We want Rapportive to be the best way for you to connect with your contacts. This is why, since our accidental launch, we've shown your contacts' recent tweets:

Our Twitter widget has always given you valuable context at a glance: you can mention the recent tweets, bring up shared interests, or even plan to meet at an event.

Although the recent tweets were very useful, we gave you no way to interact on Twitter itself. Yet to fully understand your contacts, you have to be where your contacts are. You have to chat where they chat, learn where they learn, and play where they play.

If your contacts tweet, so should you.

Today, our Twitter widget gets a massive upgrade. You can now follow, reply, and retweet — all without leaving Gmail!

We'll even show our new widget on Twitter notifications: when somebody follows, mentions, or DMs you, we'll show you their recent tweets and a button to follow back!

We're gradually rolling the new widget out to everybody.  But if you want it right now, you can get early access here: rapportive.com/twitter :)

Enjoy!

Not yet using Rapportive? Get it free at rapportive.com.

Google has just announced a new feature in Gmail called the "People Widget". The widget is a sidebar which shows you job titles, calendar availability, recent conversations, shared Google Docs, and Buzz updates:

We're very flattered by how similar the widget is to Rapportive. In fact, some of the design details have been copied directly, from the new position of the "print" and "new window" icons, through to how the widget remains onscreen as you scroll. It feels downright awesome to impact such a widely used product!

In case you don't already use it, Rapportive adds rich contact profiles to Gmail. You can immediately see what people look like, where they're based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving private notes.

You will notice that the widget occupies the same place in Gmail as Rapportive. As you can imagine, we've been inundated with questions on this. Should you use Rapportive? Should you use the People Widget? Will they both work together?

The answers are: yes, you should use Rapportive (of course), and yes, you should use the People Widget (it's pretty great), and yes, they will both work together (surprise!).

That's right: you need not choose between Rapportive and the widget, as we have integrated it right into Rapportive.

Here it is (watch fullscreen to win):

You can hover over names to lookup people. You can see recent conversations. You can see shared Google Docs. You can fire up a Google Chat. You can edit your contacts in Google Contacts. You can even click a phone number to call it with Google Voice. And you can do all of this right from Rapportive.

The widget is still rolling out, so you may not see all these features immediately. As soon as you get the widget, you'll get the new Rapportive features. All you have to do is wait.

Rapportive will always make the best of its environment: as Gmail improves, so will Rapportive, and so will your experience.

Now you can have your cake, and eat it too :)

Not yet using Rapportive? Get it free at rapportive.com.