Comments on: Three reasons why I love GMail http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/ Gadget reviews and news by Julie Strietelmeier and friends since 1997 Sun, 27 May 2012 00:39:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Julie http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-41074 Julie Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:00:56 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-41074 @alan I installed GMail notifier and it seems to do what it claims. I use Firefox and it's worked with that browser without any issues. @alan I installed GMail notifier and it seems to do what it claims. I use Firefox and it’s worked with that browser without any issues.

]]> By: alan http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-41073 alan Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:51:53 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-41073 @Julie: The Mailto: in GMail using the Google Notifier does not work universally in my experience, but I'm definitely an odd case as I use Opera rather than Firefox or Safari as my primary browser. Using Mailplane seems to alleviate that issue for me. It's also nice to have a completely separate thread/program running just in case the browser crashes or I get overly aggressive with the command-Q's.... Also, the Mailplane 2.1 beta supports Google Gears which lets me access my GMail offline. @gsim: if you have a client that can talk to IMAP or POP servers directly (and most PDAs and smartphones do), you can set it up to bypass your desktop Outlook. Here is Google's answer: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78886 @Julie: The Mailto: in GMail using the Google Notifier does not work universally in my experience, but I’m definitely an odd case as I use Opera rather than Firefox or Safari as my primary browser. Using Mailplane seems to alleviate that issue for me. It’s also nice to have a completely separate thread/program running just in case the browser crashes or I get overly aggressive with the command-Q’s…. Also, the Mailplane 2.1 beta supports Google Gears which lets me access my GMail offline.

@gsim: if you have a client that can talk to IMAP or POP servers directly (and most PDAs and smartphones do), you can set it up to bypass your desktop Outlook. Here is Google’s answer: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78886

]]> By: gsim http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40953 gsim Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:34:39 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40953 I use a windows pda, which requires ms outlook to sync with my pc. Can I sync direct to gmail? I use a windows pda, which requires ms outlook to sync with my pc. Can I sync direct to gmail?

]]> By: Julie http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40842 Julie Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:44:24 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40842 @Thomas I'll definitely check that out right now :) Thanks! @Thomas I’ll definitely check that out right now :) Thanks!

]]> By: Thomas R. Hall http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40831 Thomas R. Hall Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:47:15 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40831 @Julie - If you install the <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/notifier_mac.html" rel="nofollow">Gmail Notifier</a> on your Mac, you can choose under Preferences in the Gmail tab the option "Compose Mail In" and choose Gmail instead of Mail.app. Works like a charm! You get the added benefit of seeing unread counts on email, calendar details/reminders, etc. Great post, by the way. @Julie – If you install the Gmail Notifier on your Mac, you can choose under Preferences in the Gmail tab the option “Compose Mail In” and choose Gmail instead of Mail.app. Works like a charm! You get the added benefit of seeing unread counts on email, calendar details/reminders, etc. Great post, by the way.

]]> By: Julie http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40769 Julie Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:44:03 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40769 Wow, check this out: http://jkontherun.com/2009/08/13/my-custom-gmail-setup-making-the-most-of-the-screen/ Great minds think alike huh? ;) Wow, check this out:

http://jkontherun.com/2009/08/13/my-custom-gmail-setup-making-the-most-of-the-screen/

Great minds think alike huh? ;)

]]> By: Julie http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40767 Julie Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:18:46 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40767 @alan That is one annoyance that I have... when I click on a mailto link by accident, it will popup mail.app, which I don't use anymore. I wish there was a way (there probably is) that would popup a gmail compose window when I would click on those types of links. @alan That is one annoyance that I have… when I click on a mailto link by accident, it will popup mail.app, which I don’t use anymore. I wish there was a way (there probably is) that would popup a gmail compose window when I would click on those types of links.

]]> By: alan http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40766 alan Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:05:50 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40766 I use a mac primarily and I recently discovered the Mailplane app. This is a dedicated app for GMail and provides good integration for the entire system and includes Google Gears for an offline view. E.g. mailto: links in other apps work, and it has some other nice features like auto-attachment and picture resizing. It does cost $25, but it seemed worth it to me. I use a mac primarily and I recently discovered the Mailplane app. This is a dedicated app for GMail and provides good integration for the entire system and includes Google Gears for an offline view. E.g. mailto: links in other apps work, and it has some other nice features like auto-attachment and picture resizing. It does cost $25, but it seemed worth it to me.

]]> By: Simon http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40721 Simon Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:44:06 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40721 I've just changed to Gmail, using a custom domain through Google apps for only $10 per year. My favourite feature is IMAP which allows me to access my email through Outlook or Windows Mail (and my Nokia phone). If I create a folder in outlook, that becomes a label in Gmail. If I send a message from Outlook (or my phone), it appears in the Gmail "sent" messages. I also like the ability to create "nickname" email addresses with my own domain and point that to any user within my domain. I have nickname addresses for ebay and for submitting to anywhere that may result in spam. "Sent to" filters can then control what happens to those messages. Now my wife has also changed to Gmail (with our custom domain) too. I’ve just changed to Gmail, using a custom domain through Google apps for only $10 per year.

