tuesday for Gmail, its popular web-based email offering.

The most obvious change for Gmail users will be the appearance of the inbox in "Conversation" view, which will include the email sender or recipient's profile picture beside the email if available. It will also have a more stripped-down appearance, Google User Experience Designer Jason Cornwell announced in a blog post Tuesday morning.

The search function within Gmail will offer more options, with advanced filtering features available from the standard drop-down box at the top of the inbox. The left panel of the inbox, which includes contacts available for instant-messaging, will be more customizable for users, Cornwell said.

Gmail's appearance will also change, but offer customizable design elements as well. Users will be able to vary the spacing on the page depending on what device they are using, allowing for a better view on the variety of mobile devices users now access the service. Google has also introduced new themes to the service, which add backgrounds and affiliated icons, with a series of high-reolution photos from istockphoto.

The changes will appear "soon," Cornwell said, but users can voluntarily switch to the new look later this week, when they will see a link offering the chance to "Switch to the new look" at the bottom right of their inbox screen.

#%*@#! The top 10 tech 'fails' of 2009

By Doug Gross / CNN.com (CLICK to read more)

"It was a big year for technology: Twitter and Facebook's popularity exploded, while new smartphones, e-readers and a host of other gadgets cropped up to compete for our plugged-in affection.

But into each electronic life a little digital rain must fall.

We polled a handful of the most tech-savvy folks we know for their thoughts on the worst moments in technology from 2009 -- the most epic 'fails' of the year.

Your mileage may vary. If you think something doesn't deserve to be here, or think we missed a noteworthy clunker, let us know in the comments section. And now, in no particular order, our 2009 Tech Fails ..."

TIP: How to Make a Firefox Shortcut to Your Unread Gmail

Gmail's task list can now be e-mailed

Web Crawler - CNET News: "Google has enhanced the task feature that's integrated into Gmail and other Google products to let users share their lists with others. Gmail users can now choose to share an entire task list in a new e-mail message. Doing so transfers all of your tasks including information like due dates, and any tasks that have been completed which show up as being crossed out.

One thing to note is that this only works in Gmail, and not in other places where tasks can be found, including Google Calendar, the mobile version of Gmail, and on iGoogle. Although knowing Google, the e-mailing feature will make its way to each of these places soon enough.

Gmail tasks is the one and only feature to 'graduate' from Gmail labs, which is Google's test bed for new and experimental features. The feature was launched in early December of last year, and graduated from labs last month. The rest of the labs-only features, including the 13 that were launched alongside the release of the labs program, continue to require user action to be enabled."