Bendable Media

Improvements to Gmail made Contacts easier to find.

On Tuesday, I started noodling around MailChimp, a newsletter service, to start preparing for the eventual launch of a Bendable Media newsletter. (Send an email to Eric Benderoff if you want to be on the mailing list!)

To create a newsletter you first need a list. So as I was culling through my Gmail account for contacts to ask if they want to receive my newsletter — a work in progress — I realized that it was a real pain to sort through contacts. I had so many contact duplicates that it was annoying to determine the correct email for each. I really hadn’t noticed how bad my contact organization was until I took that deep look.

Lo and behold, Wednesday morning Google introduced a spanking new system to manage contacts.

I have barely touched the surface of what I can do with these new contact tools but I could tell after 5 minutes — when I merged duplicates with a click and changed how I arranged contacts — that this is giant improvement. The new layout alone — structured more like your Gmail inbox — and the easier-to-find contact labeling at the top of your Gmail account, are very useful.

Also, Google made the tasks tool much more visible — i.e., useful. (Click on tasks; it’s like having an interactive post-it note on your computer screen.)

In a nutshell, Google gave the often-overlooked contact feature in Gmail better structure and more intuitive tools. I barely knew I had a real problem and now I have a fine solution.

Related Posts, Bendable Gadgets:

• Here comes Windows Phone 7, a radio interview
• Looking for an Android phone? Check out Google Phone Gallery
• Two tools to improve Gmail