Google announced today on The Official Gmail Blog the introduction of a new feature called “Apps Search,” which allows users to easily search for messages and even Google Docs within the Gmail platform. Apps Search is currently in experimental stage. Therefore users must first enable it from the Gmail Labs page, which can be found under Settings or by clicking the little green vial.
Once enabled, the “Search Mail” button in Gmail will be replaced by a new “Search Mail and Docs” button. Users will now be able to view matching documents from Google Docs, Calendar, and Gmail itself. The new Apps Search will also include “Did you mean?” style suggestions, similar to those found in the main Google Search engine.
Google states that while mail results might show up normally, Google Docs and Calendar results might take a bit longer to appear — which is pretty understandable, considering that the feature is still experimental. Google promises to tweak this feature even more in the near future.
Let us know what you think if you give this feature a try.