Google Debuts Inbox By Gmail

Google announced a new service called Inbox. The app, which was developed by Google's Gmail team, offers a new take on email by categorizing emails and highlighting the important details therein. 

Inbox offers three core features: bundles, highlights, and reminders/assists. Bundles categorize similar emails, such as bank statements or purchases, to make them easier to read and dismiss en masse. Users are able to tweak which emails are grouped together, but Inbox will also do so automatically. Highlights show the important information found within emails, such as flight itineraries, event details, and photos/documents. Inbox is smart enough to pull in additional details from the web if they're not offered in the original email. 

Last, reminders/assists are tools for managing tasks and to-do lists. According to Google, Inbox can handle any type of reminder and can snag pertinent info from the web. For example, if you make a flight reservation, Inbox will automatically provide a link for online checkin. Reminders can be silenced with a snooze feature that relies on time and/or location to resume notifications. For now, Inbox is being offered as an invite-only beta. Google said those who receive invites can invite others to test out Inbox. 

Google didn't say when the service might reach 1.0 status or become more widely available to the public, sound off in the comments section. Did you request and invite? Have you received your invite to Inbox by Google?


Source: Google Blog

Inbox by Gmail official site.
Inbox by Gmail Chrome Web Store app.

Microsoft Courting Google's Sundar Pichai As Next CEO

+Sundar Pichai is Google’s senior vice president of +Chrome , Apps, and Android. When it comes to desktop and mobile software Pichai ha really shown what he can do. Sundar also played a role in the development of +Google Drive, +Gmail, and +Google Maps.

In the past few years, Sundar has done some really amazing things for Google, not to mention Android. We’d be very surprising if Sundar  decided to part ways with Google, however this isn’t the first time we’ve head rumors of Sundar calling it quits at Google. When Pichai was offered an exec position at +Twitter, rumor is Google paid him $50 million to stick around.

Stay posted for more information as details surface. Drop us your comments below, what is your take on a possible Sundar departure from Google?

Google Integrates Google Wallet With Gmail

Following its I/O keynote address today, Google just announced on its commerce blog that it will soon be integrating Google Wallet features into Gmail to allow users to send and receive money. The feature will be available to those with a Google Wallet account and will initially be available to users 18 and older in the US.

Google Wallet is now integrated with Gmail, so you can quickly and securely send money to friends and family directly within Gmail — even if they don’t have a Gmail address. It’s free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card.

Google will be adding a new $ icon next to the paperclip icon for attachements that will allow users to “attach money” to messages in Gmail by simply entering the amount and clicking send.

Google noted that the feature will first only be available on the desktop, but that users can also send money through wallet.google.com on mobile devices.

Look for the feature to start rolling out in the coming weeks but earlier access will be granted to those that receive money from others using the feature. You can learn more about sending money with Gmail here.

Screenshots Claim To Show Google’s Rumored Babel Service

Rumors of an upcoming messaging service from Google dubbed “Babel” have been steadily popping up in recent months. We first heard back in March that the service would unify Google’s chat services such as Google Talk, Chat for Drive, Google+ Hangouts, etc, and since got a look at two different sets of screenshots showing variations of what tipsters both alleged were an Android app for the rumored service.

After a small hint at Gmail integration for Babel this morning, we now get yet another set of photos, this time reportedly showing what the service will look like inside of Gmail. TechRadar posted the images above that apparently come from an anonymous Google employee currently testing Babel.

From the screenshots we see a slightly tweaked text layout, new emoticons and the expected Google+ integration, but not much else. 

Source: 9to5Google

Google’s Unified Chat Actually Named Babel

Google is on the verge of releasing a unified chat service called “Babble.” This new service was rumored to have merged services  like Voice, Talk, and Google+ Messenger into a cross-platform chat solution, hopefully ending the siloed and independent chat experiences that we all currently experience. While most of those reports were on the right track, we believe that the actual name of the new Google messenger service is called “Babel” rather than “Babble,” at least internally. 

