Google Open Sources reMail

A couple weeks ago, Google acquired reMail, a popular iPhone app, and pulled it from Apple's App Store. Now, Google has made it open source.

"After looking at a number of options to make reMail available in some form, we decided to open source the code, which is now available on Google Code as remail-iphone under the Apache 2.0 License," Google Communications tells WebProNews.

reMail was created by a Gabor Cselle, who used to work as a software engineer on Gmail. On the reMail blog, Cselle says, "As someone who is passionate about mobile email, my hope is that developers interested in making email-related apps can use reMail code as a starting point. Part of the reason email apps are hard is because you have to pay the tax of figuring out how to download email via IMAP, parse MIME messages, handle attachments, and store data. reMail has already solved these problems. If you have a great mobile email idea, I hope you will find reMail's source code helpful in your quest."

Cselle has documented the source code so developers can quickly start on any ideas they have. "If you like reMail and want to improve it, I have also listed some potential projects with implementation tips," he says. "Most of these projects are features that users have requested in the past. I encourage you to contribute improvements back to the project. I've also created the group remail-iphone on Google Groups, which is a great place to ask questions."

This page will tell you how to build using the code, let you see some project ideas, and show you how the datastore and UI work.

Google Talks Marketing Implications of Social Search

It's no secret that Google delivers personalized search results on a user-by-user basis. In fact, software engineer Bryan Horling reportedly said at SMX West in Santa Clara that Google personalizes as much as 20 percent of any user's web searches, which would be one in five searches. One way that Google personalizes search results is with its social search feature, which it launched in January. At SMX, WebProNews discussed this feature with Google's Johanna Wright.

If you follow the search industry very closely, you are probably aware of what social search does, but in case you're not, it simply injects content from people within your "social circle" into your search results for relevant queries. For example, if you searched for "iPad," and you had a friend who recently posted an iPad review to his/her blog, there is a good chance that would show up on the first page of your results. This is Google's way of placing relevance on who you know. If you know someone, you're more likely to trust their content than that of a stranger (or at least trust yourself on whether or not to trust them).

WebProNews asked Wright what kind of implications social search has for marketers. She says there aren't many, but she would give more general tips like making good content people want to read, following Google's webmaster guidelines, and using webmaster tools to make sure you're indexed. She did also suggest going to code.google.com and checking out Google's Social Graph API if you have social elements on your own site. That is explained in the following clip.

When Google's social search launched, I recommended businesses consider the following tips, as social search could be considered just another part of your social media marketing strategy. It means staying connected with customers.

1. Make sure you have all of your important links on your Google Profile.
2. Make as many connections as possible.
3. Encourage customers to follow you via social networks.
4. Participate in social media so people will engage with you.
5. Encourage sharing of content (there are plenty available social media buttons)
6. Include social network info on business cards/signage, etc.
7. Include social network info in your online advertising
8. There are probably many more worthwhile tips (if you have any, share them in the comments).

Probably the most important thing to remember here is that people are always likely to be seeing different search results when they perform searches on Google. Getting good rankings just isn't as cut and dry as it used to be. Social search is only one way Google personalizes search results. Location is another. I would expect Google to continue looking at ways to make results more relevant to individual users as time goes on.

Do you take social search into consideration for your strategy? Discuss this here.

Google Integrates Panoramio, Picasa

Google Earth, Google Maps, and regular Google search results may sport some more geographically relevant photos in the future.  Today, Google announced that it's linked Panoramio and Picasa in order to make it easier for people to share pictures.

Panoramio is the geolocation-centric photo-sharing site that Google acquired in 2007.  Picasa is the more traditional photo-sharing site Google's owned since 2004.  Bringing them together makes sense, even if it's not the timeliest move Google's ever made.

As for some specifics, Roger Trias i Sanz, a software engineer at Panoramio, wrote in a post on the LatLong Blog, "[W]e are happy to announce that you can upload your pictures right from Picasa Web Albums into Panoramio.  By uploading your best photos of places into Panoramio you can share them with the Panoramio community and the world . . ."

Or you can not share them, of course.  Google's apparently learned some lessons about unauthorized automation since the debut of Buzz, as the post made clear that photos must be both geotagged and in a public album to be transferred from Picasa to Panoramio.  Plus, users will have to be logged into a Panoramio account to start an upload.

All in all, this development has the potential to improve several of Google's products without upsetting anybody.

Google Takes Popular Email App from iPhone For Itself

The competition between Google and Apple appears to be getting fiercer by the day. Google has now acquired popular iPhone app reMail, and has discontinued it in Apple's App Store, and most likely offer it in the Android Market (although this has not been confirmed).

reMail was created by a former Google employee, who used to work as a software engineer on Gmail. "Gmail is where my obsession with email started as an engineering intern back in 2004, and I'm thrilled to be coming back to a place with so many familiar faces," Remail creator Gabor Cselle says on his blog. "reMail's goal was reimagine mobile email, and I'm proud we have built a product that so many users find useful."

Although reMail has been removed from Apple's App store, those who have already downloaded will continue to be able to use it. Support will be continued through March.

"We've enabled all paid reMail features for you: You can activate these by clicking 'Restore Purchases' inside the app," explains Cselle. "reMail downloads email directly from your email provider to your phone, and your personal information, passwords, and email are never sent to or stored on our servers."

This week at Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stressed the importance of mobile to Google's strategy. This acquisition, which some have considered to be a slap to Apple's face, is only the latest piece in that puzzle. It will be interesting to see if Google goes after any more apps from Apple's store. The company has certainly been in the mood for acquisitions. Just last week, the company acquired social Q&A site Aardvark.

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