Google prepping Gmail 2.0

by Brad Linder Oct 29th 2007

It might be a good idea to scrutinize your Gmail account more closely than usual these days. Not only is Google in the process of rolling out IMAP support, but it looks like some users are able to access a new version of Gmail. If you notice a new option that says "older version" or "newer version" at the upper right-hand corner, you're probably in. It should be right between the "settings" and "help" tabs.

Google Blogoscoped has a series of sreenshots showing some of the differences. Gmail 2.0 reportedly loads faster, although it's a bit early to say how much faster. And there's a much more detailed contacts section. There's a new contacts manager and the option to add images for contacts directly from Picasa Web. There also appears to be an option to "filter messages like these" from the Gmail "More Actions" drop down box.

If your account has the new interface, please let us know in the comments if you've noticed any other differences.

Tags: contacts, gmail, gmail-2.0, google-blogoscoped

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Andrew said 9:29PM on 10-29-2007

I have noticed that it is faster and the new contacts section is a lot better organized.

Michael said 9:35PM on 10-29-2007

Not too many differences...I would have hoped for more AJAX features like in Yahoo Mail...but I still feel that GMail is superior to the rest.

It does indeed load much faster and the new contacts section is great...

kastonie said 11:03PM on 10-29-2007

talk about some garbage, People are now able to look at the new 2.0 interface and my gmail account still didnt even get IMAP yet....man..im tired of being patient

markchiang said 11:12PM on 10-29-2007

In "more actions" drop down box, I have a new option called "Mute".
You can see screen shot here
http://markchiang.blogspot.com/2007/10/gmail-20.html

piXelman said 11:25PM on 10-29-2007

kastonie, you don't happen to have "Basic HTML" turned on at the bottom of your Gmail do you? With Basic HTML turned on, you don't have access to the IMAP section on the Settings tab.

Steve said 11:50PM on 10-29-2007

The Chat feature now works in Safari :)

jstudio said 12:00AM on 10-30-2007

The new spam filter overkills. It tagged more than 50 messages as spam that are not. This may not result from the 2.0 upgrade. But I have to pay much attention to the spam folder from now on. ehh..

Mike said 12:09AM on 10-30-2007

I noticed that it's much faster. Messages load almost instantaneously.

The filters are pretty handy as well.

Marc said 6:24AM on 10-30-2007

Very Nice, Very Fast - Well Done Gmail!

koolio said 7:57AM on 10-30-2007

I can't wait anymore. I have 2 accounts with GMail, the one I always use doesn't have IMAP, and the one I don't use has IMAP option. WTH wrong with GMail.

Woopsicle said 7:58AM on 10-30-2007

my account was upgraded to the new interface. But the new interface has crashed my Firefox 2.0.0.8 about 5 times today. Using the older versions instead.

Marat Levit said 7:59AM on 10-30-2007

This morning I noticed the "Loading..." text was a bit different. When entering the Gmail page I saw the "Older version" text.

The new UI is not different. Emails loads in a flash, there is no waiting time, you click and it's there.

The contacts have had the biggest change I've seen so far. Split up into three columns, you have your Groups, Contacts and their Information.

Everything else is pretty much the same. As most I'm hopping for a few more changes, like a folder system, a brand new look and my personal request, different signatures for different accounts (accounts which I get Gmail to retrieve for me).

Thank you,

Marat Levit
www.mlevit.wordpress.com

Lita said 7:59AM on 10-30-2007

I have the newer version and.. Is it just me, or has anyone else's Gmail Notifier add-on for Firefox stopped working?

rao.murlidhar said 7:59AM on 10-30-2007

Don't know when will this feature will roll out. my imap hasn't yet been activated. yawm. i know my default language is english(US).

Settings > General > Language > Gmail Display Language > English(US).

Is there anything to be done?
ah forgot and numerous logins and logout with cookie clearing.
:(

zuner said 8:01AM on 10-30-2007

Hovering over any contact under the FROM field shows his photo as well in a "snap preview" kind of overlay box.

Mark O'Neill said 8:16AM on 10-30-2007

I have the new interface but the contacts window does NOT open in Firefox. Is anyone else having this really irritating problem?

I blogged about the whole situation at http://www.betterthantherapy.net

Tom said 8:36AM on 10-30-2007

I still don't even have the IMAP option!!! C'mon google, roll stuff out already!

Kevin said 8:57AM on 10-30-2007

the feature that got my attention that something was different was when i logged on yesterday and the chat was enabled. i use the stand alone app to chat and therefore disable it in gmail. so I clicked on "turn off chat" on the bottom and there was no page reload, it just turned the chat function off and left it on the page.

apparently you can also just sign in from the chat client without having to click "turn on chat" at the bottom. once you sign on it changes the bottom to "turn off chat".

pretty, pretty, pretty cool IMO

Saskwatch said 1:20PM on 10-30-2007

I have problems with 2.0 in Firefox as well. The Contacts window does not open, and GMail notifier extension does not work either. I am not so much worried about the extension. I am sure the developer will update it at some point, but I wish I knew what was going on with the Contacts window.

Lastly, I have mixed emotions about any real changes to the UI. Some sites have take AJAX to overkill level, and there is something refreshing about the simplicity of GMail's interface. Now on the other hand, Yahoo! has taken great stides in improving the interface for both Search and Mail. It would have been nice to have seen Google incorporate some of the features like Drag N Drop, auto-complete searching, etc. Let's face it, it is time to snazz up the interface just a little - IMHO.

Eleventeen said 2:41PM on 10-30-2007

If you really want Gmail skinned differently, load up the 'Stylish' extension in Firefox (or use comparable Greasemonkey scripts). There's lots of keen looking skins available.

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