Google Adds “˜Tasks’ As Permanent Fixture To Gmail
Google Inc on Tuesday announced the first feature to be integrated from its Gmail Labs service into its Gmail service just one year after the Web search leader launched the experimental project.
Born from Gmail Labs, “Tasks” is the first feature to be permanently made a part of Google’s Gmail service.
Gmail announced its Labs feature one year ago as a forum for Gmail users to be introduced to a wide variety of ideas for new tools being introduced by its developers.
The Tasks feature is a simple tool that allows users to update a list of things to do from their PC or smartphone.
The tool allows users to easily add to-do lists into their Google calendars. It also features a simple way to create shopping lists that can be printed out or checked off from a mobile device.
Google has witnessed great successes with its Gmail Labs feature. Therefore it has decided to launch the Calendar Labs service, which allows users a similar glimpse at the ideas of Google developers, but this time for its Google Calendar feature.
"Rather than us having to decide in a vacuum or a conference room at Google, we were able to get millions of users trying Tasks and telling us how to improve it," senior product manager Ken Norton told AFP. "That feature is much better now as a result."
Norton said Google is also launching a service that would allow business customers to develop their own tailored tools on Google.
The effort represents Google’s overall approach to creating more software as a service (SaaS) tools for its users. SaaS tools allow Google to host the application on its servers for users to control without actually having to download anything.
"A lot of companies are migrating away from traditional server-based software," Norton said.
"What’s driving it is the users wanting these apps because that is what they use at home and prefer, and management spending millions of dollars managing IT infrastructure," he told AFP.
Analysts see Google’s approach as another step in the direction of gaining a larger share of the computing market that has been tightly controlled by Microsoft.
Microsoft on Monday announced that its new 2010 version of Office would feature online software that will allow users to access their data in real time from any device using an Internet connection.
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