• Los Angeles Times, Friday, May 27, 2011 12:12 PM

In its latest effort to improve email, Google just debuted a "people widget," which appears as a quasi-social networking profile alongside email messages. The widget reminds users about recent conversations they've had with contacts, whether they have play dates scheduled on Google Calendar, whether they're online right this minute, and other salient information.

"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," Google said in a blog post announcing the feature. "Say what you want about Google, but the tech giant never tires of trying to improve its email program," notes the Los Angeles Times.

"The company keeps Gmail perpetually under construction: building in a chat function; offering a view of users' calendar and contact lists; and adding functions that allow users to send text messages, make phone and video calls, unsend [sic] messages, watch YouTube videos and do about a hundred other things."

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