healthy4u

Designing useful mobile services for Africa

Last week, we announced a suite of <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/extending-google-services-in-africa.html">SMS services in Uganda</a>, a country where someone's first experience of the Internet is far more likely to be on a mobile device rather than a PC. We are really excited about this project in part because it is the result of more than a year of true user-centered research and design. We knew we wanted to build useful mobile services tailored to the needs of people in sub-Saharan Africa, but how could we find out what people want from the Internet when they don't have access to it already? What would people who had never used search before want to search for if we gave them a mobile phone and said "Ask any question you like"? In early 2008 we set out with colleagues from <a href="http://google.org/">Google.org</a>, <a href="http://www.grameenfoundation.org/what_we_do/technology_programs/ict_innovation/application_laboratory/">Grameen Applab</a> and <a href="http://www.mtn.co.ug/">MTN</a> (a network carrier in Uganda) with this challenge in mind. Our research needed to be able to assess the feasibility of delivering information via mobile in Uganda as well as evaluate the content "appetites" of local people. Since no search engine existed for testing, we did the next best thing: We decided to mimic the experience of using a search engine using human experts. First, we trained a multilingual team to act as user researchers in 17 carefully selected locations across the country. In each place, they introduced themselves to a cross section of people they met and invited them to participate in a free study that would help create useful services for Ugandans. If the person agreed, the researcher handed them a mobile phone and encouraged them to write a text message containing a question they wanted to know the answer to. (If people had their own phone, we reimbursed them with phone credit.) The text message was then routed to a control room we'd set up in Kampala where a human expert read the text message, typed a response, and sent it back via SMS to the person who asked the question. In the meantime, the interviewer observed and recorded the participant's user experience. This allowed us to record rich qualitative data from hundreds of interviews in just a few days, and to collect quantitative data from hundreds of search queries. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjC1KbNUHLDux8Pyeq4kAauMaXYRmQCwIbO6CPdwvp6MjpDnTYmVkXrjaKrffNHWTcjqbMOLHYv4OrV0zAUQYR0WAkrVQfqlPSOP4jvfFz5-Av39NfnpEI5ZSgzbkpPHtw5oXqEwghy8S/s1600-h/africa+post.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356154253311404626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhjC1KbNUHLDux8Pyeq4kAauMaXYRmQCwIbO6CPdwvp6MjpDnTYmVkXrjaKrffNHWTcjqbMOLHYv4OrV0zAUQYR0WAkrVQfqlPSOP4jvfFz5-Av39NfnpEI5ZSgzbkpPHtw5oXqEwghy8S/s400/africa+post.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><div style="text-align: center;">Trying mobile search for the first time </div> Last week's launch of SMS services in Uganda is the direct result of this research — it's based on listening to what people want and finding a way to get it to them. Our research enabled us to observe first-hand how people instinctively wanted to interact with a mobile phone. We let people select the language they wanted to use. We gained deep insights into the way people formulate their questions and what questions really matter to them. On top of that, we saw the excitement on people's faces when they got their first-ever search results, and we realized that some of the information we could deliver to these users, such as health information, has the power to truly change lives. These new services in Uganda are just one step on the path to providing information to people who have little or no access to the web. This research will help us as we continue to develop more services to increase access to information all around the world. Posted by Sian Townsend, Mobile User Experience Researcher, and Charles Warren, Mobile User Experience Design Manager

Designing useful mobile services for Africa

Last week, we announced a suite of SMS services in Uganda , a country where someone's first experience of the Internet is far more likel...

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Introducing the Google Chrome OS

It's been an exciting nine months since we <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html">launched the Google Chrome browser</a>. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed <a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">Google </a><a href="http://www.google.com/chrome">Chrome</a> for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be. Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work. Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform. Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google. We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet. We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer. Update on 7/8/2009: We have posted an FAQ on the <a href="http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-chrome-os-faq.html">Google Chrome Blog</a>. Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser . Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We des...

