Gmail one of the flagship google product is getting deeper integration with the google+ social network. Previously you might have tried the people widget, posts from your contacts, etc.

Now even more cool and pretty useful features being integrated into your favorite Gmail application.

Searching / filtering emails by circles

Now you can filter your emails using circle names from google+. Just use the circle label (refer image below) followed by the circle name circle:[circlename] for e.g circle:Friends and immediately you’ll find the list populated with circle names along with email count from that circle.

Filter email by your google+ circles in gmail

Detailed contacts inside gmail

When you search for an email address inside gmail, you’ll find detail contact information about that email address. If the contact has a google+ profile you’ll find link to his profile. Besides that you’ll find option to start a hangout, make a phone call, quick chat using gtalk, circle name and a profile picture. A nice cool feature that provides access to all possible communication channels to that person.

Gmail with detail view of your circles contact (Images: Google)

Circle search with profile pictures

When you do a circle search as mentioned above or click on a circle name in the circles list (on the left side) in the gmail interface, the newly improved listing will show emails with profile pictures on the top (refer image below) which will help quickly find senders.

Emails grouped by google+ circles with profile pictures (Images: Google)

These great improvements slim the gap between gmail (that we are used to for so many years) and the newly introduced google+ social network so that we could seamlessly use either of them based on the task at hand.