Official Gmail Blog: September 2011

Improved accessibility for Google Calendar

September 14, 2011

Posted by: Florian Niemann, Software Engineerannouncedscreen readerJAWSVoiceOverChromeVox

In your calendar lists, you can use the up and down arrow keys to navigate between your calendars. For each calendar in the list, you’ll hear its name and can use the spacebar to turn the calendar on or off. To remove a calendar from the list, use the delete key.

In the agenda view, you can use the up and down arrow keys to move between events and use the left and right arrow keys to move between dates. To expand an event and expose the event details, press enter. To go to the event details page, type ‘e’. To remove an event, press delete. Although agenda view provides the best screen reader experience today, we are also working on improved accessibility for other views.

In the guest list on the create/edit event page, you can navigate around using the up and down arrow keys. Use the spacebar to switch a guest's status between optional and required. To remove a guest from the list, use the delete key.

Additional keyboard shortcuts make it easier to use Google Calendar no matter which view or screen you’re on. Type ‘c’ to create an event, ‘/’ to start a search, and ‘+’ to add a calendar.

help centerthis form

Gmail account security in Iran

September 9, 2011

Posted by Eric Grosse, VP Security EngineeringCross posted from the Google Security Blog learned last week

Change your password. You may have already been asked to change your password when you signed in to your Google Account. If not, you can change it here.
Verify your account recovery options. Secondary email addresses, phone numbers, and other information can help you regain access to your account if you lose your password. Check to be sure your recovery options are correct and up to date here.
Check the websites and applications that are allowed to access your account, and revoke any that are unfamiliar here.
Check your Gmail settings for suspicious forwarding addresses or delegated accounts.
Pay careful attention to warnings that appear in your web browser and don’t click past them.

For more ways to secure your account, you can visit http://www.google.com/help/security. If you believe your account has been compromised, you can start the recovery process here.

Gmail: It’s cooler in the cloud

September 7, 2011

An illustration of inefficient server utilization by smaller companies compared to efficient utilization in the cloud.

If you’re more of a romantic than a businessperson, think of it this way: It takes more energy to send a message in a bottle than it does to use Gmail for a year, as long as you count (PDF) the energy used to make the bottle and the wine you drank.

We ran a similar calculation for YouTube and the results are even more striking: the servers needed to play one minute of YouTube consume about 0.0002 kWh of energy. To put that in perspective, it takes about eight seconds for the human body to burn off that same amount. You’d have to watch YouTube for three straight days for our servers to consume the amount of energy required to manufacture, package and ship a single DVD.

In calculating these numbers, we included the energy used by all the Google infrastructure supporting Gmail and YouTube. Of course, your own laptop or phone also consumes energy while you’re accessing Google, so it’s important to choose an efficient model.

There’s still a lot to learn about the global impacts of cloud computing, but one thing we can say with certainty: bit for bit, email for email, and video for video, it’s more efficient in the cloud.

Posted by David Jacobowitz, Program Manager, Green Engineering and Operationsecuresimpleproductiverecent reportwrittencommitted to sustainabilitymore than 4 millionalmost 80 times more energy efficient

An illustration of inefficient server utilization by smaller companies compared to efficient utilization in the cloud.
count

choose an efficient model