San Francisco — Jotting down those lengthy links on the mobile phone is pretty tiring. Well, that has now changed for Gmail users using iPhone or Android-powered devices as Google comes to the rescue as the search giant continues to improve its mobile Gmail program. On Tuesday, Google Mobile announced the Smart Links feature, a function that automatically shortens a raw link and converts it into a meaningful phrase with the link embedded.
We have all sometimes used Google Maps and to simplify communication, needed to share a location with someone, however, when you copy-paste the URL it can be several lines long. In e-mails it looks very annoying and on mobile devices it can fill the screen. Not only is that frustrating, but it can hide the detail of where exactly the link takes you.
Google has just introduced a novel solution to this and rebuilt it with various improvements including redesigned underlying code that lets users develop and offer new innovative features.
For example, the two Gmail messages below contain the same link, but the one on the right has used the new Google Smart Links feature. It tells the reader exactly what the link will show and takes up just one line:
In a blog post, Google said that “Smart Links” is part of GoogleMobile’s Interative Webapp group that focus on developing and enhancing Gmail features specifically for the iPhone and Android-powered devices.
Instead of the lengthy URL, simply clicking on the phrase and the link will open just like with the original raw link that now shows you the actual address with the link embedded to it.
However, Smart Links currently supports four types of links: Google Maps address queries, Google Maps directional queries (with one destination), Google Sites Web pages, and links to YouTube videos. Also for now, it is available only in English and, only works with e-mails composed in plain text format.
Also, in the future, Smart Links will also work with more link types, such as Google Docs, according to GoogleMobile.
The service is now catering to U.S. users having Android and iPhone or iPod Touch with OS 2.2.1 or above. The concurrent release could signal a shift in how Google approaches its mobile strategy. At first, the company would bring out things like voice-powered search to the iPhone first because its customers use the mobile Web more than any other smartphone user.
Gmail for mobile can be accessed by visiting the gmail.com from mobile browser.