Gmail's People Widget

I stumbled onto a Gmail feature I didn't know about last week, and verified with the PIM collaborative that I wasn't the only one who hadn't noticed it. It's called the People widget.

You know how when you open an email, you see a pane on the right side that shows a list of people in the conversation? Oh, you know; like this:

You might have noticed the icons that allow you to start a chat, email, or schedule a meeting with the whole group:

And you might have even noticed that if you click on one of the people, you can chat, email, or call that person:

But have you clicked that Details link? Try it: You'll see a list of recent email conversations you've had with that person, their current availability from their Google Calendar, and a list of documents they've shared with you:

As one of the PIM Collaborative members so eloquently put it, there's just nowhere to hide anymore.