Google Buzz: an entirely new world in Gmail

Recently Google has introduced a new product called Google Buzz into integrated Gmail service. It operates on desktop computers, the iPhone and phones that run Google Android.

The social media service offers its users to share and see contents (photos, links, status, messages, and so on) from other sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Picasa. Through Google Buzz, public updates will also be available to search engines. The firm has also integrated it with its mapping service and mobile platforms.

It is not the first time Google has tried to launch a social network. In 2004, it released Orkut. Recently Google Inc. has signed deal to buy a San Francisco based Internet search and social networking company named Aardvark.

Google Buzz pitches Google directly against rival networks such as Facebook, which has nearly 400 million users since. Buzz’s primary target is to capture its regular 170 million Gmail users.
Google’s Rival Yahoo has already offered a social service like Twitter and Flickr from inside their Yahoo Mail page.

New Phonetic keyboard in Gmail

Gmail is continuously surprising us with its out of the box features, enormous flexible options and outstanding super-simple user interface. Everyday so many users being fade up with yahoo are going towards gmail. Like Yahoo, Gmail also show ads but they are never that annoying as they’re just simple text ads, no funky flash or image ads, no forcing for being a paid subscriber (Gmail don’t have any paid subscription, it’s totally free! :P). All these simplicities are the main attraction of Gmail which are driving Yahoo users towards it. The recent update in Gmail themes is “Random Themes” option. It’s really boring when you have to read and reply hundreds of emails a day. The “random” gmail theme automatically rotates the eye-catching collection of themes after every 1-2h which makes “gmailing” fun! “Random theme” is my personal favorite.
The free Xoopit plugin added an extra gear to Gmail which is no more as Yahoo bought the service. Here we can feel the acute cold war between Gmail & Yahoo evidently. Yesterday I tried Google Wave and it certainly will re-shape the concept of classical email system.

This morning I was typing an email on gmail and found a new symbol on top left of the compose box editing panel (Rich formatting mode). I clicked it and saw a drop-down menu with 12 languages options including Bengali, Hindi, Arabic and so on. OMG! it’s phonetic keyboard! I tried some text with it, simply awesome!! I hope gmail will keep going on with its passion for the “ease of use”. Bravo! love you Gmail.

Gmail uploader clone with drag drop feature : Free Download with source code

Recently I developed the gmail file uploader clone using jQuery. Here is the online demo.

I added some extra functionalists.
You can see the image thumbnails after the uploading is completed. There is a cross button at top right of each thumbnail, clicking on it will delete the image. If you right click on the image you’ll see a context menu from which you can delete the image too along with replace the existing image option.

The most interesting feature is you can drag drop the thumbnails to change the order. Yes this is essential when you need to maintain the order of images in classified sites after uploading them, also a little modification will let you edit the image order later time by dragging the thumbnails. The image name and the image title is dynamically added in the “updateInfo” form and send(post) via the hidden fields imgs[] and imgComment[]  array. You can easily get the order by php using foreach loop on $_POST['imgs'] field. Just hit the submit button after uploading 2 images and you will see the output on post.php page. (hope that makes sense).

Download it for free in a single zip file

If you have any better example of gmail uploader clone please share the links in comments.

Finally Gmail has got Themes

Gmail is providing 31 attractive themes! No need to use Stylish any more for customized themes of Gmail. You can easily change your Gmail theme from Settings > Theme.
Among these 31 themes two are really cool, “Desk” and “Zoozimps”. Also “Tea House” has the option of Sunrise/Sunshine view. For this you need to provide your geo-location.

Zoozimps – Gmail Theme

Desk – Gmail Theme

All the themes work great on FireFox and IE. But they have some minor bugs. Chekout yourselves.