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Filed under: E-mail, Web services, Google

What's Gmail's "Magic Inbox?"



Google Operating System spotted some code in Gmail that points to an upcoming feature called "Magic Inbox" or "Icebox-Inbox." It's not clear what this mystery feature is going to do, but it looks like it's a new way of prioritizing your incoming mail based on senders you've interacted with frequently. Commenters at gOS have been attacking the feature based on speculation about how it might work, but I'm not jumping to any conclusions.

As evidence for their theory that Magic Inbox is based on some kind of friend priority algorithm, gOS cites a feature called Friend Finder that Google is known to be working on. They explain that "Friend Finder analyzes a user's email traffic and indicates the friends with whom a user has strong email connections based on incoming/outgoing traffic and the frequency and speed in which two parties respond to each other," which would be a good way to determine which messages belong at the top of a busy inbox.

As I said, I'm not jumping to conclusions about the exact way this is going to work. There already seems to be a strong reaction both for and against this feature, and we don't even know what it does yet. Any inside tips, readers? Do any anonymous Gmail team members out there want to tell the real story?

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Web services, web 2.0

gOS Cloud - From zero to web browser in just a few seconds

gOS
gOS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that's designed to make it easy to interface with web-based applications like Gmail, YouTube, and Meebo. It uses the slightly OS X-like Enlightenment desktop environment, and the developers have been pushing it as a good operating system for low powered netbooks, thanks to its integration with web applications.

The latest version of gOS goes a few steps further, by emphasizing the web browser above all else. gOS Cloud is a stripped down Linux distro that can load in just a few seconds. And instead of loading a typical desktop, the first window it opens is a web browser (which looks suspiciously like Google Chrome in the press shots).

You also get a dock-style program launcher for starting desktop applications. And the operating system is designed for dual boot systems that also run Windows XP. Good OS, the company behind the Linux distro are working with netbook makers Gigabyte to build an ultraportable laptop that will come preloaded with gOS Cloud and Windows XP in early 2009.

Filed under: OS Updates, Linux, Google, Open Source, Social Software

Newest gOS to have Google Gears pre-installed


gOS, the new kid on the block in the world of Linux distributions, is releasing a new version of their operating system next week at CES. As we've written before, gOS is the version of Linux that comes pre-loaded on the $199 PC from Wal-Mart. Please note that gOS doesn't have anything to do with Google directly, it just happens to come pre-installed to use services such as YouTube, Docs, and Spreadsheets, and Blogger. You can also find tools such as Skype, Wikipedia, among others.

gOS is a new step because it's among the first operating systems to be focused on web applications. This pending update that will include Google Gears is significant because Google Gears will allow gOS users to use some these web applications offline, namely Google Reader and Zoho, for starters. Of course, you could always just load Google Gears for Linux on the gOS or most other Linux operating systems today, but the whole point of gOS is that the operating system is designed to be easy to use the moment you first turn your PC on.

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Filed under: Internet, OS Updates, Linux, Google

Download gOS, the operating system of Wal-Mart's $199 PC

gOS
This week Wal-Mart started selling a $199 PC with a Linux based operating system called gOS pre-loaded. A lot of websites mistakenly reported that the "g" stands for Gogole, because this stripped down operating system has direct links to a bunch of Google services like YouTube, Docs & Spreadsheets, and Blogger. But gOS is actually a stripped down "green" operating system based on Ubuntu.

And you don't need to buy a $199 PC to load it. You can download gOS right now. Unfortunately, the developer's site seems to be down at the moment, but you can find gOS on several Torrent trackers.

The ISO weighs in at 728 MB, making it a tight fit for a CD-R, but leaving plenty of room on a DVD-R. And like almost all Ubuntu-based operating systems, gOS comes as a LiveCD, meaning you can take it for a test drive without installing anything. Just boot your PC from the DVD. When you're done, shut down, pop the DVD out and reboot into Windows, Linux, or whatever you've been using up until now.

[via InsideGoogle]

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