Gmail Compose Box Gets New Features

The Gmail compose box, which was released late last year, now allows users to add labels and stars to messages.

“How many times have you been writing an email and had to reference something in another message? Saving a draft, opening the old email, and then reopening your draft wastes valuable minutes. The new compose pops up in a window, just like chats (only larger),” said product manager Phil Sharp on the Google Enterprise blog.

“This makes it easy to reference any other emails without ever having to close your draft. You can even do a search or keep an eye on new mail as it comes in. And because the compose window works the same way as chats, you can write multiple messages at once and minimize a message to finish it later.”

Gmail users can now add stars to important messages in the compose box and labels in order to categorise them, making sorting and finding sent emails easier and quicker.

The update was announced by the Gmail Google+ account, informing users that both new features can be found in the More Options menu of the compose box.

How useful have you found these updates to Gmail?

Social networking to replace email by 2014

The business benefits of social software platforms will lead to email being replaced as the primary means of communication by 2014, according to analyst Gartner.

Increasing business use of tools such as Twitter and Facebook has resulted in more demand for such systems, says the firm, which predicts that 20 per cent of organisations will use them as their key communication medium by 2014.

Greater security, the availability of the so-called “white-labelled” social networks and more tolerance from organisations allowing use of personal accounts at work are among the factors influencing the business uptake of such tools, says the study.

"The rigid distinction between email and social networks will erode as both become more developed. Email will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering, while social networks will develop richer email capabilities, " said Matt Cain, research vice president at Gartner.

"While email is already almost fully penetrated in the corporate space, we expect to see steep growth rates for sales of premises and cloud-based social networking services," he said.

The analyst also predicts that in the next couple of years more than half of global businesses will be engaged in some sort of microblogging, with more control and security features, though standalone enterprise use of Twitter-like tools will have less than five per cent penetration.

And only 25 per cent of businesses will routinely use social network analysis to improve performance and productivity through 2015, according to research.

The study adds that more than 70 per cent of IT-led social media projects will fail as technology departments tend to provide an IT solution rather than a social solution that targets specific business value. Gartner says that businesses will need to develop better skills to be able to develop adequate social media solutions.

Gartner also predicts more activity around the development of mobile-based collaborative tools over the next few years.

"As more organisations consider replacing desk phones with mobile phones, they may wish to anchor their collaboration tools also on the mobile phone," said Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

More Time Spent on Social Media than Email Worldwide

Email most common daily activity, but social racks up more hours
As the social media trend becomes a normal part of life for internet users the world over, it’s also becoming the most time-intensive activity on the web.

The TNS “Digital Life” survey of internet users around the world found in September 2010 that on average, surfers spent 4.6 hours a week on social sites, compared with 4.4 hours on email, the most common internet activity.




The TNS survey confirmed that not only is email the online activity with the highest overall penetration, but users also are still significantly more likely to send and receive email messages on a daily basis than they are to do any other activity. Nearly three-fourths of respondents checked their email every day, compared with less than half who headed to social sites with the same frequency.

The difference in penetration was less pronounced when users were asked about whether they “ever” participated in an activity, with 98% using email and 86% social, according to TNS.

The 2010 edition of UM’s (formerly Universal McCann) “Social Media Tracker” reported not on usage, but on social profile maintenance. Growth in the US and worldwide has continued, with more than 61% of frequent internet users globally having a profile on a social network.




And it’s little wonder they spend so much of their time on social sites. In addition to a wealth of social games and opportunities to share and generate content, social networks remain at heart a communications tool. US internet users told UM in 2010 they stay in contact with 53 people on average through social media, up from 31.2 last year. Worldwide the trend was similar: Users now keep in touch with 52 friends through social, compared with 38.8 in 2009.