I can’t count the number of times I had to leave Gmail to open a new tab in Firefox to do a Google Search to include a link in the email.
Gmail Labs has made that a thing of the past.
Google Search in Gmail
I can perform Google Search right inside Gmail now. It pops up a chat like window with the top 3 results of the search. I can click on more to get the first 10 results.
Each of these results have a arrow that appears on hover. You can click on that and select ‘send by email’ to send the search result to any contact you have in Gmail. It nicely opens a compose window with the search result already in the email body.
Also, if you have a chat session open, you can directly send the Google Search result to the person you are chatting with. With just one click.
Plus, the Google Search widget in the Gmail sidebar shows your recent searches as well. You can have more than 1 search going on at the same time.
Here are a few options you get to do with the search result based on what you are doing in Gmail
- Reading a message – Start a reply with the search result as the first thing in your reply
- Writing a message – Opt to paste the result or just the url into your email
- Chatting with someone – Send the search result as a chat message
- Compose a new mail with the search result
Google Search Keyboard Shortcut
If you have keyboard shortcuts turned on, you can open search by typing g and /. if you are in Compose, Ctrl+g will work for you.
Gmail is becoming an email powerhouse with all the Labs features thats making its way faster than ever. If the options make your head spin, I had shortlisted best of Gmail labs features I find useful and use it myself.
Also, with gmail greasemonkey scripts you can make it even more powerful. Especially check out the recent Firefox Extensions Picks of the Week post for a very cool script. Or find out how to pimp your Gmail.
[via Gmail blog]
