Google

Topics:   Google

  • Email this page E-mail this page
  • Print this page Print this page
  • Bookmark and Share
  • icon

Google Enables More Contact Fields In Gmail


Posted by Eric Zeman, Jun 17, 2009 11:50 AM

One of Gmail's weaknesses is that it has not supported all of the fields that a particular contact may have...until today, that is. Google fixed that. Google also recently explained why some Outlook plug-ins won't work with Google Apps.


I always wondered why Gmail didn't recognize all the fields in a given contact. You'd import your contacts from another application, and often Gmail lumped a bunch of the fields under the "notes" section. I didn't think that was very useful, and neither did a whole bunch of people.

According to Benjamin Grol, Product Manager for Gmail, "We added support for more contact fields (like birthday and website) and now store each of these fields separately, which makes syncing and round-tripping your data work better. We updated the standalone contact manager with this improvement last month and now it's available in Gmail too, with support for Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail and Yahoo in CSV format, and OS X Address Book in vCard format." Good stuff.

In other Google-related email news, the company took some time to explain some of the issues users are seeing with respect to Outlook-Google Apps sync.

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook was meant to make it easier for Outlook users to switch to Google Apps. Google knows that Outlook users use a host of plug-ins to improve the functionality of Outlook. Google did the best it could, but was unable to build support for all the plug-ins in this initial release of Google Apps Sync for Outlook.

Three, in particular, aren't supported. They include Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, Acrobat PDF Maker Toolbar, and Outlook Change Notifier. Google recommends that if you want to continue using these plug-ins, uninstall Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, and the uninstaller will re-enable the plug-ins.

Google also points out that Windows Desktop Search and PGP.com's encryption plugin won't work properly.

Google suggests users experiencing any problems hit up its help center, where more detail and some answers are available.

« How Secure Are SIP Trunks? | Main | Socialism Hits Home As BusinessWeek Asks, Should CIO Pay Be Limited? »



Sign Up Now
For InformationWeek News Alerts




This is a public forum. United Business Media and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. United Business Media makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers.

Community standards in this comment area do not permit hate language, excessive profanity, or other patently offensive language. Please be aware that all information posted to this comment area becomes the property of United Business Media LLC and may be edited and republished in print or electronic format as outlined in United Business Media's Terms of Service.

Important Note: This comment area is NOT intended for commercial messages or solicitations of business.