Intelligently Using Email - PS Connect & Gmail Contextual Gadgets

Last night my son brought to my attention a post by Dong Chen, of the Gmail Contextual Gadgets team.

At Campfire One it was recently announced that Gmail contextual gadgets will be released as a new extension point for developers. These gadgets can intelligently draw information from the web and let users perform relevant actions based on the content of an email message, all without leaving the Gmail inbox. For example, contextual gadgets currently available in Gmail can detect links in emails to show previews of documents, videos, photos, and more, right inside the messages.

For businesses, Gmail contextual gadgets can improve productivity by complementing email in a context-specific and actionable way. Appirio, a cloud solution provider, provided a demonstration of the potential of Gmail contextual gadgets and other experimental features
with their new product PS Connect:. Watch !

As Chen notes, "Soon we’ll be opening Gmail contextual gadgets as an extension for trusted testing by developers. If you have a good idea for this type of gadget today, please fill out this form. And for those of you who will be attending Google I/O in May, be sure to check out the session on building Gmail contextual gadgets."