Tag: Gmail

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News

Gmail has new security feature to avoid accounts from being hijacked

Gmail as added a new feature from a security angle. As explained in the Gmail blog that many people receive emails from known addresses asking for help in the form of money. This is obviously a scam but as if someone is a good friend you might some might end up falling prey to such scams. I love Gmail and all kinds of great features that make it great and hence I think you might enjoy reading about a new security feature in Gmail.

How the scam works?

First the email of a person is compromised and email for help in form of money is asked to all contacts of the email account. This makes the email legitimate sometimes as it is sent from a known contact. This might not be a big deal in the money scam but anyone amongst us might fall prey to lets say a attachment sent out like that to spread a virus.

How Gmail plans to fight it?

  • Gmail plans to fight this problem by giving us a new feature which alarms us if our acocunt has shown suspicious log in activity.
  • As you can see in the image above, there will be a warning like if my account was accessed form some foreign country and with a link to show details and preferences.
  • The details included are recent access point information which includes IP addresses. This will be useful as if you some has hacked into your account you can immediately locate it and then change the password. (see image below for what details are included)

  • The information highlighted in red is the suspicious information. This can be ignored or acted upon as you see fit. The locations is a broad one like country wise locations so do not expect this message if you use different computers to access Gmail from home and office.

I like this new security tip and makes a lot of sense to have some sort of inbuilt for us to know someone unknown is accessing our account. Do drop in your comments with any more new ideas you have to keep the Gmail account safe.

Link: Gmail Blog

Categories
Tips

New Settings updates for Buzz updates in your Gmail Inbox

Google recently announced new updates to features with Google Buzz. Now Buzz is part of the settings section within Gmail and also you can mute a Buzz within the Inbox. Google Buzz has had a tumultuous start with many questioning it’s privacy features and there were a spate of posts on how to remove Buzz from Gmail only a day after it was introduced. 😉

New Updated Buzz Settings

Buzz settings now can be directly accessed from your Gmail Settings. Click on Settings and then look up the tab named Buzz. Below is the 1-2-3 of the new settings.

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#1. Inbox Settings:

The settings are really useful and I think I will be trying to play around with this to figure out what works best for me. I do not like some of the people I follow on Buzz spamming my Inbox. Earlier there was a run around to it by creating a new filter withing Gmail, but now this can be done easily done through the settings.

I am selecting the first option which is People comment on my posts and its update reaches my Inbox and that is what I would generally want to monitor.

#2. List of Followers in Buzz

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This setting is very important considering the number one concern from a lot of tech enthusiasts was that Google Buzz shows you email contacts to anyone you are following on Buzz. The email is not leaked but email is something that can be used for personal and professional work and I am sure people don’t want one group of contacts to look up the other. Here you can choose not to show the list of people you are following to people who follow you.

#3. Disable Google

I had written a post earlier on how to remove Buzz but there are two instances of it. New settings allows you to not show Buzz within Gmail and there is a new option to Disable Google Buzz which completely removes all the Buzz posts and also deletes the Google profile. I think this can be handy with accounts you simply want Buzz not to be present.

Mute Buzz update from Inbox..

Finally the latest addition to Buzz updates that make it within your Inbox is that you can mute a Buzz post from the Inbox itself. Take a look at the image below. This does not mute the Buzz post from Buzz interface but only within your Email. This is useful to control a post which is getting a low of replies which you are not really interesting in looking up in your Inbox.

Do let me know if you have been using Buzz and if you have any new ideas on the drawbacks of Buzz that are not addressed with these settings?

Do drop in your comments. 😉

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Tips

Get notified of Google Wave through your email

A few weeks ago I had covered a Chrome extension and Firefox add-on which covered notification of Google Wave on your browser. This is quite useful for people using Wave either extensively or not much at all. I personally think that I if you are using Google Wave not that often you might want to be notified about it as through your email rather than with a browser add-on.

Google Wave Notifications in Gmail

  • You need to sign-in to your Google Wave account and under navigation with the Inbox you can see a drop down menu.
  • Here just select the time you need to be notified. If you are using it not that often a daily notification should be enough.
  • Finally click on ‘Save’ and you are set to get all Wave notifications on your Gmail address.
  • I tried to check if you can change the address for the notification and I could not. I guess that is a problem if you are not using that Gmail id as you main email address.

I don’t think that this is very important feature but I think this way Google Wave will be finding it’s way into Gmail and other Google services. Some have questions what purpose Google Wave serves but I think the technology which was used to create Wave will be making its way into other Google services to make them great collaborative tools.

Do let me know your view through your comments.

Link: Google Wave

Categories
Tips

Five Gmail Labs Features Fail to make it

Some of the Gmail Lab’s less useful features made it to gmail while the useful ones failed a test that never happened! Though, Google had to say that the choice to upgrade and retire features was made on user feedback and usage, but it doesn’t look like the same. Here are the Gmail lab features that you won’t see anymore-

Muzzle

This feature made it possible for gmail users to conserve screen in sidebar chat in Gmail. In simple words, it was meant to “cut the crap” from chat menu, by hiding your contact’s chat status messages. Now you can again see a cluttered version of gmail chat menu!

To protest against this, people have started signing a petition to get back muzzle, and a twitter account has also been made for the same- @GmailMuzzle

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Email Addict

This feature encouraged users to take a break from email. “Closes Gmail for 14 minutes”, providing much needed break to Gmail addicts. May be Google didn’t want you to to loose any time looking up their ads!! And for this, they retired such a nice app.

Location in Signature & Random Signature

Both these features automated the signature processing in your mails. More info on these features can be seen here.

Fixed width font

It is often annoying to see random font changes in your mails. This feature kept your messages on a fixed width for paragraph breaks, double spacing and more.

Do you miss any of these features? No need to worry! You will get similar value from the Grease-monkey scripts too. Like, if you enjoyed the Muzzle feature, you can use the script – Gmail Muzzle Lab Reviving.

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Tips

Six Gmail Lab feature Which You Missed

Six of the most used Gmail Labs features have been official by Gmail. Adopted by millions of users, google took the decision based on their usage and user feedback. Perviously, some of the other experimental features like tasks, google calender and offline gmail, were made a part of gmail. We have listed the features along with their details for our readers-

Search Autocomplete

Type the keywords in the Gmail search box and search auto-complete will automatically suggest the terms that you might be looking for. A very handy feature that can make search within gmail very quick.

Go to Label

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Go to label has been integrated with the gmail search box and works for those who have keyboard shortcuts turned on. It adds keyboards shortcuts to navigate in your account, like- typing “g” for “go to” and “l” to get “label”. Thses simple shortcuts will take you to search box with the “label:” operator already filled for you. Start typing the label name and search autocomplete will help you find that label. Send your cursor to the blank search field, using the keyboard shortcut “/” .

Forgotten Attachment Detector

Often we forget to attach desired files to emails and send them with forgotten attachment. Forgotten attachment alerts you when you send such an email. The alert is issued after a quick scan of the contents of your email, searching for keywords that suggest the presence of attachment with the email.

Youtube Previews

We often receive links to youtube videos in my mails, for which i have to copy the link and paste in my address bar to see the video. Youtube previews allows you to view such videos within your email, reducing the load to a single page.

Custom Label Colors

Coloured labels make life easy with gmail when you receive so many emails from different people. You can easily arrange the mails in labels. And when your world is colourful enough, you would love to add these colours to your labels too! You can choose from over 4000 possible color combinations to help distinguish and organize your labels. Add custom color from the regular labels interface. And there you have it!

Vacation Dates

If you are using vacation responder, you must be knowing that when turned on, it automatically sends a reply to people who mailed you when you were on a holiday. And with Vacation Dates, you can specify the dates in advance, for which you will be away! You need not to turn on the vacation responder once you have submitted the dates.

Do you use any of these features? Let us know..

Categories
Tips

Customize your Gmail layout

Gmail has many features in it’s layout which is there by default but sometimes can be not very useful. Many a times you might no want to see those pesky ads on Gmail. I personally have never clicked or paid any notice to them. At times I wish I could just make the chat box disappear. I guess what I really want is a way to customize Gmail. Thankfully I have come across a method of doing this on both Chrome and Firefox browsers.

Gmail customization

  • If you are using Firefox click here to download the add-on, with Chrome click here to download the extension.
  • I could remove the advertisements that appear with Gmail.
  • Allow attachments icons. This can be helpful as it gives me an idea if its a pdf file or jpg image that is attached. 😉
  • You can get more simplistic and remove chat, footer and also invite friends box from your Gmail layout.
  • Chrome extension does have the option of removing Google buzz but the same feature is not available with the Firefox add-on. I guess that is because both are not by the same developer.
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As we at Devil’s Workshop use Google apps for our email I testing if it works with the apps. And it does work just as well it does with a Gmail account. 🙂

Try out the these add-ons or extension depending on the browser you have. Some of the customizations depend upon on the browser you are using as the add-on and extension are no made by the same developers. As a matter of fact the Chrome extension has been inspired from the Firefox add-on and still has more features in the pipeline.

