Google Calendar User Interface Upgrade

Last week, Google added five new User Interface improvements and features to Google Calendars (all editions):

• Collapsable screen area for all-day events
• Ability to add Google Docs files to events
• Streamlined settings for sharing, unsharing and deleting calendars
• New 'Save and send emails' option for new events
• Better accessibility with improved support for screen readers

Being able to include documents with event invitations and the streamlined buttons for sending emails when you save the event both enhance Calendars for most users.

Previewing the Print Preview Feature

In early February, Google announced a new Print Preview feature for Google Apps (all editions). For those familiar with Google's nearly flawless PDF generation capabilties, the preview function looks familiar.

In fact, Google is using the PDF engine to provide the Print Preview, with a helpful index of page thumbnails as well.

If you haven't created PDFs from your Google Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presenations, try it out as you try out the print preview. The accuracy and clarity is impressive.

Google Apps Contacts Mature

One of the differences between Google Apps Premier Edition and MS Outlook with Exchange is that Google Apps does not have the concept of the Global Address List. Companies use the GAL to share contacts and distribution lists, even though the GAL is a separate entity from the Personal Address Book, which is also separate from the Contacts folder. So while contacts within Outlook/Exchange is not pretty, the information is available.

As announced on 11-Feb, the following new features are available in Gmail contacts:

• You can combine multiple contacts into a single entry
• The new 'All Contacts' group includes 'My Contacts' and other people with whom you have corresponded
• You can remove contacts from 'My Contacts', leaving them in 'All Contacts'
• You can search across all contact fields

What do these features mean?

Contacts and groups are starting to look more like emails and labels, where all contacts are kept in a single place (like All Mail), but you can track your contacts and group contacts more easily. If "All Contacts" becomes a shareable resource, Google Apps will include the GAL functionality some businesses miss, but in a fully integrated way.

Short term, though, you get better organization and search, making Google Apps Premier Edition that much more easy to use.

Incremental Improvements in Gmail Should Help Enterprise Adoption

Google Apps Enterprise Edition users have seen some a number of small changes to the user Gmail user interface. While some are cosmetic -- colors, borders, highlights -- others should ease user adoption and comfort with Gmail. One of these changes is the Move to button that appeared this morning.

One of the big differences between Gmail and other email servers, like Microsoft Exchange, is the difference between folders and labels. With folders, when you move an email from your Inbox to the folder, the email actually moves into that folder. To find the email, you need to browse the folder or include the folder in your search.

Gmail labels work differently. In Gmail, all of your email resides in "All Mail". Gmail uses the power of Google's search technology to find and display your messages.

When you label and Archive your message, you are removing it from the "Inbox" and adding the labels to the message. While clicking on a Label name looks like opening a folder, you are in effect searching for all messages with the Label.

Labels offer more than traditional folders in that: (1) You can put multiple labels on a message without having to copy the message into multiple folders; and (2) Searching and finding messages in Gmail is fast (no comparison to Outlook).

The Move to button adds the label and archives the message(s) in one click. As such, it looks and feels like you are moving a message into a folder.

User Interface enhancements that mask some of the differences between Gmail and other email systems will only enhance users' acceptance. With this feature, users can work with the familiar "move" concept without loosing Gmail's superior search capability.