I like the iPhone Notes application for quickly jotting things down that I don’t want to forget. I’ve also written blog-length posts with it (sometimes taking out the laptop is so tedious), so it has it’s purposes for me.

My IMAP-connected Gmail account has the ability to sync notes:

Sure enough, every time I save a note, I see network activity happening (the spinning circle icon to the left of the time):

But where are notes synced to, on the web, you wonder?

Your email account should have a new folder, or label for Gmail, which holds your notes as individual emails:

Sweet!

If anything, it’s a seamless way to backup your notes when connected to a network.

I presume there’s more feature-rich apps available that allow similar capabilities, including editing notes through multiple applications or sites, but for me I’m happy to use existing built-in applications.

This is purely a “Hey, that’s neat!” discovery.

This is great for me since I am often looking for a particular email or document, but I can’t recall exactly which.

They could expand upon this greatly, and include Google Voice, Groups, Sites, Reader, etc – any content I’ve submitted to a Google service could be searched upon.

UPDATE: I hadn’t noticed the second screenshot above says “Docs and Sites,” so perhaps it’s searching Google Sites as well. Why leave it at that? A full “Google Account Search” would be excellent.

It is convenient to compose and reply to SMS directly through the Gmail web interface, or any email client where I have Gmail IMAP set up.

The problem is SMS has a character-count limit of 160. When typing an SMS in Gmail, it is too easy to go over that limit without realizing it, because there is no indication of how many characters I’ve typed. The Google Voice interface appropriately shows you this:

So this is a Gmail Labs suggestion: show the number of characters typed. This could easily fit inside the formatting toolbar:

As SMS becomes most people’s primary method of informal communication, every little bit of awareness helps.

The best “features” are the ones we don’t even realize exist – the ones we take for granted because they are always there.

Reliability

For example, have you ever thought about how reliable Gmail is? I mean, sure, it’s had some downtime throughout the years, but compared to all of the hours and minutes the service is active and immediately responsive – we take this constant connection for granted.

No matter where we are in the world, we can instantly send and receive email (provided you have a mobile device) in a number of ways most efficient for you (web interface, IMAP, etc).

Gmail is always there, and it (almost) always works.

Reliability, in this case, is a feature.

Simplicity

Another example is Twitter. I consider Twitter to be more of a communication platform than a “website providing a cool service.” It’s a “mass-sharing texting system.” The only feature of Twitter that matters is that it’s up and running. After that, it’s just text being sent to the service via a number of protocols, such as web, SMS, IM, etc.

Twitter has made sharing text simple by allowing you to use whatever input source you prefer. You’re not forced to load the web interface over your mobile device just to interact with the service. You can, instead, use SMS, IM, etc. As the service improves, I imagine it will allow input from as many sources as possible.

In a sense, Twitter provides the connectivity, and you provide what it means to use the service. It’s entirely up to you what you can do with Twitter. It’s completely open-ended, and simple (just share some text). It’s what you make of it.

Simplicity, in this case, is a feature.

Uniqueness

A unique service is that which allows users to do the things they do, better. This is a broad statement, but it involves our own personal goals in life – how we grow as an individual, reach new heights, and constantly learn about the world around us.

A website or software application may just be a bunch of data and pixels, but it’s inherent meaning to us is much more. There’s a value behind what we do with software. We don’t just update Twitter because it’s there. We do it to connect with others, meet new people, open up new opportunities, and possibly even learn something. The scope of that is far greater than servers and “uptime.”

For example, as a writer I had become accustomed to blog-length posts for many years. It wasn’t until Twitter arrived on stage that I though about how effective short updates can be. There’s a certain skill or craft involved in making your point clear in such a short statement.

This limitation requires more creativity, thereby challenging us to think differently.

For each service you join, ask yourself, “What is this making me do better? More efficiently? Will this challenge my core beliefs, push me to try new things, and help me grow?” If not, then the service is probably just a “fresh face on an old game.”

It’s easy to create new services that look pretty, act differently, or contain a bunch of catchy features, but the real challenge is creating something of value – something that reaches deep into a person’s psyche, and persuades them that “this can truly make you better.”

Uniqueness, in this case, is a feature.

Wrap-up

The most successful services are the ones that combine all three of the above “features” into something that changes society, and the world.

This is a nice touch – something I’m noticing many services doing more often (see using email to send SMS with Google Voice).

