A preview of Gmail’s new look Gmail blog Over the years, adding countless features to Gmail has made it an increasingly powerful communication hub, but along the way the interface has also become more cluttered and complex. That’s one of the reasons we’re embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful. This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products. I must say I love the new design, I am really happy Google is finally spending time and effort to make their products beautiful! You can preview the themes today by going to Gmail Settings -> Themes, the themes are “Preview” and “Preview”(Dense). update: Edited quote.
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A preview of Gmail’s new look

Gmail blog

Over the years, adding countless features to Gmail has made it an increasingly powerful communication hub, but along the way the interface has also become more cluttered and complex. That’s one of the reasons we’re embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful. This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products.

I must say I love the new design, I am really happy Google is finally spending time and effort to make their products beautiful!

You can preview the themes today by going to Gmail Settings -> Themes, the themes are “Preview” and “Preview”(Dense).

update: Edited quote.

Source: gmailblog.blogspot.com

Google tries Social again!

google+

Loads of reactions to google+

Some positive 

Marshall Kirkpartick

I thought I’d type up some notes after an evening of using Google’s new social network, Google Plus. This is a really big deal, a super ambitious effort involving scores of engineers over months of near total secrecy. (Though some helpful sources and I scooped the core Circles part of all this three months ago.) The service is really, really well done. Will it be good enough? I have no idea, but I have felt drawn to keep using it all night long.

MG Siegler

Overall, I’m impressed by Google+ after day one. Of course, like many, I also had fairly low expectations of anything Google tried to do in the social sphere after Wave and Buzz. Still, I used Google+ for hours and kept coming back. And I have a desire to come back tomorrow. That’s never a bad thing.

and some more skeptical

Dave Winer

Products like the one Google just announced are hatched at off-sites at resorts near Monterey or in the Sierra, and were designed to meet the needs of the corporation that created it. A huge scared angry corporation. What little is left of the spark that created it in the first place is now used to being Number One, and wants to feel that again. It’s being created to make that person feel better. 

Marco Arment

It’s not difficult for a company of Google’s size to make a social network. The challenge is getting enough people to use it, and quickly enough, that the early adopters will stick around after the first few days and start habitually using it. This is an extremely high barrier to entry, even for Google. As with most social phenomena, social-network success tends to happen more organically and unpredictably than anyone is able to artificially create by throwing money at it. Successful social services at this scale also need constant attention, rapid improvements, and nearly flawless product direction — skills that Google hasn’t been able to consistently deliver to many of their products.

Looking at the interactive tour and the introductory videos google+ feels very un-google like in a good way. It looks beautiful has great UI elements. The videos are simple to understand and very well done. I hope they finally create a social product that sticks.

Hope the buzz is still around by the time everyone gets invites!