We have some exciting changes in store for Gmail and Google Talk this week. If you haven't seen the latest changes you Gmail, you can read about them on Jon's post to the Google Blog. The features will be appearing in Gmail accounts starting today.
With these changes you can chat directly from the Gmail interface. Just click on the chat button next to your friend's name and you'll be IMing just like in Google Talk. No need to switch away from Gmail, it just happens right in the same place. Give it a shot!
Another change for both Google Talk and Gmail is the ability to save chat histories. Google Talk users have been asking for a feature that lets them save chat histories, and now we have it.
But, just saving wouldn't be good enough. Chat histories are a lot more useful if you can search them and organize them—things that make chat more efficient and powerful, and more like email. So starting today, check out the new "Chats" link on the left-hand side of the Gmail screen—you'll see your chats there (if you choose to save chat histories of course - it's your choice). They will appear almost instantly, and they're displayed in a way that makes it really easy to read through your chat conversation. And, when you do a search in Gmail, it searches over your saved chats as well. Remember an important address from a conversation you had last week? No? Just search for it!
We hope you find both these changes useful.
Bob Day
Software Engineer