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NY State Legislator Pleads Guilty to Selling His Services to Medical Center

We have posted about cases in which hospitals or academic medical centers hired legislators to promote their political agendas. In one case in 2006, a former Rhode Island state legislator <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/06/former-rhode-island-legislator-pleads.html">pleaded guilty </a>to selling his influence to a local medical center, which submitted to a deferred prosecution agreement, and whose CEO was later <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/10/another-one-bites-dust-former-roger.html">convicted</a> of conspiracy and fraud. (This conviction has been appealed.) In another case in 2008, a former New Jersey state legislator was<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/11/politician-medical-school-dean.html"> convicted </a>of fraud for selling his influence to a state health care university and academic medical center, which also had been operating under a deferred prosecution agreement. The latest version of this type of scandal appeared towards the end of last month <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/nyregion/25fraud.html">in the New York Times</a>: <blockquote>Saying that he knew his 'conduct was illegal and wrong,' a longtime Democratic member of the New York State Assembly, Anthony Seminerio, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to abusing his position by soliciting for himself an amount prosecutors estimated at $500,000. Federal prosecutors said that for the last decade he traded upon his office, receiving 'corrupt payments' from people or organizations that had business before the state and sometimes threatening those who resisted his requests for money. The payments were funneled into a company called Marc Consultants that Mr. Seminerio created to hide the income, prosecutors said. Mr. Seminerio told Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Federal District Court in Manhattan that one of the organizations that paid him for wielding his political influence was Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, in Queens. It was the first public mention of Jamaica Hospital, which before the hearing had been referred to in court papers merely as 'a hospital in New York City.' Appearing before the judge around noon on Wednesday, Mr. Seminerio, unshaven but wearing a blazer and a tie, declared in a firm voice that he was guilty of the charge of honest services fraud. In a brief statement he acknowledged that on July 10, 2008, he 'promoted the interests' of Jamaica Hospital in connection with state business and did not divulge that he had received payments from the hospital. 'My conduct had the effect of depriving others of honest services,' he said. Prosecutors stated that the hospital had paid Marc Consultants about $310,000 and that 'a separate, Medicaid-managed health care plan' affiliated with the hospital paid another $80,000. At the request of hospital officers, prosecutors said, Mr. Seminerio acted as an advocate with legislators and lobbied on their behalf with executive branch officials. A criminal complaint states that on numerous occasions Mr. Seminerio 'took action in his capacity as a member of the Assembly to benefit the hospital at the same time that he was receiving payments from the hospital.' The complaint also details recorded conversations in which hospital officials asked Mr. Seminerio to intervene in state budget decisions and in which Mr. Seminerio urged a Health Department official to help Jamaica Hospital take over another hospital. </blockquote> There once was a time when health care was a calling, and when hospitals were considered charitable organizations which served the sick, and often the poor. Health care professionals and institutions were once held to a higher standard than, say, those who collected the garbage. Jamaica Hospital Medical Center still proclaims its<a href="http://www.jamaicahospital.org/pages/generalinfo/hosprofile.htm"> mission </a>to be: <blockquote>To serve our patients and the community in a way that is second to none </blockquote> It is not clear how that squares with "corrupt payments" to a state legislator. In my humble opinion, for health care to resolve its current crises, it will have to again be held to a higher standard. If we do not challenge the pervasive conflicts of interest within and across health care, and the outright corruption that has infected many health care institutions, none of the proposed manipulations of health care financing will make much of a dent in ever rising costs, declining access, or degrading quality. But for this to happen, health care professionals and policy leaders will have to acknowledge how low the current standards are. As long as cases like those noted above are mentioned only in the local news media, but are not subjects for polite conversation in professional and policy venues, many will be able to cling to the illusion that things are not so bad.

NY State Legislator Pleads Guilty to Selling His Services to Medical Center

We have posted about cases in which hospitals or academic medical centers hired legislators to promote their political agendas. In one case ...

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Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)

