Gmail’s forgotten attachment detector is a wonderful thing, and in that vein — helpfully analyzing the context of an email using the data centersful of information without being too pushy — Google is rolling out two new features to Gmail which previously existed only in Google Labs. Called “Don’t forget Bob” and “Got the Wrong Bob?”, respectively, they both analyze a user’s email history and scan the current recipients of the message in draft.

The first of the two makes suggestions as to who to include “based on the groups of people you email most often”: Clicking on those suggested names automatically adds them to the recipients list. The second has the potential to avert even more awkwardness: If Gmail ‘thinks’ you are accidentally including the wrong person as the recipient of a message in the place of someone else with a similar name, it gives you a clickable suggestion to replace the “wrong Bob.”

Both of these features will roll out over the next few days across all Gmail accounts.

(via Gmail Blog)

Having observed access issues with their popular web-based email service Gmail, Google is accusing the Chinese government of causing the problem. Gmail users have apparently been unable to reach their accounts over the past few weeks, while some are claiming that their accounts have been compromised. After investigating these problems, Google is saying that the interruptions are coming from outside their system. From Google’s statement, quoted by The Telegraph:

There is no technical issue on our side; we have checked extensively. There is a [Chinese] government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail[.]

The accusation comes after Google has repeatedly locked horns with the Chinese government, and gone so far as to move their corporate headquarters to Hong Kong, where governmental authority is somewhat diminished. Prior to their move, Google said they were targeted by Chinese hackers who stole source code and apparently accessed email user information. This apparently included information about human rights and pro-democracy supporters.

Observers are noting that this could be part of a larger effort by the Chinese government to crack down on dissension within the country, and enhance their censorship over Chinese internet access. Which is hard to believe, considering that it already has some of the tightest controls in the world.

If true, these accusations will only further frustrate an already unhappy relationship between Chinese authorities and Google. One wonders how far these two will push each other, though in the face of the monolithic power that is Chinese authority, even the mighty Google seems at a disadvantage.

(NYTimes, UK Telegraph)

Google has just unrolled an optional new HTML5-based notification system that informs you when new instant messages or emails have arrived in your inbox. For those many thousands of people that keep Gmail open for fast access to email and Google’s integrated chat service, this could mean faster responses and fewer missed messages.

Users who opt to use the service can chose whether they want to receive notification of incoming chat messages, new emails, or only new priority emails. Other options, such as the position of messages, can be customized by clicking the wrench icon on the alerts themselves. The notifications can be activated in the “settings” tab of Gmail, but are only available to users of Google’s Chrome browser. According to Google’s Gmail Blog, plans are currently in the works to make these notifications part of “the standard Web platform.”

Those of you pretending to not see chats or ignoring emails for extended periods of time had better find some new excuses. “I didn’t see it,” just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Also, if you’re easily distracted and get itchy knowing that there unread messages waiting, you might want to think twice about turning these on.

(Gmail Blog via Lifehacker)

Keyboard shortcuts can be overwhelming at first—especially when they are inconsistent across various websites, but once mastered, are an enormous time saver. Plus, you’ll look like a computer wiz in front of your friends and family, who will then allow you to be their go-to computer tech. A win-win situation!

Facebook routinely gets flack for not letting users easily access their contacts’ email addresses in bulk; even their supposedly more user-friendly Download Your Information feature, released in October, doesn’t touch upon it. Plenty of techy types have come up with Greasemonkey scripts and the like to successfully pry email addresses and other personal data from Facebook, which Facebook has in the past argued constitutes a violation of its Terms of Service — never mind that it’s the users’ own data.

Fortunately, there’s a much easier way to mass export Facebook contacts’ email addresses, although it might be counterintuitive to tech geeks for one reason: It requires you to create a Yahoo email address.

Word recently got out that Facebook was holding an event on Monday (see above invite), but it wasn’t immediately clear how big a deal this was; after all, Facebook’s most recent event, announcing Facebook Deals, was of interest to some business owners, but it probably wasn’t terribly exciting to the mass of Facebook users. If the latest reports are correct, however, Monday’s event could indeed pose a major shakeup to the Web: Facebook’s long-rumored “Gmail killer,” Project Titan, may be ready for the limelight.

Hot on the heels of Gmail’s new phone call function, Google is rolling out a new feature called Gmail Priority Inbox that will automatically put your most important email, as determined by Google’s algorithms, into a high-priority inbox. Below that, you’ll see those emails which you’ve decided to star (this is a feature that’s already existed in Gmail); below, that, you’ll see “everything else,” the standard dump of your email as it comes in. Much like Google’s high-quality, barely noticeable spam filter, Priority Inbox will be a painless, automatic sorting and filtering mechanism, although if it’s not your cup of tea, you’ll be able to select your standard Gmail inbox from the sidebar.

Google was coy about reports earlier today that users were discovering a “call phone” button in their Gmail accounts, but the company has just confirmed that over the next few days, they will be rolling the ability to call people directly on their phones is coming to Gmail, and that until at least the end of this year, the service will be free for calls to the U.S. and Canada.

For some time now, the ability to sign into multiple Google accounts at once has been a highly desired Google feature among the sorts of people who have multiple accounts; it appears that in the very near future, that ability will be coming to you, if it hasn’t already.

The unofficial Google-watching blog Google Operating System reports that the big G is currently rolling out multiple account sign-in for the masses. If you go to your Google accounts page, you may see in your personal settings section below your email address a new option called “multiple sign-in,” which is by default off. If you click the “change” link, you’ll be given instructions for adding further accounts.

When the public reaction to Google Buzz took a fast negative turn, the company made swift changes to alleviate privacy concerns surrounding the service’s automatic tendency to share information.

But now, Google may be taking an even more drastic step: One of Google’s top executives has said that the company may be splitting Buzz apart from Google, making it a standalone service that can still integrate into Gmail: