Gmail has this knack of being really useful. The choices are so many with filters and lab features that it difficult to know which one you want. Threaded conversation make it really neat for users to actually look up new and old emails in a single thread.
Emails in a thread can often be a little overwhelming. This is because many times we send an email to a group of colleagues or friends. Then everyone replies using “Reply All” and that can mean you have the conversation nicely presented but if you are not interested in the to and fro discussion it can be quite irritating.
Smart Mute is a labs feature with Gmail which allows us to mute a conversation but allows us a little more control on muted emails.
Using Smart Mute with Gmail
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While you are signed into Gmail, just look-up Settings. Then under Labs, look up the Smart Mute feature. Select “Enable” and click on “Save Changes” at the bottom part of the page.
Smart Mute avoid any muted conversation from appearing in your Inbox. It shows up in your Inbox only if your email id is inserted in the “TO” or “CC” fields.
If the email address is already in the “TO” or “CC” fields and you have muted the conversation, then the email shows up in your Inbox only if it the email in the thread is specifically addressed only to you. 😉
If you are unaware which email thread you have muted in Gmail, just go to the search field at the top and enter “is:muted” and hit search.
This will display all the “Muted” email messages which are not in your Inbox. Just select the conversation you want and Unmute them in a bunch.
Did anyone notice anything different or new this morning? Well, when I logged into my Facebook account and tried to add some of my Orkut friends, I could not do so.
Facebook has removed all the mention of Google’s Gmail service from its “Find your Friends” feature. Google was angry when Facebook allowed users to find new friends based on one’s contact listing within a Gmail account, but Facebook didn’t allow the procedure to go in reverse. In response to which Google denied Facebook to get information from it or from the contacts.
If you try to add friends from “Other email Service “link you will get a message saying “Everyone on this contact list is already on Facebook or has already been invited”, as shown below.
I think Google and Facebook are taking all this too long. Why not accept each other as an individual and try managing both the social networks together. But as Facebook has won the battle of social networks, it’s just not ready to consider any other website as a social networking website. Lets see what happens next? Will Gmail like MySpace allow people to login with their Facebook ID’s and fully surrender or it will come up with something new against Facebook. Drop in your comments below.
This Sunday, I am writing a slightly non-techie post but an important one. Recently on reading a post about keeping Gmail secure, I thought it would be important to share some important aspects of keeping your Gmail account safe.
The nightmare scenario is having your Gmail account compromised. Most people use their email to subscribe to other services, store passwords and when it comes to Google use it for Google Reader, YouTube, Orkut etc…
Like they say “charity starts at home” we can say the same for account safety. In this case it is your computer which you use for surfing the net.
Check for viruses and malware with the latest anti-virus.
Always keep your operating system upto date. If you are using Windows there are many people who put-off installing updates. This can actually be quite a bad idea.
Make sure the programs you use are updated. This applies most importantly to your Anti-Virus applications and any email clients if you are running them.
Updated Browsers
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The point is have updated browser versions. Most time an updated version which is stable is a good idea.
Download the latest browser version. Most times you can update the browser from your browser itself.
The other point often missed is plugins and add-ons are not up-to date. It is a good idea to have updated plugins for your individual browsers. Latest version of Firefox has an inbuilt feature which prompts you to update older plugins. 🙂
Your Account information
Change your password regularly. This is important as you might be using the same password for many linked services. Like for Google you might be using the same password from using YouTube to Gmail. Changing passwords is often the most ignored aspect of online security.
Check which websites are authorized to use your account credentials. If you are using Google, you can sign into Google Accounts Page. Here click on My Account >> Change Authorized Websites. This is where you can revoke access to 3rd party websites.
Often Gmail prompts you to have a recovery option for your Google account. Make sure you have an alternative email address and secret questions.
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Do not think of your password as the keys to your house. Think of it as the keys to your safe deposit box at a bank.
One of the key reasons people have their account hacked is because they use weak or predictable passwords.
Often people share Gmail account credentials with 3rd party websites. This actually means you are sharing your password with a stranger. Avoid sharing your passwords with other people or other web services.
Another major security issue is people do not sign-out once they are done checking their emails. Always sign-out even if you are using a personal computer. 😛
I must confess that despite of being aware of all the steps here, I might have not managed to conform to all of them. I guess it is important to look up these points for a safer Gmail experience from time to time. What are your views on online safety? What are your steps to keep your accounts safe? Do let me know through your comments.
Gmail gave us Priority Inbox and also a redesign which more prominence to Mails, Contacts and Tasks. It was probably used to make Yahoo Mail and Hotmail users to feel more familiar with the layout. I understood the logic of Gmail but did not like the changes wholeheartedly. I mean many of us do use Gmail because it is different from other services.
One major plus point for me with Gmail is it conversation mode when it comes to emails. The emails are like threaded conversations and ideal to discuss something with a group of friends and get all their responses in one single place like you can see in the image below.
From a productivity point of view, viewing emails in this way it very useful. But I guess Gmail wants to be a bit more like other email services and has now given us the option of opting out of conversation view.
Opt out of Conversation view with Gmail
Just go to Settings while on Gmail and then under the General tab turn Conversation view on or off as you please. If conversation view is off, then the email will be shown individually like it is with Yahoo Mail or Hotmail.
Not very excited with Google trying to be a lot like other services. It focus on functionality is something that sets Google apart and I wish it does not try to ape other services which are inferior.
What are your views on Gmail Converstation view? Do drop in your comments.
Last month I wrote about Gmail Undo Send feature. It was basically a labs feature with Gmail which allows the email user to cancel the sent email for about 20 seconds. This is very useful when you hit the send button without thinking or mistakenly.
