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Gmail Gets Major Upgrade

by Terrence O'Brien on December 5, 2007 at 03:38 PM

Gmail Gets Upgraded Integrates AIM
In case you haven't been paying very close attention to your Gmail, or for some bizarre reason don't use the Google Mail service, you may have missed that while staying almost exactly the same cosmetically, Gmail has undergone a complete overhaul during the last few months.

Since late October Gmail has gained new features on an almost weekly basis. First they added IMAP, an E-Mail delivery protocol that allows you to sync several devices to your Gmail account. Then Gmail got a completely new code base that added some new keyboard shortcuts, faster load times, and an overhauled contacts manager. Then, earlier in the week, labels got color, and now the built-in chat client includes AIM support.

As any user of of Gmail knows, Google Talk is integrated with your inbox, allowing you to chat with other Gmail and Google Talk users. Now, in the same contacts side bar under options, you should find a new entry that reads 'Sign in to AIM.' This has been a long time coming, but sadly the integration is not as tight as one would have hoped. The side bar simply allows you to sign in to your AIM account, and when you IM some one it still appears to them that you are using your AIM screen name. But Gmail will still keep logs of your AIM conversations if they're held within the Gmail client, just like it does with Google Talk.

Currently,AIM is not available in the Google Chat desktop program or the gadget, but hopefully that will change soon.

From BetaNews

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Tags: aim, aol, gmail, google, google talk, GoogleTalk, instant message, InstantMessage

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