We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than five years. We realize this situation puzzles some people, particularly those who subscribe to the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FBeta_version%23Beta&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFrqEzdhKpXBJCu-_h5oW0nnYDXlr-oCGQ">traditional definition</a> of "beta" software as not being yet ready for prime time. Ever since we launched the <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Google Apps</a> suite for businesses two years ago, it's had a service level agreement, 24/7 support, and has met or exceeded all the other standards of non-beta software. More than 1.75 million companies around the world run their business on Google Apps, including Google. We've come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn't fit for large enterprises that aren't keen to run their business on software that sounds like it's still in the trial phase. So we've focused our efforts on reaching our high bar for taking products out of beta, and all the applications in the Apps suite have now met that mark. Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk — both enterprise and consumer versions — are now out of beta. "Beta" will be removed from the product logos today, but we'll continue to innovate and improve upon the applications whether or not there's a small "beta" beneath the logo. Indeed, today we're also <a href="http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2009/07/paving-road-to-apps-adoption-in-large.html">announcing</a> some other Google Apps features that we think will appeal to large enterprises: mail delegation, mail retention and ongoing enhancements to Apps reliability. We have much more in store, and IT managers can read more about how to make the switch to Apps in our <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/switch_exchange.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Microsoft Exchange</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/notes.html#utm_medium=blog&utm_source=us-en-ogb-oob0707&utm_campaign=oob">Lotus Notes</a> resource centers. One more thing — for those who still like the look of "beta", we've made it easy to re-enable the beta label for Gmail from the Labs tab under Settings. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dj1PkGFK20urrVq5C932uPUubzgn8eb0XH6UFhW6wr37LJh9qcb4ilJZ375g23eZp9tKnSVuGJ59p8JbB2J3oHZKGEvEe_UngAQXKMqOb4z1J9te9NVlZ09DAMEG0y3l622EGRZ13Sn3/s1600-h/Gmail+out+of+beta(2).png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355734772738780002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2dj1PkGFK20urrVq5C932uPUubzgn8eb0XH6UFhW6wr37LJh9qcb4ilJZ375g23eZp9tKnSVuGJ59p8JbB2J3oHZKGEvEe_UngAQXKMqOb4z1J9te9NVlZ09DAMEG0y3l622EGRZ13Sn3/s320/Gmail+out+of+beta(2).png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 168px;" /></a> Posted by Matthew Glotzbach, Director, Product Management, Google Enterprise

Google Apps is out of beta (yes, really)

We're often asked why so many Google applications seem to be perpetually in beta. For example, Gmail has worn the beta tag more than fiv...

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A Blogger That Dares Not Speak His University's Name

