Web

A new look for Gmail
We’ve pruned our pixels and made it easier to get to Contacts and Tasks.

• Mail, Contacts, and Tasks links have moved to the top left of Gmail.
• Compose mail is now a button rather than a link.
• A smaller header area puts the first message in your inbox about 16 pixels higher on the screen.
• The Select All, None, Read, Unread, and Starred links that used to be above your messages are now options in a drop-down menu, next to theArchive button.

Updates to Contacts
We’ve also done a major overhaul to Contacts, adding a bunch of features you requested and making Contacts easier to use.

• Contacts work a lot more like Mail. Keyboard shortcuts now work in Contacts too, and we’ve made selecting and grouping contacts more like selecting and labeling email.
• Sort contacts by last name. Look under More actions for this option.
• Use custom labels for phone numbers and other fields. For example, you can label a phone number as “Vacation home.” Please be aware, ActiveSync for iPhone and Blackberry Sync don’t yet support custom labels so custom labeled numbers/emails/etc. may not appear on your phone.
• Undo. Now, when you make changes to your contacts, you can undo your recent changes.
• Automatic saving. You no longer need to worry about “edit” mode or “view” mode — just edit away and Gmail will save your changes.
• Structured name fields. You can now set name components (i.e. Title, First, Middle, Last and Suffix) explicitly or continue to use the name field as a free form area if you prefer a less structured approach.
• Manual and bulk contact merge. You can now merge contacts from the More actions menu. Just select the contacts you’d like to merge and select Merge contacts from under the More actions menu. Or, to get a list of suggestions for contacts to merge, select Find and merge duplicates.

Economist

A round of applause for Facebook’s HR department, please.  Today, the company announced that it’s managed to hire Marne Levine, who last held the title(s) “Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Chief of Staff of the National Economic Council at the White House.”

Levine, who should remain based in Washington, will now “oversee the company’s interaction with governments and non-governmental organizations around the globe as the company reaches 500 million users worldwide,” according to Cecilia Kang.

That’s bound to be a big job.  Dealing with U.S. regulators alone has proven tricky for Facebook at times; handling dozens different approaches to privacy (and propriety) won’t be simple.

Still, Levine seems to be a good choice for the position.  Before joining the current president’s administration, she was Director of Product Management at Revolution Money.  Prior to that, she was Director of Business Development and Strategy at Cibernet.

FaceBook

Then, to go back even further, Levine once served as Chief of Staff for the president of Harvard, and used to work for the Department of Treasury, too.  Which makes for a rather colorful – yet impressive – resume.

It should be interesting to see what Levine can accomplish in her new role.

Source: webpronews.com

Google has announced that it has completed the rollout of Google Caffeine, the new and improved web indexing system that now powers the world’s largest search engine.

In August of last year, it was revealed that Google was working on a new version of its search engine. The project, dubbed “Caffeine,” was initiated in order to create a faster, more accurate indexing and search system. It was also meant to better handle rich media and real-time content.

It’s been a while since we heard about Caffeine, but today Google says that Caffeine is live on its servers.

Here’s how indexing on Google Search now works, according to the technology giant:

“Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.

With Caffeine, we analyze the web in small portions and update our search index on a continuous basis, globally. As we find new pages, or new information on existing pages, we can add these straight to the index. That means you can find fresher information than ever before—no matter when or where it was published.”

With content being generated faster than ever, the changes make sense. The Bing threat is still there as well, making it imperative for Google to remain ahead of the game with its search technology. You may not notice the changes in the individual searches you make, but it’s very likely you’ll feel the impact of Caffeine in the days, months, and years to come.

Source: Here