Gmail updated with improved Google+ integration

Ablog post on the Official Gmail blog, by Itamar Gilad, Product Manager, titled - Continuing to bring people front and center in Gmail has given us a sneak into what folks at Google had been working on for a while now - an update to Gmail! The search giant have now introduced an update to their popular, widely used e-mail service, which brings to the table better integration with Google+. Based on the idea that - an e-mail, in essence is beyond just messages being sent back and forth, but is also about the people sending them; Gmail users will now be able to view details of their contact, as they view their past conversations, and this is in addition to the aforementioned integration with the search giant's recently unveiled social networking platform, Google+.

So now, if on Gmail, you’re on the lookout for a particular e-mail address, then the search results that you end up with will be a lot more than that you would have got, otherwise. With the update, you will be able to see the contact details of the recipient of the e-mail address you were looking for, in addition to just seeing their profile image and of course, the emails exchanged between the two of you. The update, according to the post will also allow you to start a chat with the contact, call their phone, among other things. The deal gets even meatier, if the contact in question is on Google+. If such is the case then the information will be updated automatically. The post specifies that the improvement to contact details will be rolled out to everyone today. To the Google+ integration that the company had announced in December, the update carries some fresh changes. Now, when you select a circle, then on the top right of the page you'll see the the profile photos of those, who're in that particular circle. Clicking on the profile images will take you to the search results with the details of the contact.

Listing further changes, the post adds, “Circles are also now supported in search and filters. Find messages from a specific circle by typing circle:[circle name] in the search box. You can also find mail from any of your circled contacts by searching with has:circle. You can refine your search even further with other criteria and create filters based on circles. This means you can now view all the unread emails from your ‘Friends’ circle or automatically star every message that comes from your ‘VIP’ circle.” Google, recently also launched a new website called the Story of Send, wherein quite simply it explained the journey of an e-mail from the sender to the receiver. The Story of Send did this by having you press "Send", like you would if you were actually sending an e-mail, and then from then on took you through every step, explaining what happens in each step. What do you think of the improvements Google has been rolling out across its services? Do let us know in the comments section below.