Google has been paying more attention to its search feature lately, and after launching the Knowledge Graph last week, it’s now also improving search in Gmail as well. We all know that Google’s auto-complete feature is one smart cookie, and now we can enjoy this same functionality in Gmail, with suggestions based on the actual content of our email.

Gmail’s search function was a huge advantage back when it launched, and many users were thrilled to have their entire inbox at their fingertips just by performing a simple search. This new auto-complete feature will make it even easier to find exactly what you need in your inbox, even if you don’t remember the exact keywords you used in the e-mail. So, for example, if you type in “lax”, Google will scan your e-mails and suggest search terms you’ve actually used in your email. This should make specific email easier to find.

So how can Google auto-complete our searches like that? Well, it’s no secret that Google are using our email content for advertisements. If you’ve ever written an email about someone else’s baby and got to enjoy diaper ads for the whole day, you already know this. This new feature will take advantage of the same technology, but this time we’ll be getting some improved performance out of it.

The new feature will be rolled out in English over the next few days, and more languages will be added over the next few months. As usual, the feature will not be available for Google Apps users at first, but will reach them sometime in the (hopefully near) future.

What do you think of this new auto-complete feature? Is it a breach of privacy, or a useful search feature?

Source: Gmail Blog