Gmail Adds Search Auto complete, Navigation Shortcuts, Attachment Detector, and More

Gmail has officially integrated several features into Gmail, including features like Search autocomplete, Go to Label, Forgotten attachment detector, YouTube previews, and more.

» Search autocomplete automatically suggests search criteria based on common searches

» Go to Label adds excellent keyboard shortcuts for navigating your account

» Forgotten attachment detector alerts you before you send an attachment-less message that appears to promise one

» YouTube preview, like it sounds, lets you watch linked videos inside Gmail without opening a new window

» Custom label colors lets you set any color to any label; and the vacation dates feature lets you set the dates you'll be away so your auto-responders don't go out before or after your vacation begins or ends.

On the flip side, Gmail also retired five less popular features:

» Muzzle

» Fixed Width Font

» Email Addict

» Location in Signature

» Random Signature

Got another Labs feature you'd like to see graduate Labs and join the default Gmail feature set? Got one you'd like to see retired? Let's hear it in the comments.

Gmail Labs graduation and retirement [Official Gmail Blog]

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Google Buzz!! Explained.

Google announced a new service, Google Buzz, that automatically brings social networking into Gmail and the rest of the Google-sphere.

What's Buzz All About?

Buzz's five key features

• Automatic friends lists (friends are added automatically who you have emailed on Gmail)
• "Rich fast sharing" combines sources like Picasa and Twitter into a single feed, and it includes full-sized photo browsing
• Public and private sharing (swap between family and friends)
• Inbox integration (instead of emailing you with updates, like Facebook might, Buzz features emails that update dynamically with all Buzz thread content)
• "Recommended Buzz" puts friend-of-friend content into your stream, even if you're not acquainted. Recommendations learn over time with your feedback.

Buzz lets you share photos, video, links to web sites, and other content from all over the web with your closest contacts or with the public at large.It lives inside Gmail and integrates automatically with your most frequent Gmail contacts.

Apart from working directly inside Gmail, it can pull content from Twitter, from Flickr, and from various other popular social sites from across the web. Currently social services supported include:

Flickr || Twitter ||Picasa Web || YouTube || Blogger

When you publicly post something via Buzz, it automatically and instantaneously adds the post to your Google Profile page (which it creates for you if you haven't already created one). If you want to post privately, you can create and choose specific groups you want to share with—in what looks like an attempt to offer both the public aspects of Twitter and the private aspects of Facebook.

Google says they want Buzz to be the poster child for what it means to make a social tool that plays nice—one that has an open API, that respects the user's privacy decisions, and that doesn't lock up your data.

 

Interested? Let's hear what you think in the comments.

Google Buzz
Google Buzz in Gmail [Official Gmail Blog]
Introducing Google Buzz [Official Google Blog]

Facebook for Silverlight Puts a Dark, Stylish Facebook on Your Desktop

Microsoft has finally released the fancy Facebook client for download, and it has almost everything you could want from Facebook.

Above all, this app is beautiful.Not only does it have cool photo grids integrated into your news feed, but there are some really cool sweeping animations when viewing photos in an album. It even features a photo uploading tool to replace Facebook's mediocre uploader.Viewing photos is certainly where Silverlight's strengths come into play the most, but the app has pretty much every other part of Facebook integrated—you can view your news feed, friend list feeds, profiles, and even your inbox. You can view a list of upcoming events.

   Drawbacks:

• The app doesn't currently support chat.
• The app has a few minor bugs, which is to be expected due to the fact that it's still a developer preview.
• And sometimes new posts just don't load.
• It seems you can't use your scroll wheel in the application—you actually have to click the arrows or the scroll bar to scroll up and down.

 

[The Microsoft Silverlight 4 Beta Client for Facebook is a free download, requires Windows or Mac OS X with Microsoft Silverlight to use. ]

Microsoft Silverlight 4 Beta Client for Facebook

How to Deliver a Great Presentation Like Steve Jobs

A person can have greatest idea in the world. But that person can’t convince enough other people, it doesn’t matter.

Steve Jobs is probably one of the most polished presenters in the world. He doesn’t use any bullet points in his presentations, his keynote addresses are free of any jargon, there are very few words in the slides but they have photographs and headlines that are hard to forget.

If you like to learn some of the techniques and styles that make Steve Jobs such a great presenter, here’s one excellent book from Carmine Gallo.

 

Download : The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.

Facebook Rolls Out New, Simplified, and Improved Privacy Features

There's been a lot of talk recently about Facebook and privacy but the settings weren't always user-friendly. Now Facebook began rolling out their new simplified, yet feature-rich security settings to keep its users on top of their privacy.

It doesn't appear to be out for all accounts yet but if your account has been switched, you should be prompted to set your security settings as soon as you log in. In fact, it will keep bugging you until you do set them—forcing users to take an active role in their privacy.

 

  The settings in the wizard have been narrowed down a lot to avoid confusion, and really only give you two choices—Facebook's recommended setting for that feature, or your old settings. However, once you go through the wizard, you will have a new feature on your profile that allows you to set who can see each individual status update, wall post, or any other individual post you make: everyone, friends of friends, only friends, or something more specific. (For Example : blocking certain people)

[What do you all think of the new privacy features? Sound off in the comments]

New Tools to Control Your Experience [Facebook Blog]