I’ve always been a proponent for “smart” emails – those that do more than just notify you of something. For example, instead of just telling you some activity occurred in your account, provide more information like exactly what happened, and anything relevant that does not require me to visit the site, log in, etc – just to see what’s going on.

In other words, make bacn more useful!

Facebook allowing commenting via email is a perfect example of using email more effectively.

Since I’m already reading the comment via email, why not let me reply in the same program, instead of having to switch to Facebook just to submit my comment?

More services need to adopt this level of usability – which benefits both the user, and the service. If it’s easier to interact with your service, I’m likely to use it more, and refer others to it.

This is a really nice perk of electronic book reading – the ability to make notes and highlight passages of text, and immediately access them through a web browser, so you can share, or copy/paste the text somewhere else, etc.

However, there may still be some confusion over this concept.

First off, I received the email notifying me of this feature:

From the looks of the subject text, without opening the email, I assumed it was talking about an overview of Kindle features. The subject is, “Kindle Highlights and Notes.” The wording is poor because although it means physical notes and highlighting, it could also be perceived as: “Here are some highlights and notes about the Kindle product.” This is how it first struck me when I read it.

In any event, that’s a topic for another day – Amazon’s poor branding and advertising of the Kindle. Amazon’s strong suit is definitely not advertisements and promotions.

Besides the misleading email subject, it’s also not clear if this new feature applies to users of the Kindle iPhone app. I, for one, bookmark a lot of pages when reading through my iPhone, so I’d love a way to immediately access those bookmarked pages through a web browser. (Note: the Kindle iPhone app does not currently allow for notes and highlighting; just bookmarking specific sections.)

I’ve browsed my Kindle store through Amazon.com, and tried to find a spot that “syncs” my bookmarked pages to my account, but I have had no luck yet.

This feature is extremely useful for those who dislike the nature of checking voicemail, and the reliance on an audio-only playback. I now get my voicemail messages sent to me as email and SMS. I no longer have to dial in to some number, hit a bunch of options, and painfully cycle through voicemail messages.

Not such a big deal, you think? Imagine you are already talking on the phone with someone else, and a call comes through in which the person leaves a voicemail. Without even exiting the call you are on, you can get the voicemail text sent as SMS, and check it immediately. It’s about multi-tasking – things the old notion of a “phone” did not let you do.

To enable the Aero interface manually, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Control Panel > System and Maintenance and then select Performance Information and Tools:
   

2. From the Performance Information and Tools screen click the “Refresh Now” button to update your systems performance score:
   

3. You will need to authorize the System Assessment Checker to score your computer’s hardware.
4. After your computer’s performance score is updated, if your computer meets the minimum requirements to run the Aero interface it will automatically be activated.
   

This is aggravating, to say the least. It’s a waste of your time.

Gmail’s “Mute” feature may come in handy. When you see an endless thread in Gmail, simply hit the “m” key (or choose “Mute” from the “More Actions” drop-down) with the conversation selected:

The conversation will then archive for good. The thread will still keep growing as new replies come in, but it won’t appear in your inbox again.

It’s shrude, but your recipients will never know!

Specifics

It’s important to understand how this feature actually works. When you “mute” a conversation, you are only silencing it if the “To” or “CC” fields do not reference your actual email address, such as with a generalized mailing list address.

This feature is not intended for silencing annoying family threads in which you are copied endlessly on. Rather, it’s more geared towards forum or discussion groups, where the email address in the “To” field is a collective, group email.

Once “muted,” the thread will only re-appear in your inbox if you, specifically, have been addressed in the “To” or “CC” fields. This would make sense, since you’d probably want to see messages that are directed to you.

So, despite this great idea, it doesn’t seem to work for endless family threads.

I promptly wrote about my anticipation for this feature, which was quoted as being released “within two weeks.”

So, in the spirit of Labs, we’ve pulled SMS chat back to fix it, and we’ll get it back out to you as soon as it’s ready — probably within 2 weeks, so stay tuned.

That was October 31. It’s now been over a month, with no update on this feature.

Granted, it’s a free service, so I can’t complain, but that blog post just seemed so unlike Google’s normal blog posts which usually announce features as they go live, rather than alluding to things in such a manner that puts expectations on users.

In the world of software development, if there’s one thing you don’t do, that’s announce features before they go live, and make unrealistic deadlines for when things will be released. You’re just asking for problems to happen.