Comments for Gmail Gets Graphic: When ;) just won't cut it

Gmail Gets Graphic: When ;) just won't cut it

2008-10-24T03:33:41Z

Remember the charge of Google co-founder Sergey Brin from a few years back, "Features not products"? Clearly, the Gmail team was listening.

Following closely on the heels of Google Labs releases like Mail Goggles and Canned Responses, the Gmail team has announced another feature, and it's sure to make you smile. Or perhaps more accurately, make your email smile. That's right. Gmail now has graphical emoticons.

]]> For those of you who feel ":)", ";p", and ":}" lack a certain je ne sais quoi, you now have the option to use illustrative smilies, lobsters, and fly infested piles of... well, you get a lot of options.

But wait, there's more: some of the options are animated.

In addition to the Gmail emoticons, a new set has been added to chat, as well.

So, thanks to the Gmail engineers, you now have the ability to automatically send graphic smilies to anyone who manages to correctly answers math questions in the wee-small hours of Saturday morning.

Isn't technology great?

Comment from Justin Long on 2008-10-23

2008-10-24T04:23:55Z

My wife, the Incredimail fan, will be thrilled with this.

Comment from Campbell on 2008-10-23

2008-10-24T04:40:09Z

Cool for the masses, but I kinda like the character versions better.

Comment from Scott on 2008-10-23

2008-10-24T04:45:22Z

And one of the last great "non features" of gmail falls. Meh.

Comment from Charles on 2008-10-23

2008-10-24T05:01:36Z

A fun new feature, but, just that, fun.

Comment from Yousuf on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T07:18:22Z

Umm... I usually don't respond to posts, but this time I was compelled to.

I use gmail and have been for some time.

However emoticon features in Gmail warrants a post at ReadWriteWeb is baffling.

Comment from Brennan Arrold on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T08:18:15Z

Thanks for the heads up on the Gmail emoticons; Plenty of choices and the animated/still tab is a nice touch. Yep, technology is fun ;-)

Comment from Milan Stankovic on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T09:17:27Z

What happens if you e-mail those new smilies to somebody who doesn't use Gmail? Will he see them and how?

Comment from Christopher Ross on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T18:59:31Z

Do we know how the icons will appear for non Gmail users? I don't think this is as valuable as their anti drunk emailing feature but I guess for people who love emoticons it's pretty cool.

Comment from chris Jangelov on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T20:21:29Z

:-)

Comment from reklamcilik on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T21:13:23Z

My kids like this stuffs.

Comment from huh on 2008-10-24

2008-10-24T23:35:02Z

Impressive stuff from the google engineers, who presumably are well-paid and well-educated, to come up with nonsense like this. Is that what their degrees are good for?

Comment from HappyTutors.com - Connect Tutors with Students & Parents on 2008-10-24

2008-10-25T05:14:06Z

Will those smiley icons work in non-Gmail receivers?

We host our HappyTutors email on Gmail and we would love to use smiley icons when we send emails to our customers :-)

HappyTutors.com
~ Connect Tutors with Students & Parents ~

Comment from Paul Irish on 2008-10-25

2008-10-25T18:23:30Z

This should have been released as a gmail labs feature.

Gmail has a reputation for being such a clean and well-designed application, I'm so upset that they're ruining the clarity of their user's emails (and interface) with this bullshit.

Comment from web on 2008-10-30

2008-10-30T08:44:06Z

finally, very artistic...:)