According to sources of ours, with Babel, you’ll get a seamless messenger experience across Android, iOS, Chrome, Google+ and Gmail. From what we have seen, there is no mention of Google Voice or other services outside of the five we just mentioned, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t be there at some point. As of now, this is being tested internally as a cross-platform service through those five platforms (Android, iOS, Chrome, Google+ and Gmail).

Google is selling the service as having these features:

• Access the same conversation list from anywhere
• A new, conversation-based UI
• Advanced group conversations
• Ability to send pictures
• Improved notifications across devices

So what does “Babel” mean? It has a variety of meanings, that all make sense in some round-about way. The semi-hilarious thing about the name, is the fact that the definition of the word by itself has to do with a confused mixture of sounds, voices, or languages. But if you think about the movie Babel, with Brad Pitt, the name tends to make more sense. The movie itself focuses on four interrelated situations and conversations that all eventually come together in the end through a single phone call that is played from two different perspectives from the beginning and then the final scene. When you think of a unified messenger client, this idea of merging conversations from different perspectives or places seems to make a lot of sense. Then of course, there is the biblical meaning.

Another interesting item of note there is already a chat service on Android called Babel (Play link), however, it appears to have a small international user base.

Would Google really name a service after a Brad Pitt movie? Great question. Babel could be an internal codename for all we know. Obviously, we’ll keep this as a rumor until further details surface.

Google Snags E-Mail Genius Sparrow

We've all dreamt of a better Android e-mail client, Google has announced today they have acquired Sparrow. Sparrow's been an iOS/OSX staple, and we can only hope it'll bring its talents to Android, along with Gmail at large. 

Sparrow writes:

We're excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!

We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience.

Now we're joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google.

We’d like to extend a special thanks to all of our users who have supported us, advised us, given us priceless feedback and allowed us to build a better mail application. While we’ll be working on new things at Google, we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users.

We had an amazing ride and can't thank you enough.

Full speed ahead!

Dom Leca

CEO

Sparrow

We also want to thank our advisors and investors — Loren Brichter, Dave Morin, John Maeda, Xavier Niel, Jérémie Berrebi — as well as our friends and family: Simon Istolainen, Jérémie Kanza, Sacha Cayre, Cedric Gepner, Laurent Merlinot, Didier Kuhn, Christophe Baillon, Laurent Cerveau, Christophe Giaume, Sebastien Maury, Manuel Colom, Bertrand Guiheneuf and all of you who have helped us along the way.

For all press inquiries, please email press@google.com.

Google Ups Free Gmail Storage To 10GB

Google on Tuesday unveiled its new “Google Drive” cloud storage solution, taking direct aim at Microsoft’s SkyDrive, Dropbox and other similar services. The new offering includes 5GB of free cloud-based storage and allows users to store, collaborate on, and share documents and other files. At the same time as its new Google Drive service was rolling out across the Web, Google also quietly gave Gmail users a capacity boost of more than 35% according to reports. Gmail launched in 2004 with 1GB of free storage and that figure has been increasing steadily to just over 7GB as of earlier this week. On Tuesday, Gmail’s free storage climbed to 10GB according to a report from Engadget. We haven’t seen the storage boost hit our inboxes yet, but a number of users reportedly have. Google has not formally announced the update.

Google Updates Gmail for Android

Google today released an updated version of the Gmail application for Android devices. The new version brings the features of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to Android 3.2 Honeycomb devices, including features such as swiping between conversations, custom notifications for select labels, quick access to recent labels, and support for syncing 30 days' worth of messages for offline reading. For devices running Android 2.2 and 2.3, the new version includes new label APIs and performance improvements. The update is a free download from the Google Play Store.

Google Voice Free Domestic Calls Extended

Google has extended their offer free domestic calls within the US and Canada through 2012, a kind holiday gesture to Google Voice users in North America (excluding Mexico). The catch? You will have to place the calls via Google Voice and Gmail, excluding Android users wishing to make calls from their mobile device. It’s still a great offer and one worth taking advantage of if you are already a frequent Google Voice user.