Undo Send is a huge boon for many people and I use it quite often. I am not alone, the other day my friend Rahul Bansal also confirmed that he is addicted to Undo Send feature on Gmail.
What are the other instances of Undo Send features?
Gmail obviously has a feature called Undo Send but apart from Gmail we can also see this feature with Skype. Skype allows canceling the latest message sent.
I do not use this feature a lot but I do spend a lot of time on Skype. It is a little discomforting to see a message pop up and then be deleted. Our imagination can start working over-time in such instances. 😀
Almost all social networks allow us to post updates and links and then delete them. Twitter even allows us to send a Direct Message to a friend and then delete that message from the recipients account.
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Why are such features spoiling us?
I feel such features make us more dependent on an internet connection or a gadget for some basic information. We are using maps to even find our way around a neighborhood we live in. We hardly remember phone numbers now a day as all of them are saved on a mobile phone.
When I say such features are spoiling us, I am not blaming Google or other companies. Just wondering out aloud if we have too many choices and is that making us a little careless with what we say or share online? Sure we can get a lot more work done but we seem to remember a lot less.
What are your views on it? Do drop in your comments.
Google has announced that it will be launching its new security feature that is a-Two step authentication. When a user tries to login to an account he will be asked to enter an another key provided to him along with the usual user name and password. There is always a need for more secure login and what else can be better? 🙂
Activate the option feature from the settings page(this will be available to certain Google Apps customers first).
Type the username and password.
Enter the verification code.
The verification code can be obtained by your mobile phone. Google has built a ‘Google Authentication‘ application for certain mobiles only that is Android, iPhone, Blackberry. You need to link the mobile phone with your Google Account and start the application. It will give you a six digit verification code which you can enter on the screen that was asking you the verification code. The verification code can be sent to you by SMS or voice call also. 🙂
This may take a couple of minutes and you get a secured log in with less chances of getting the account hacked or used for the wrong reasons. So anybody who wants to receive a code should be able to get it. The SMS and voice call alert option should be able to work on all kind of phones.
This is currently available only with Google Apps accounts.
What do you think about it? Do share your views with me.
Here is a scenario. You have an argument with your boss and you really lost your cool. You went home had a couple of beers and wrote down an email to your boss telling him exactly what you felt about him in a very colorful language. Now after clicking on ‘Send’ you get this sinking feeling. You wish you could go back 10 seconds and avoid sending that email.
I bet some developers at Gmail did this quite often and hence decided to create ‘Undo Send’. 🙂 It is one of my favorite now since Gmail allowed multiple account sign-in.
How to get Undo Send with Gmail?
This option still a beta feature with Gmail and hence is available with Gmail Labs. Just click on Settings on the right hand top corner and then look up the Labs tab.
Here look up Undo Send and select Enable. Save the changes at the bottom of the Labs page.
Visit the General tabs settings and define the amount of time you want before which you can cancel an email. The most time allowed is 30 seconds.
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How to Undo a mail?
Okay, once you have sent a mail there is an option to undo it highlighted in red at the top. Click on it immediately and then mail is not send. 😉
Use this feature to avoid sending emails which to wrong recipients or incase you have written something you wish you had not. But Undo Send should be used as absolute last resort. From a professional point of view think before you click on send. 🙂
Gmail recently brought out a feature which lets you search for Google Docs from within Gmail. This is a great feature as sometimes it is a bit boring to open Google docs landing page and then search for the document you need. This way I can search for it and open it from within Gmail.
How to use Gmail Search Mail and Docs?
Need to enable a labs feature by looking up Settings >> Labs. Here enable Apps Search feature and save the settings.
Now on search in mail chances to search with Mail and Docs. As you can see in the image below I could choose to only display Docs results if too many results showed up. 🙂
When adding a new Labs feature one problem is slowing down Gmail but since I have started using this feature I have not noticed any slowdown when it came to searching for mails and docs alike.
What is missing from this feature?
Recently Gmail introduced a official multiple sign-in of Gmail accounts. I think this Mail and Docs search feature would be awesome if we could search from 2-3 different accounts using just one account. Now that feature would knock em dead! 😀
Try out Search Mail and Docs feature with Gmail and do let me know your views through your comments.
The other day Gmail shared a game inspired by Gmail called Galatic Inbox. The game is the old style shooter game made famous on Atari and other consoles. This game was written in HTML5 and does not use Flash. So make sure you have a modern browser. Latest version of Firefox or Chrome should do fine.
Try out this game and drop in your comments about your views on HTML5 and should Flash be dumped?
Social networks have really captured a lot of attention for many people to stay in touch with each other. Email still remains the most important way to pass confidential and personal information. I mean we cannot discuss a business proposal over Facebook or Orkut can we! 😛
Most people use their email address to register to social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Linked in. Rapportive is a awesome online tool which shows relative information corresponding to the email id. (see image below)
As you see in the image above, with my email id you can see links to my Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, hi5, Blogger and Flickr profile.
Rapportive needs to be installed on the browser as a addon with Firefox or an extension with Chrome.
Rapportive works with Gmail and when I opened a message it search for information about that email address and displays it on the right hand column where usually Gmail displays sponsored links. I have never ever clicked on these links through Gmail so for me this is a great use of space on Gmail’s layout. 😉
Another feature I liked is I could leave notes about the email addresses which is very useful. Sometimes we need to remember certain things about someone we send an email.
There are many add-ons around which can change the way Gmail layout is or can even give added information on Gmail itself. But Rapportive will probably change the way I look at email ids for sometime. Use Rapportive on a Gmail account which you use professionally and to which you get a lot of emails from a lot of different people.
