New Gmail on the way, sneak peak now available

By Aemon Malone Published June 30, 2011

With all the attention being given to Google+ this week, you wouldn’t be faulted for missing out on news about the upcoming facelifts for several of Google’s established products. Today we learned that Google’s e-mail service Gmail is going be included in the redesigns. In a blog post on Thursday, Google alerted the public of the impending upgrades.

“This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products,” said Jason Cornwell, a Google user experience designer, in a blog post. “The changes are not going to happen all at once. We know that you love and care about Gmail as much as we do, and we’ll be working on these upgrades gradually over the next few months to allow plenty of time to understand and incorporate your feedback into the evolving design.”

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While Google didn’t tip its hand with regard to the new Gmail features, it did provide instructions on how to access a sneak preview of the new Gmail layout. Curious Gmail users can access their account’s “Mail Settings” and then click on the “Themes” tab to find options for “Preview” and “Preview (Dense).” Both of these options give similar insights into where Google is going with the redesign: more focus given to the “Compose” button, a more pronounced mailbox area, and a generally more modern aesthetic.

Google’s redesign effort extends beyond Gmail. If you used Google earlier this week, you may have caught sight of tweaks to Google’s homepage. Google says that it will be redesigning the “look and feel” of many of its products in the coming months.

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