For the next two weeks, Gmail will be rolling out its brand new social 'People Widget' that will bring you contextual information of people that you communicate with via emails.

You will be able to view this widget on the right hand side of your messages, "the people widget surfaces content from friends, family and colleagues that is already available to you but may be hard to find and makes it easier to connect with them." explains Google. So, whenever you open an email from your friend or co-worker, you will be able to see his/her thumbnail (if any), email address, occupation, recent buzzes, latest emails exchanged with you, calender events and documents shared with you.










































Within this widget (that requires no plugin) you will be able to chat, make phone calls, share documents and schedule meetings. In case an email has multiple email addresses in a thread, you will be able to view each individual's contact information in an expanded view. What I like most about this feature is that, within few clicks, you can start a group chat with the people included in a particular email, you can also schedule an event with the group and compose an email for the entire group.

"On a thread with many recipients, contacts are listed in order of who last responded on the thread, who is currently online and available to chat, contacts that whose chat status are set to 'Busy', contacts whose chat status are 'Idle', and then contacts who you haven't yet invited to chat before." explains Google.

Further adding, "we hope that people widget will improve your Gmail experience and we're eager for you to try it out." So keep your eyes open whenever you log in to your Gmail account, you never when you receive a notification to try out this latest widget.

In case, you do not like it, then you very easily opt to hide it by selecting, 'Hide the people widget' from your General Tab in Settings. Personally, I think this widget is pretty handy, specially if you have too many threads in an email, because it brings a bird eye's view to major details that you need to see, which otherwise is can be  pretty complex and cumbersome. It also helps in cutting down procrastination, 'coz through this widget, you can instantly respond to an email, since you can see the history and communications with the people included in the email and makes everything quicker and more efficient.


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