Gmail adds contact info in search, new Google+ integration

Google has made Gmail search a bit more helpful today, thanks to a new feature that will show rich contact information when you search for a contact’s email address. Previously Gmail searches have only brought up relevant emails, but now you’ll get a picture of your contact, and links to email, text, video chat, or call from within Gmail. Additionally, you’ll get a chronological list of your email history with that contact below that information. Of course, Google+ has a hand in all of this — the contact info that you receive will stay updated with any changes that your friends make to their profiles. If you refuse to use Google+ despite the company’s advances, the info will populate from your regular contacts section of Gmail. Power users of the webmail service will be glad to hear that there are a few new advanced search functions, too — as an improvement on the Google+ integration introduced last year, you can now easily make labels and filters based on which circles (if any) senders are in. The two new search queries you need to know are “circle:[circle name]” (to specify a single circle) or “has:circle” (to get any emails sent from someone in one of your circles). Google says the features are rolling out now, though it’s not showing in our inboxes quite yet.