Dr Douglas Bremner is a Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology at Emory University, and <a href="http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jdbremn/index.html">Director of the University's Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit.</a> He has also written a book critical of the pharmaceutical industry (<a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.html">Before You Take That Pill</a>), and writes a blog (also called <a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/">Before You Take That Pill</a>) that is also skeptical about certain aspects of current psychiatric dogma. Inside Higher Education <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/07/01/emory">reported</a> that Emory University can apparently no longer bear to have its name mentioned in Dr Bremner's blog: <blockquote> Emory University has been accused repeatedly over the last year of looking the other way while one of its prominent physicians built extremely close ties to the pharmaceutical industry and -- critics charge -- failed to adequately report those ties as required by university and federal regulations. But what if you are an Emory professor who happens to differ with the pharmaceutical industry? Then, it appears, Emory watches you closely -- and if you are a blogger, the university can tell you that you must remove the Emory name from your Web site. That's why a recent post on the J. Douglas Bremner's blog Before You Take That Pill is called 'I Am Removing the Name of My University From This Blog.' In the post, he notes that he was recently ordered to remove the Emory name both by the interim chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and by the medical school's executive associate dean for faculty affairs. In the letters, which he provided to Inside Higher Ed, they tell Bremner to remove Emory's name, logo and letterhead from his blog because none of them can be used for 'non-Emory business.' He was also told to report on when he had removed Emory from his blog. The letters cite complaints that the university received about a blog post Bremner made in January in which he criticized the eviction of a man with bipolar disorder who was being forced out of his apartment for smoking. Bremner made his point in the form of a mock letter 'To Whom It May Concern' giving his blessing for the man to continue to smoke. According to Bremner's Emory superiors, complaints they received suggested that he was making 'clinical recommendations for a patient you do not know and have never examined,' and these postings made them feel the need to tell him to stop using the Emory name. </blockquote> And even more concerning: <blockquote> <a href="http://whsc.emory.edu/home/news/media-team/bio-sarah-goodwin.html">Sarah E. Goodwin</a>, director of media relations for Emory Health Sciences, said that Emory's objection to the use of its name in non-official places was 'across the board' and not related to the content of Bremner's blog. When told about other blogs or Web sites where Emory professors' university affiliation was noted on non-Emory business, she said she didn't know why that was the case but insisted that the ban was 'across the board.' She noted that Bremner has been 'blogging for some period of time,' and that 'if you read it over a long period of time, you can see comments he makes that may be of concern.' She declined to identify those comments. </blockquote> So there you have it. It appears that faculty members, even senior faculty at Emory who make comments "that may be of concern" to an <a href="http://whsc.emory.edu/home/news/media-team/bio-sarah-goodwin.html">Assistant Vice President for Health Sciences, and Director, Media Relations</a>, are not supposed to identify themselves as Emory faculty. This is the sort of policy one might expect from certain corporations. But Emory is a university. It <a href="http://www.emory.edu/home/about/index.html">proclaims</a> it <blockquote> is an inquiry-driven, ethically engaged and diverse community whose members work collaboratively for positive transformation in the world through courageous leadership in teaching, research, scholarship, health care and social action. </blockquote> It proclaims its strategic plan is entitled: <blockquote> Where Courageous Inquiry Leads </blockquote> We can see where courageous inquiry leads at Emory. It leads to University executives attempting to censor faculty blogs when they included "concerning" remarks. As Inside Higher Education noted, Emory executives have not attempted to have other faculty bloggers remove references to the University, or to the bloggers' faculty status from their writing. Presumably, those bloggers were more politically correct. We have often written about the <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/suppression%20of%20medical%20research">suppression of medical research </a>that is now a plague upon medicine, and the most dire threat to the evidence-based medicine approach. The research most likely to be suppressed is that which offends vested interests, particularly vested interests in selling particular health care goods or services. On the other hand, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (<a href="http://www.thefire.org/">FIRE</a>) for years has been fighting to uphold free speech and academic freedom on campus, but has mostly dealt with threats to politically or socially unpopular speech. This case seems to blend these these different kinds of threats to free speech and academic freedom. It once again shows how elite universities increasingly are run like for-profit corporations, putting the prerogatives of managers ahead of the individual rights of faculty and students, and putting the mission of the university, to discover and disseminate the truth in the spirit of free enquiry, in the trash. Dr Bremner's own comments in his blog are <a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.php/2009/07/01/is-there-such-a-thing-as-academic-freedom/">here</a>. He concluded that Emory managers were "thinking more like a corporation than a university, where the free exchange of ideas, regardless of the perceived value or political correctness of those ideas, is held to the highest standard." See also <a href="http://www.margaretsoltan.com/?p=14475">comments</a> by Prof Margaret Soltan in the University Diaries. ADDENDUM (15 July, 2009) - Emory has backed down, and will once again allow Dr Bremner to identify himself as a faculty member. See <a href="http://www.beforeyoutakethatpill.com/index.php/2009/07/13/we-won-university-backtracks-on-ban-of-use-of-name-on-this-blog/">this post </a>by Dr Bremner, and <a href="http://www.thefire.org/article/10859.html">this post </a>on The Torch (the FIRE blog).

A Blogger That Dares Not Speak His University's Name

Dr Douglas Bremner is a Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology at Emory University, and Director of the University's Clinical Neuroscien...

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New Blog Search tools: Feeds, Hot Queries and Latest Posts

Ever since the new <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/">Google Blog Search</a> homepage <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/browse-what-world-is-saying-on-blog.html">launched</a>, we've been fielding requests for a myriad of different features. Today we're happy to announce the launch of our most requested feature: <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch/feeds?bc_lang=en&hl=en&output=rss">RSS</a> and <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch/feeds?bc_lang=en&hl=en&output=atom">Atom</a> feeds. Simply click on the links under "Subscribe" in the left-hand column of the Blog Search front page to subscribe to any topic or story in any feed reader, like <a href="http://www.google.com/reader">Google Reader</a>. If you don't use a feed reader, we're also offering an <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?hl=en&moduleurl=blogbrowse.xml&source=gb">iGoogle gadget</a> that lets you embed the Blog Search front page right inside of your <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle page</a> or any other page where iGoogle gadgets are accepted. You can browse topics and drill into stories from within the widget, and you can customize the gadget to choose which topics you want to follow. With these new ways to read Blog Search stories, you might think our homepage was going unloved, but not to worry. We've also added two new features to the Blog Search homepage to better help you discover what people are talking about right now on the web: Hot Queries and Latest Posts. Hot Queries lists searches currently popular in Blog Search — it's an easy way to quickly dive into the trending points of conversation on the web. Latest Posts, on the other hand, shows new posts from popular blogs. While Hot Queries highlights what people are looking for, Latest Posts lets you find out about stories even before people start searching for them. <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353934434534613922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi31WII09x0wb6cZA3f4wlI-PhJfPI2KEs5-yPZaqIprOkMAS-dUbKIeHYjyB4q33bK2hy8uUXDTZJyNFCBIdeYkq02SOD5tVi4kQt3q4Od-lBiLtNtpuJbKSurIMB-SmjgZvZcqd_8tZ6L/s400/Screenshot-Google+Blog+Search.png" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 289px;" /></a> There's a lot of great, fresh content being published in blogs every day. We hope these new features help you discover more of it, faster. Posted by Akshay Patil, Software Engineer, & Dylan Casey, Product Manager

