Google Introduces New Gmail Labs Graduates as they Face a Lawsuit for Racism
Google announced that there are three new graduates from Gmail Labs, and they’re not people, but new features and tools to make our online lives a little bit easier.
The Gmail Labs Graduates
Automatic Message Translation, Smart Mute and Title Tweaks, these are the newly grads from Gmail Labs.
Automatic Message Translation, as the name indicates, automatically translates messages in your Gmail account to your prefered language. You can set it to translate all messages to your prefered language all the time, but of course you can still turn it off and on as needed.
Smart Mute keeps your inbox clean by tuning out unwanted noisy e-mails or spam from entering your precious mailbox.
Title Tweaks makes it easier to identify if you have new messages on your inbox on the browser tab. The tab now reads “Inbox (20) – user@example.com – Gmail” instead of “Gmail – Inbox (20) – user@example.com.”
Aside from the three graduates, Google also announced the discontinuation of other labs tools, since they’re not getting much attention.
“In addition to graduating these three labs, we’ll also be retiring some less popular labs over the next few days: Old Snakey, Mail Goggles, Mouse Gestures, Hide Unread Counts, Move Icon Column, Inbox Preview, Custom Date Formats and SMS in Chat gadget,” the Gmail announcement read. “Please note that the SMS in Chat lab is not being retired, just the gadget associated with it.”
Google sued for racism
In other Google news, Google is being sued by SOS Racisme, a French organization that fights discrimination, because of Google Suggest. Google Suggest is the Google Search tool that autocompletes your query.
Patrick Klugman, lawyer for the plaintiff, stated that, “by connecting persons with an often persecuted religious minority, the web giant is overseeing ‘the creation of what is probably the biggest Jewish file in history.’”
The anti-racism group argues that people using Google Search are faced with unsolicited and systematic associations between famous people and their Jewishness every time they use the service. Take for example Rupert Murdoch, the chairman for NewsCorp., if you type that on Google, even before you finish, you’d see this suggestion: “Rupert Murdoch Jewish”.
“Numerous users of the first search engine from France and world are confronted daily with the association unsolicited and almost systematically the term ‘Jew’ with the names of those most prominent in the world of politics, media or business,” said SOS Racisme in a statement.
According to French news La Côte, a hearing for the said case is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, May 3rd.
This is not the first time Google was sued for their autocomplete tool, as some sued the company for defacing their brand with search suggestions.
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
