Often when I tell people that I work on Google video chat, I hear stories about how they’ve used it to give a video tour of a new home to friends, introduce a baby to relatives, keep in touch with traveling loved ones... the list goes on. This got me thinking about how convenient— and sometimes even magical — the experience of video chatting is.

- Gmail blog (link below)

Check out the Grandmother's guide to video chat on the Gmail blog for more info and find out how to get a t-shirt, printable guide and VHS of the video.

GOOGLE VIDEO CHAT

Click here to view the embedded video.

Of course, you've already been able to open some other documents like this in Google Docs such as PDFs...

Today's post Long lived new windows points out that Chrome users can now forget that last detail, and when they have logged out of the main Gmail window, their popout windows continue to be logged in.

MORE
Fast new windows

OTHER RECENT POSTS
Making it easier to video chat, voice chat, and group chat in Gmail
Google Maps previews in Gmail and Google Buzz
Gmail sweatshirts

Since "gmail" is 50% fewer characters than "googlemail," we estimate this name change will save approximately 60 million keystrokes a day. At about 217 microjoules per keystroke, that's about the energy of 20 bonbons saved every day!

You might be wondering what I'm talking about, and its the new option for UK users of GoogleMail to switch from their @googlemail.com addresses to @gmail.com addresses. If you 're a Brit and want to make the switch, there's a screesnshot below, and if you want more details have a read of the official Gmail post:  Google Mail is becoming Gmail in the UK.

Its not working in FF 3.6.x for me, but I do have lots of add-ons. It worked great in Chrome, though. Great thing is that you don't need to go into Gmail Labs or settings, its already activated.

At 6:01 am Pacific Time, during routine maintenance at one of our datacenters, the frontend web servers in that particular datacenter started failing to render the letter 'a' for a subset of users. As error rates escalated, the strain spread to other datacenters. We worked quickly to avoid a cascading failure of the entire alphabet by implementing a stopgap solution that limited the damage to the letters 'a,' 'e,' 'i,' 'o,' and 'u.' As a result, we're experiencing Gmail’s first temporary vowel outage. (We’re still investigating whether the letter 'y' is impacted and will post an update here shortly.)

Oh, and more cool news on April Fool's day, Google has changed its name to Topeka! For more details visit either of the links here and check out the fun.

Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.

Enjoy your April Fools!

You may remember Gmail's 2008 Remote Sign Out and Info post where they announced the then new remote sign out and info feature which allowed you to see from what IP, and at what time your past several logins occurred in your Gmail account. You can access the Activity on This Account info window when logged into Gmail by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the Details link you can see in the screenshot below.

Now, if Gmail notices logins from different locations and figures you aren't likely to have accessed your account from those locations, you will see a notice when you login next.

For example, you aren't likely to be able to access your account from Canada and Mexico within 15 minutes of one another.

Now, if it looks like something unusual is going on with your account, we’ll also alert you by posting a warning message saying, "Warning: We believe your account was last accessed from…" along with the geographic region that we can best associate with the access.

- Google's Pavni Diwanji, Engineering Director

The Activity on This Account info window has been changed to reflect new information now available to you as a result of this latest security change. Here's what it looks like now.

Now you can more easily detect if your account has been accessed without your permission or knowledge more easily. If you think your account has been compromised you should change your password, and it won't hurt to check your Google Account settings to make sure that your secondary email address has not been changed - or in the case you don't have one making sure that one has not been added. I'd guess that in the future it will only get easier to determine if someone has been tampering with your Gmail account.

RELATED READING

Google: Keeping Your Data Secure
Google Security Blog

Finally, merge all duplicate contacts with one button. I just tried this out and it found and merged several contacts, and now I don't need to do it manually "later" since this one-click and review option was so easy!

How? Go to Gmail > Contacts and look for the "Find Duplicates" button. Press it and follow the directions, and visit the original Gmail blog post (link above) for more detail.

Learn more about merging contacts.

MORE GMAIL

More Gmail Storage
More Gmail Security Tips
Hide Gmail Labels With No New Messages

Turn on Green Robot, a new experiment in Gmail Labs, and you'll see a robot icon next to people who are currently using Android phones. In the case below, Shirley is online with Android, Nicolle R. is using regular Gmail chat, and Chris I. is currently away but also on Android. Slatka is not an angry robot — she's online with Android but currently busy.

- Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Green Robot Icon

Click the link above for a small screenshot and more detail (if the snippett above wasn't enough for you).

This extra storage acts as an overflow that you only start using when you reach the limit of your free storage, and is shared for use between Gmail and Picasa Web Albums.

- Gmail Blog

Read Gmail Post: More Extra Storage For Less