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Back to the overall effort. In Gmail, the new look (presumably the default setting sometime in the future) is something called “Preview” and “Preview Dense.” There is a lot more space on the page, and many words become icons. Colors, such as a red enclosure for the word “inbox,” are also used to provide visual cues to speedier navigation. The ad running along the top of the initial email list moves to the bottom of the page.
In a blog post Google called the email changes “a sneak peak” of a long term effort to accommodate more screen sizes. Clearly this refers to tablets and phones, but probably also the kind of interactive televisions it will soon champion with an update of Google TV also due by the fall.
Google Calendar now has a default setting like Preview Dense, and more icons, fewer words. So does Google Maps, which also now includes the ability to store information on places you’ve visited, which increases the product’s personal utility. The search box is likewise cleaner, with the eye catching a white screen across most of the page, and the information about search on the bottom of the page, like the ads on the initial page of Gmail Preview.
The most notable uniform look is the black bar across the top of all products, offering access to products on the left side, and personal info on the right. Once you’re in Google+, this includes current activity inside the site, such as updates to posts, and who has added you to their social “circle” of friends, acquaintances, or whatever. This needs work – you still can’t see which post is being commented on – but it is still a continuous temptation to go back inside the service, like having a Facebook tab open all day.
Google hasn’t talked about it much, but there is also a setting inside G+ to let it watch you as you move around the Internet, personalizing content and ads on all sites and applications, possibly an even more pervasive version of the Facebook “like” button.
More of these services will connect. As I’ve said, the business-minded Google Apps will soon enough have the social and communications functions of Google+, a run at both LinkedIn and Microsoft. By the way, Microsoft, with its Skype holding, may be coming right back at this, with a Facebook tie-up next week.
Jeff Huber, who is in charge of small business and local efforts at Google, has said there will be pages for small business inside Google+, which will almost certainly tie to local services and mobile search.
Like it or not, we’re all in this together. We just won’t see a lot of it happening.
source: forbes.com
Posted in: Facebook,Gmail,Google,Google Calendar,Jeff Huber,LinkedIn,Microsoft,Skype
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