Gmail Gets Graphic: When ;) just won't cut it
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?
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My wife, the Incredimail fan, will be thrilled with this.
Posted by: Justin Long
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October 23, 2008 9:23 PM
Cool for the masses, but I kinda like the character versions better.
And one of the last great "non features" of gmail falls. Meh.
A fun new feature, but, just that, fun.
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.
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 ;-)
What happens if you e-mail those new smilies to somebody who doesn't use Gmail? Will he see them and how?
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.
:-)
My kids like this stuffs.
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?
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 ~
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.
finally, very artistic...:)