Where is Gmail’s People Widget!

In the last week of May, (26th May to be exact) Google announced it was rolling out the a People Widget on Gmail accounts. I would have reviewed it, once it got activated on my Gmail account.

After almost two weeks, I do not see this new widget activated. I asked around a few friends and family members and even they have not had this widget activated 15 odd days later.

What is a People Widget on Gmail?

• The people widget shows up on the right hand side of your Gmail layout. It has information about your contacts.
• On clicking on these contacts, we can view their activity over the last couple of days. This mainly would highlight emails sent by them and other messages and documents shared.

• I got the impression that it would be a truly great social innovation from Google and more importantly, it focused on interactivity and not just sharing links like Buzz or Google’s +1 is doing.

Is Google being over-cautious?

Gmail, indicated that it would be rolled out, over the next two weeks. After two weeks I still see quite a few people still asking about the new “People Widget”.

I think the slow pace of roll-out might be because of the bad press they had with Google Buzz when it was rolled out.

A quick look at the help forums on Gmail, still get you the standard reply that it will is rolling out the people widget and we should soon see it. 🙁

It would have been nice for Google to give us a post on their blogs, to update us on why the slow roll out. I miss the old Google which was lucidly open with it’s users and fans.

Has your Gmail account seen the new People Widget? Do drop in your comments and view about it.