Do drop in your comments with what you think about customizing Gmail.

Categories
Analysis

Should Google have bought Twitter instead of coming up with Buzz?

It has been over a week since Google introduced Buzz to the world. Some have liked it, others have not really thought it to be very useful. I am somewhere in the middle with my opinion on Buzz. The whole idea of a mash-up of Twitter and Facebook was very exciting. That mash-up is Google Buzz.

Google Buzz is available at Gmail. The constant chatter on Buzz can be a little irritating if not downright offending. Some have wondered why did Google not just create a separate landing page for Buzz like they have for Docs, Calendar and Search. I do think it would be a better way to handle Google Buzz and won’t be surprised if Google does come up with Buzz website very soon.

I think Google Buzz has made its way into the Gmail because of how Yahoo Meme went. Yahoo Meme was supposed to the next Twitter killer and ended up killing pretty much nothing. I won’t be surprised if sometime in the future Yahoo itself kills off Yahoo Meme.

This leaves me to the question on why did Google not just buy Twitter? Would it not be a great idea to have Twitter integrated to Gmail instead of a completely new social media called Buzz. I do not think I would use Twitter any less because of Buzz and it is not that I would stop using Buzz.

Twitter does not have any business model which means they do not operate on revenues as they have not monetized. Google would really make a killing if they bought Twitter and worked on it as a provider of local news or trends. It’s local search capabilities would be very highly useful. Just apply the concept of Page Ranks to Twitter profiles and Adwords to Tweet links and you have a winning model for revenues.

So what do you think? Do you think Google should have bought Twitter instead of coming up with Google Buzz. Do drop in your comments with your views on Google Buzz and Twitter.

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Tips

Select default Text style in Gmail to enhance your Email

Gmail is one of the widely used Email application and it’s one of my favorite. Though one thing which I never liked about it its default font and text style. I personally reformat it every time to Verdana font style to make it look better. Though it’s my personal choice. I always wanted a feature in Gmail which will help me to select default font style, so that I don’t have to manually select it all the time.

Gmail introduced this new feature in which you can select default font style and text style while compiling any email. You can change the setting under Setting tab.

I’m sure those who are loved of Gmail like me will like this new feature. Have you changed your default font settings or you still using the same default font and text style?

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Tips

Disable Google Buzz Updates from Reaching your Inbox

One of our readers posted a question in the comments on our previous post- Don’t like Google Buzz?? Remove it, asking “A way to make Buzz not email the updates?” So, we decided to write on it. We simply need to create a filter with “label:buzz“.

The 3 step method is explained below-

Step 1– Click on the option “Create a filter”  besides your search box in gmail.

Step 2– Enter “label:buzz” in the  “Has the words”  column, and move to next step. Ignore the pop-up clicking on “ok”.

Step 3– In the final step, select the check box “Skip the inbox (Archive it) , so as to skip the inbox.

And if you want to save the existing conversations, then also select the last check box to apply the filter to existing conversations, before creating the filter.

With these three simple steps,you can prevent Google Buzz updates from reaching your inbox. If you want to turn off Buzz completely, then have a look at the post- Don’t like Google Buzz?? Remove it.

Credit- [Life Hacker]

Categories
Tips

Don’t like Google Buzz? Remove it

Google Buzz is out and many if not all have already got it with their Gmail account. I have come across some dissapointment but not too much. I guess there are mixed feelings about Google Buzz but not yet too much negatives about it. I don’t think it is going the Google Wave way.

One thing that is scary with Google Buzz is that if you are using Gmail for work and personal then you might end up having 100s of contacts who might make their way as your followers on Buzz. I have a couple of Gmail accounts and both have Google Buzz enabled. One of them I would like to use for sharing things on Google Buzz but the other I would not want spamming my Inbox. This by the way happens when once you comment on something  and someone else adds to the comment.

  • Simplest way of Google Buzz being removed from your Gmail account is log into your Gmail account. Then go right down to the end of the page. Here you will see the link “Turn Off Buzz”. Clicking on it removes Buzz from Gmail. Don’t worry that does not mean you cannot share stuff on Buzz.

  • Just send a mail with your contents to buzz@gmail.com and the contents are shared on Google Buzz.
  • If you want Buzz on Gmail, go to the same link at the bottom of the page. The link will be “Turn on Buzz”; click on it and you are set.
  • I think this is a boon and I will probably switch off Buzz on my personal email while keep it for the Gmail account I use for sharing, storing and reading stuff.

Let me know your opinions through your comments.