Google has added a new feature in Gmail that makes it extremely convenient for you to compose email messages (without typing addresses) or initiate chat sessions with your Gmail contacts using Google Talk.
When you mouse over any name in the Gmail standard message view, it pops a small window that will lets your write an email to that person, start a new chat session or even find “recent conversations” with that person.
And if that Gmail contact has an account on Orkut, you can access his or her Orkut profile directly through this new “info box” of Gmail.
Currently, this feature is only available in standard Gmail, not the Google Apps Gmail.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/compose-new-email-in-gmail-quickly/1876/
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Well, I think this available since many months, years. Isn’t it?
Written by TOMHTML on 12.02.07
This is pretty old! Nice info for newbies anyway.
Written by Mayur on 12.02.07
Yeah, this thing has been around for a while, even in Gmail 1.0 I believe.
Written by WindPower on 12.02.07
It is a great new feature, instead of opening an another window and clicking the friends name this will be easy for us. The contact details however doesn’t show in mine, it just gives a blank page, even though I have added all the information. Don’t know whether it is the Better Gmail firefox extension problem or it is Gmail’s problem? Can you see the contact details without any problem?
Written by Chris on 12.02.07
I didn’t notice this at first. Thanks for the tip Amit. I guess they noticed that most of us send the bulk of our email to a handful of people, and that quick access to them would be convenient. I can’t think of another email provider that does a good job of this. I just wish they’d fix POP email.
I know I can use IMAP, but I really want to download my entire email history and start over once a year.
Written by Tinu on 12.02.07
but this feature tends to become a little annoying… specially when you are reading something… there is this - pop-up info
Written by Moksh Juneja on 12.02.07
I agree with Moksh above. It’s ok, it can be kind of annoying. Sometimes I don’t mean to hover over an image to get the details but my mouse passes over and pops up the window. They should have a delay, hover 3-5seconds over it and it’ll show. Oh well.
Written by Tech on 12.02.07
#1,3 - Are you sure that this feature is there since beginning. I don’t think so!
#6,7 - The good thing is that this window pops-up only when your mouse pointer is exactly over a name and there’s no activity for few seconds. So the chances of accidental popup should be rare.
Written by Amit Agarwal on 12.03.07
That’s been there for Ages :p
Written by Bhangu on 12.03.07
That box has been there for ages if you hover over a name in the chat box, but I don’t recall seeing it when hovering over a name in the message list.
Written by Greg on 12.03.07
I agree with greg.
Written by Akshay on 12.03.07
Not new, Amit. It has been there since I first saw the new beta. Sorry to disappoint you though :)
Written by Naser on 12.04.07
The new face looks fantastic. Very
good SEO skills to show content firstand then layout.
Written by sleepwiki on 12.04.07
I agree with Askay but I don’t agree with Greg. I agree some what with Steepwiki but disagree pretty near totally with Windpower
Written by Gospacho on 12.05.07
Thts meee in the screen shot :D
nice one , i jus saw this some 2 , 3 days back in the begininning of the beta
Written by Srikanth on 12.06.07
How do you turn off the Info Box that appears when the cursor lingers over some sender’s name in your list of mail received?
I suppose I could use basic html.
Written by SuezanneC Baskerville on 04.26.08