Gmail and AIM integration

If you are in Gmail, go to the bottom of your Chat list, click Options, and the drop-down menu will now have an extra feature that will allow you to sign into AIM.

As long as you’re using an English version of Gmail, you should see it.

All of the features that are available in Gmail Chat are now available with AIM as well. That includes Chat history, automatic sorting of buddies, and easy contact management!

Official Google Blog: Gmail <3>

Group chat and rich emoticons now available in Gmail chat

The new Gmail Seattle team is happy to announce two additions to Gmail's built-in chat capabilities: group chat and enhanced emoticons.

To start a group chat, click "Group chat" from the "Options" menu when chatting. Enter the names of the people you want to add, and, bingo, you're in your very own chat room. All the familiar features such as chat archiving and taking the chat off the record still work as well.

You'll also now notice a smiley face in the bottom right-hand corner of your chat window. You can still use regular emoticon keyboard shortcuts, such as :) or =P, but this menu lets you select the style of the emoticons you send. Beyond the good old classic Gmail smileys there are two brand new, rich emoticon styles.

These features only work with the latest version of Gmail, which we are still rolling out to IE6, international and Google Apps users. We're looking forward to using Gmail's new modular architecture to bring you more features like these with faster turnaround.


Official Gmail Blog: Group chat and rich emoticons now available in Gmail chat