New Blog Search tools: Feeds, Hot Queries and Latest Posts

Ever since the new Google Blog Search homepage launched , we've been fielding requests for a myriad of different features. Today we...

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The evolution of Gmail labels

I love <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=118708">labels</a> in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mail in multiple ways. Combined with <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12853">filters</a> to automatically label incoming messages, Gmail offers powerful ways to organize email. When I joined the Gmail team, I was surprised to learn that only 29% of Gmail users had created any labels. At first, I thought perhaps conversation threading and search made the need to organize our mail less important. But when we talked to people who use Gmail, we got a different story. People often asked us to add folders to Gmail, assuming no system of organization existed. As one person said in a usability study, "What are labels... and where are my folders?" We realized that if you didn't know about labels, it would be easy to assume Gmail had no way to organize your mail. Not only were "labels" unfamiliar, they were kind of hidden. So, we set out to make labels more accessible, as well as more powerful. Most of the changes have been in Gmail for a while, but we're adding some <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/labels-drag-and-drop-hiding-and-more.html">new features today</a>. We thought you'd enjoy a peek at the method to our madness. The first thing we did was make labels look more like the sticky notes you use in real life. Making the interface mimic things you interact with outside the computer can sometimes improve ease of use. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw72X-0RKEKGbW-A655kQBvL6gEs2TuPN-IDjSjvYp9cVIgkSF7BVuU04j78UG8wgLzkrQxnm_GfeQo_5OQRC1vjr-XFXUcgvfYEnxjzBxn-IvTYFaszMFbK9BYBrcjHARcFyhtQhG2yvT/s1600-h/colored_labels-short.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528671185666642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw72X-0RKEKGbW-A655kQBvL6gEs2TuPN-IDjSjvYp9cVIgkSF7BVuU04j78UG8wgLzkrQxnm_GfeQo_5OQRC1vjr-XFXUcgvfYEnxjzBxn-IvTYFaszMFbK9BYBrcjHARcFyhtQhG2yvT/s400/colored_labels-short.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 66px;" /></a> We also made it easier to remove a label from an open conversation: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbONJBb_XxrUTRAadmd6naYfmtwAsgXPeitaNVPQMDSoH39HaFDyS-xxwo4YN8eXj94ZB4ClCvK_wnhmsRjq2x-ysqwTbvly9t-lIOGV-9dlwWyPjbTudkPeg__xnCL1FURzBv84LebiW1/s1600-h/remove_label.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528679205882418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbONJBb_XxrUTRAadmd6naYfmtwAsgXPeitaNVPQMDSoH39HaFDyS-xxwo4YN8eXj94ZB4ClCvK_wnhmsRjq2x-ysqwTbvly9t-lIOGV-9dlwWyPjbTudkPeg__xnCL1FURzBv84LebiW1/s400/remove_label.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 111px;" /></a> Then we worked on the actions you take to apply and remove labels. Before, to put a label on a message, you had to look under "More actions> Apply label." Not only was this option hidden in a generic menu, but the language wasn't what people are familiar with when it comes to organizing mail. We explored several alternatives:<div> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5Qlk2Il5QbcHaqccA2MBup-xt_Q1DeD3W_ABx1GFyVvHbA6Dyzj3cwuHZKglAW9NUgYNbz9LvIc2BcnG4hsqG-Y0rdpsrBMfsNapey5DMOeSsh372vjgyY_39HxISIy4X-2EgJfpkWSK/s1600-h/move_to.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528677914360114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc5Qlk2Il5QbcHaqccA2MBup-xt_Q1DeD3W_ABx1GFyVvHbA6Dyzj3cwuHZKglAW9NUgYNbz9LvIc2BcnG4hsqG-Y0rdpsrBMfsNapey5DMOeSsh372vjgyY_39HxISIy4X-2EgJfpkWSK/s400/move_to.