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2010

Google Revamps Gmail For iPad With New Stacked Cards Interface

August 19, 2010 0

Mountain View, California — Barely a day after Yahoo unleashed a revamped version of its iPad web Mail app, Internet search engine titan Google as part of its Iterative Web App series, announced today on the Official Google Mobile Blog a new version of its Gmail web app for the Apple iPad and it features a “Stacked Cards Interface,” making it easier to view multiple messages.

Ever since Gmail unveiled a re-design for better viewing on the iPad, which was introduced back in April. Then in June, Gmail for iPad was updated with a new compose window, and people have continuously touted its usability and the HTML5 interface.

In response to that, according to the Google Mobile Blog, Gmail is rolling out a new “stacked cards” interface so that it is easier to get a look at multiple conversations:

Google Mobile Software Engineering Intern Liam Asher Segel-Brown explains:

In the past, performing actions on selected conversations was inconvenient. There were two similar toolbars on the screen: one on the bottom left and the other on the top right. The former affected the selected conversations, while the latter affected the currently open conversation. Since the toolbars’ buttons looked similar, it was easy to mistakenly use the wrong toolbar. Sound confusing? It was.

“With the new interface, selected messages are displayed stacked on the right panel for easy grouping, archiving or deleting. The second toolbar is gone so it is always clear which conversations you are working with.”

Also, the new application has provided an opportunity for our group to experiment with CSS3 transitions, which furnishes mobile web applications a similar look and feel to native applications. More details on the implementation are posted on the code blog.

Now this revamped version should make it smoother to organize and monitor your conversations and it is an intelligent way to make use of that big, 10-inch screen of the Apple iPad. You can access the new web app by going to gmail.com in Safari.

But sadly enough, the new “Stacked Cards Interface” is presently available only in the U.S. in English. To access it, users must visit Gmail.com in Safari on their iPad.