Google Graduates More Gmail Goodies from Labs

I live in New York City, but I suspect that Mountain View (California) is the real city that never sleeps, as Google announces six Gmail features have graduated from Google Labs and are now fully supported in all versions of Google Apps. Here’s what’s new.

Google’s official blog entry explains the new features better than I can:

• Search Autocomplete – Gmail will suggest terms to help you find your item more quickly.
• Go To Label – If you have keyboard shortcuts enabled, typing in the search box will autocomplete and suggest a label name.
• Forgotten Attachment Detector – Gmail looks for phrases in your email that suggest you meant to attach a file and alerts you if it looks like you forgot an attachment.
• YouTube Previews – If you receive a message with a YouTube link in it, you can now watch the video right below the message.
• Custom Label Colors – Create your own custom label color.
• Vacation Dates – Set your dates in advance, enable vacation responder and Gmail will turn it on when the date arrives.

Gmail’s continued advancements come as Google seems to be gaining momentum with some resellers. Google has also launched a Developer Certification Program, which means software partners (in addition to Google) could start adding considerable value to Google’s efforts.

In the meantime, there’s not much more to say about the Gmail enhancements, other than that I’m not sure how comfortable I am having Google analyze the text of my e-mails to determine if I’ve forgotten an attachment or not. Then again, they do that kind of analysis with their advertising already, so it’s not really shocking.