Integrating Gmail Results Into Search With ‘Inbox’

Google is constantly innovating, improving and updating all of its ventures, but has Google gone too far with integrated Gmail results?

October saw the arrival of the newly evolved Google Inbox which, according to Marketing Land, is ‘Gmail mixed with Google Now and a dash of Siri’. Google’s main aim with the new ‘Inbox’ is to blend lifestyle and communications, delivering reminders, purchases, flights and much more into people’s inboxes than ever before.

This new innovation by Google is accompanied with a new search feature that may or may not be fantastic. When users search terms such as “my inbox” or “show inbox” on Google search, recent Gmail messages will appear in the search results. This feature is optimised for mobile devices, and also Google Now, so users can use voice commands like “show my Gmail inbox” and the results will return 5 of the most recent messages.

An Unnecessary Feature?

The overall opinion on this new search features seems to be positive, but do we really need to Google our Gmail messages? Would it not be just as quick, if not easier, to simply click onto our email app?

There is no doubt about it, the new Inbox by Google is a forward-thinking application that will be used by millions of people across the world. However, it is difficult not to think that the additional search feature on your bog standard Google search box (i.e. not Google Now) is a bit, well, pointless.

Is anyone really going to bother following the new command path when they’d see exactly the same results by logging into Gmail? Perhaps not. That said, ‘Inbox’ is still in its infancy and it is possible that Google are having a play around with different features – they may still have something up their sleeve that will make us rate it!