Some random free-thinking this morning…
Gmail Labs introduced the “Sender time zone” into Gmail. It displays in which timezone the person who sent you an email is, and if you should/could call or not.
Nothing fancy, just useful.
Useful - that’s what Gmail is about, and has always been for its now 110M+ user base. And since the introduction of Labs and Gadgets, if became even more powerful. For instance, you can now share emails with embedded YouTube videos or Flickr images. You now have a full twitter client inside Gmail with TwitterGadget. You can also have Google docs right inside your sidebar. In the side bar too, Google Calendar, with private or public events. And so on.
Add to all of this the voice+video chat, that allows seamlessly to share files, videos, images, and chat one-to-one or one-to-many, and you have many ingredients for a successful social network.
Finally, Gmail status. Poorly implemented today, but it could be very powerful, and when you think about it, it’s not far from the Facebook status updates (commenting, and easier posting). Add search, which is not where Google lacks knowhow, and Boom! you have a twitter.
Would people use Gmail as they would use Twitter or Facebook? Probably not. Gmail is for emailing. Facebook to exchange pictures, videos, updates and messages with friends. Twitter for crowd-messaging.
But could they? Definitely.
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