A:
Excellent question! I've been waiting for the day when someone would ask me this very question. Okay, well, maybe that's taking it to the extremes, but I did get really excited when I saw this one in my e-mail Inbox the other day. Just last week, I came across a couple of new features that were just released in Gmail and after having several of you ask about them, I knew you all wanted in on the fun too. And that's exactly what we're going to do today, so get ready for some Gmail fun. It's coming your way right now!

Gmail Emoticons

The first new feature I want to tell you about is the Gmail emoticons. You know, the little smiley face icons you can use when you're chatting with your friends or sending them an e-mail. Well, as you're probably familiar with, the Gmail e-mail program comes along with a chat option. With that, you can chat with any of your friends who are also Gmail users. And now, while you're chatting, you can send them emoticons to make your chat session all the more fun!

Gmail has approximately 20 emoticons you can choose from and let me tell you, they've never been cuter! There's a monkey, a heart, a big smile, a sad face with a tear, a grin and so on. Now, I do want to make clear that these emoticons may not look like the other ones you're used to. They are not the big yellow smiley faces, rather, they have a more modern look to them. I really like them and I think you will too! Here's a sample of what some of them look like:

Now, as you can see, in order to use these emoticons, you have to type in the key combinations for them. I know that may seem like a lot of work, but trust me, once you start to use them, you'll have the combinations memorized in no time. Gmail has made the key combos as easy as possible and with a few clicks of your keys, you'll have emoticons you can share with all of your chat buddies. You just type in the key combination for the emoticon you want to use and then hit Enter. It's just like typing in text, but more exciting!

Gmail Group Chat

The next new Gmail feature I want to tell you about is for a group chat. Basically, with the group chat, you can talk with multiple people at the same time and from the same window. There's no limit to the number of people you can chat with at once either. How cool is that?! To get started with the group chat, just follow these directions:

1.) First, go ahead and start a chat with one person in your Contacts list.

2.) Once that's started, click the Options menu from the chat window and select Group Chat.

3.) Next, in the "Add a person to this chat" field, type in the name of another contact you'd like to chat with. You can continuously do that until all of your friends are invited. With Gmail's group chat, you only have one window to deal with and you're able to talk to all of your friends at one time. It doesn't get any better than that!

When you're done chatting, you can just hit the X button in the corner of the chat window and your friends will be notified that you have left. If you want to rejoin at any time, you will have to be invited by another contact who is still using the group chat window. That window will then remain open until all of the initial contacts have left. It's the perfect way to stay in touch with all of your friends, all at the same time!

Give these new Gmail features a try today. I think you're really going to love them!

~ Erin