Gmail takes a page from Outlook with new contact chooser
The new contact manager pops up when you hit the "to" field in Gmail
(Credit: Google)Gmail has long had a feature that automatically suggests and fills out the name of people you've corresponded with. On Tuesday night, the service got a tweak that makes that process easier--it's also likely to be second-nature to Microsoft Outlook users.
Now clicking on the link next to the "to" field pulls up Gmail's contact list manager, where you're able to very quickly sort through your contacts, or anyone you've e-mailed, and pick the ones you want to include in the message. The same goes for removing anyone; you just have to click on their name again and they get removed.
Not readily available when using this new menu is a way to select which of these users you want to add as CC's or BCC's. Outlook does this in the same menu, whereas in Gmail, you have to open up each of those fields in the message, then click to open up the contact manager yet again. Hopefully future versions streamline this process and combine those options into the same UI.
This may seem like a very small feature, but for heavy Gmail users it removes the need to create special lists of contacts they e-mail on a regular basis. Instead, it makes use of regular e-mailing habits and more deeply integrates the short list of people you're communicating with--the same one that's found in Google's contacts manager.
Josh Lowensohn writes for Webware.com, CNET's blog about Web applications and services. E-mail Josh, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/Josh. 
Hotmail has had this for ages.
- by rajesh_shenoy August 28, 2009 11:07 PM PDT
- Call me a Goog fanboi, but I just love the simple elegance of features that Google introduces in its services. I've been using such lists for over 10 years now - in hotmail, yahoo, outlook, outlook express, etc., but never have I seen such intuitive simplicity! Take for instance the process of removing a user from the list. Till now, every software that I've used required me to click on the contact (or place the cursor one character after it), and then go to your keyboard and click Backspace / Delete. Sometimes, as in Outlook, I've still not figured out how to do it, usually leaving orphaned ";" marks all over. But GMail has got it bang on! It's one single click of the mouse on the contact name! No need to reach for the keyboard! Also, notice the intuitiveness and elegance with which they surface this feature to the user - just hovering your mouse over the contact name shows it crossed out! If Goog were a person, I'd huuuuuuuuuuug and place big fat wet kisses all over him/her for this (and more!) :P
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(8 Comments)