Gmail gets location-based security warning system

Google will now warn users if their Gmail account was accessed from a different location than normal.

The new security feature will display a message warning at the bottom of the page if the account has been accessed from somewhere else, helping users see if someone has broken into their email, explained Gmail engineering director Pavni Diwanji in a blog post.

"While we don't have the capability to determine the specific location from which an account is accessed, a login appearing to come from one country and occurring a few hours after a login from another country may trigger an alert," he explained.

If a user has just travelled from one country to another, they can simply "ignore" the message.

If that's not the case, clicking the message will show the location and IP address of the last time the account was opened. If the account has indeed been hacked, the password can then be changed.

The feature will also be rolled out to businesses via Google Apps in the future, Diwanji said.