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 292px; height: 400px;" /></a> We also learned that if we made labels sound too much like folders, people got confused. For instance, while "Copy to" and "Add to" were easy to use, these terms made people think they were creating multiple copies of a message. "Move to" was familiar but didn't lead people to think they were creating copies. And people seem to have picked it up fast! Since the launch of the <a href="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-ways-to-label-with-move-to-and-auto.html">new menu buttons</a> in March, we're seeing a 50% increase in new Gmail users trying labels in their first 2 weeks. And overall usage of the "Move to" menu surpassed that of the "Labels" menu within 7 weeks of launching: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmz9RKTAmBIHPdmN8R5dO_0YpBimdi45oTJZ5maotNdSXvAb41NsaWvr89tr3uwqKbKzxlC7PDeFBYKF5FiVjmgX3F_wngjjrYZ6LyRDCt262Yd2fpDVv-DNMioWphU6WrjaKRMYQRJLca/s1600-h/label_vs_moveto.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528684682428098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmz9RKTAmBIHPdmN8R5dO_0YpBimdi45oTJZ5maotNdSXvAb41NsaWvr89tr3uwqKbKzxlC7PDeFBYKF5FiVjmgX3F_wngjjrYZ6LyRDCt262Yd2fpDVv-DNMioWphU6WrjaKRMYQRJLca/s400/label_vs_moveto.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 324px;" /></a> For our latest set of changes, we looked at how you access labels on the left side. In other email applications, folders get the royal treatment and are given a seat at the top near your inbox. But in Gmail, labels were stuck in a box below Chat — almost like we were telling people, "you don't want to use these." In testing, we discovered that it worked best to remove the terminology altogether and just place custom labels right under the system labels (e.g. "Inbox"): <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHcdeq0XmfND3fzYE9BJjMDUXw7GkaUr9jEawVQzkZtc_L49C9qyK5baatOVMp4cCGt-I7iCPxGU7IwihG0WcKk_f1Eg-DLMqOM1VQTd3pP6krisVV8ePM1_y6VJ9dk5ELV989ZZPtC1G/s1600-h/left_nav_compare.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353529498975279442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHcdeq0XmfND3fzYE9BJjMDUXw7GkaUr9jEawVQzkZtc_L49C9qyK5baatOVMp4cCGt-I7iCPxGU7IwihG0WcKk_f1Eg-DLMqOM1VQTd3pP6krisVV8ePM1_y6VJ9dk5ELV989ZZPtC1G/s400/left_nav_compare.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 272px;" /></a>The last step was to add drag-and-drop. Now, you can drag mail into a label, or even drag a label directly onto a message: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bAAX3oramrsBAnPiMF31vB0_6A34bqXOVDUeY-KfzOEAPrCwhcAdM2S31QQCJE1eYsaqgthudfVgJvSRL0QG4gM6DxcchLpt5pRj7buqCNf9_pj-qronv8dbdgJXmxblrFPHKOVLftv9/s1600-h/drag.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353528677554646418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bAAX3oramrsBAnPiMF31vB0_6A34bqXOVDUeY-KfzOEAPrCwhcAdM2S31QQCJE1eYsaqgthudfVgJvSRL0QG4gM6DxcchLpt5pRj7buqCNf9_pj-qronv8dbdgJXmxblrFPHKOVLftv9/s400/drag.png" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 72px;" /></a> Making it easier to process and organize your mail requires more than just labels, but we hope these changes start to improve the process. We have much more in store, so stay tuned and keep the <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/label?lid=613f70d9ff743405">feedback</a> coming. Posted by Michael Leggett, Gmail User Experience Designer</div>

The evolution of Gmail labels

I love labels in Gmail. Most email programs use folders, which only let me put mail in one place at a time. With labels, I can organize mai...

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