Gmail users did receive the notification of missed calls previously with the option to see who called, read the transcript of the message or visit a new page to listen to the message left by the caller.

This has now been changed by the Google developers. It is now possible to directly play the missed messages in Gmail. The new feature needs to be enabled in the labs section of Gmail. Locate the Google Voice player from the Gmail Labs tab under Settings and enable it.

A player to play the recorded message will appear directly under the message in the Gmail interface after activation. The feature will also sync the status with the Google Voice application so that the message will not be played again when checking for new Google Voice messages.

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The feature has to be activated in the Labs tab of the Settings before it becomes available. It is possible to change the language that the message should get translated to in the same menu. The translated email will be displayed in the same spot that the original email occupied without reloading the rest of the page. The quality of the translations is equal to those of Google Translate. A great way of testing the quality is to enter a text into Google Translate, translate that text to another language and translate that text back to the original language. The general consensus is that it is possible to understand the meaning of the original text in most cases.

But who needs the translation service? It might be interesting for users who receive lots of email messages in languages that they do not understand. But how likely is that scenario? The average Internet user receives the majority of emails in the native language and if that is not English then in English as well. It might be helpful in some cases, for example running an eBay auction and receiving an inquiry from a foreign language speaking user.

Verdict:

Yes, some Gmail users might find this new translation add-on handy. The majority of users on the other hand will most likely ignore it recognizing that the service is not as useful as it might sound.

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You can use this as a jump start for searching, clicking on the result to open it in a new window, but you can easily add it to an email, by selecting “reply with result”. This will paste the whole result you selected into the email. This is a convenient, and pretty fast way of sharing search results. I find that it is fastest if I already know the answer to the question. For research I like big ol’ regular Google, but if I already know what I need I can get it very easily like this.

Another side-feature which is worth noting is that Gmail has a hundred or so more emoticons available in a labs feature called Extra Emoji. I pretty much hate all emoticons, so you won’t see me using this, but if you like the “no-end fun” these bring to your emails you might like to try them out. They have icons for wine, hurricanes, rabbits and whatnot, stuff I mention regularly in all my emails…

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If you enter the Labs category in the options you are presented with a list of 13 new features that can enhance Gmail in numerous ways. One adds pictures of your contacts in chat, one lists all links that can be bookmarked and another adds the option to view messages in a fixed width font.

Each new function can be enabled and disabled separately. A rescue link is provided in case a new function is breaking Gmail. Visiting Gmail with the url http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0 will disable all functions that have been previously enabled in labs.

Not all of the 13 available functions are really necessary, take the Snakes game for example. I see those 13 as a good beginning and hope that we will see new – better – functions pretty soon.

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