My favourite feature is IMAP which allows me to access my email through Outlook or Windows Mail (and my Nokia phone). If I create a folder in outlook, that becomes a label in Gmail. If I send a message from Outlook (or my phone), it appears in the Gmail “sent” messages.

I also like the ability to create “nickname” email addresses with my own domain and point that to any user within my domain. I have nickname addresses for ebay and for submitting to anywhere that may result in spam. “Sent to” filters can then control what happens to those messages.

Now my wife has also changed to Gmail (with our custom domain) too.

]]> By: anthonyZmonti http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40714 anthonyZmonti Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:58:31 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40714 Oh my Goddle. This I gotta try! I think I am going to port my godmode domain over to GMail and get cooking. Thanks JuLiE, this definately looks useful! Oh my Goddle. This I gotta try! I think I am going to port my godmode domain over to GMail and get cooking. Thanks JuLiE, this definately looks useful!

]]> By: alan http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40706 alan Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:42:08 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40706 For me, what makes GMail really work for me are the combination of the Colored Labels and the Filters features. I have created literally dozens of labels. I have ones for "Work", "Friend", "Family", "Palm/PDA", "Finance", "Purchase", etc. Labels aren't folders (a single message can have multiple labels). Also, I have created several hundred filters, many of which assign labels and more. E.g. emails from my wife, parents, etc. get labelled as "Family", emails from my boss get labelled "work", emails mentioning one of my work applications get "work" etc. I also have some filters that in addition to applying a label, make a message skip the inbox, delete it, etc. Also, GMail lets you determine colors for your labels, I can see the important things at a glance. E.g. if I see a medium blue, I know at a glance that I've got family mail. More or less, 90+% of my mail is automatically labelled at least once. In fact, if I get unlabelled mail, it's more often than not spam that made it through GMail's largely fantastic spam folder. My favorite labelling trick is what I call "Trashable." We all get a bunch of mail that's not spam, as such, so we do want to see it, but it's not necessarily something that we'll need to see more than once before deleting it. For mail in that category, I filter it to label as Trashable, and then once or twice a day, I'll glance in the Trashable label check it out. Normally, I delete all of it, but sometimes, I'll see things I want to save, and I remove the label from those before doing the "delete all." Examples of "Trashable" mails: Some server tasks that run periodically and send out a notification that they succeeded; sale messages from merchants I've purchased from in the past; high-volume mailing lists that are archived elsewhere; announcement lists, "Someone has responded to your post" messages from online forums, "Out of Office" messages, Facebook/Myspace/Plaxo/LinkedIn messages, etc. Having a "trashable" label acting as a "view once" inbox has helped me deal with what would otherwise be deluge of things I need to click on individually to delete. -a For me, what makes GMail really work for me are the combination of the Colored Labels and the Filters features. I have created literally dozens of labels. I have ones for “Work”, “Friend”, “Family”, “Palm/PDA”, “Finance”, “Purchase”, etc. Labels aren’t folders (a single message can have multiple labels). Also, I have created several hundred filters, many of which assign labels and more. E.g. emails from my wife, parents, etc. get labelled as “Family”, emails from my boss get labelled “work”, emails mentioning one of my work applications get “work” etc. I also have some filters that in addition to applying a label, make a message skip the inbox, delete it, etc.

Also, GMail lets you determine colors for your labels, I can see the important things at a glance. E.g. if I see a medium blue, I know at a glance that I’ve got family mail. More or less, 90+% of my mail is automatically labelled at least once. In fact, if I get unlabelled mail, it’s more often than not spam that made it through GMail’s largely fantastic spam folder.

My favorite labelling trick is what I call “Trashable.” We all get a bunch of mail that’s not spam, as such, so we do want to see it, but it’s not necessarily something that we’ll need to see more than once before deleting it. For mail in that category, I filter it to label as Trashable, and then once or twice a day, I’ll glance in the Trashable label check it out. Normally, I delete all of it, but sometimes, I’ll see things I want to save, and I remove the label from those before doing the “delete all.”

Examples of “Trashable” mails: Some server tasks that run periodically and send out a notification that they succeeded; sale messages from merchants I’ve purchased from in the past; high-volume mailing lists that are archived elsewhere; announcement lists, “Someone has responded to your post” messages from online forums, “Out of Office” messages, Facebook/Myspace/Plaxo/LinkedIn messages, etc.

Having a “trashable” label acting as a “view once” inbox has helped me deal with what would otherwise be deluge of things I need to click on individually to delete.

-a

]]> By: Geakz http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40699 Geakz Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:53:33 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40699 @Ben Udkow: my Gmail is blocked at work also, but I found that Gmail has secure server access. Try the following URL: https://mail.google.com/mail/?view#inbox @Ben Udkow: my Gmail is blocked at work also, but I found that Gmail has secure server access. Try the following URL:

https://mail.google.com/mail/?view#inbox

]]> By: Ben Udkow http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40698 Ben Udkow Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:00:29 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40698 Julie: You need to do it through "Manage this domain". From there, go to Domain Settings-->Appearance. While you're in there, go to Domain Settings-->General and check the "Enable SSL" box since I notice you're not using SSL. :) Julie: You need to do it through “Manage this domain”.
From there, go to Domain Settings–>Appearance.

While you’re in there, go to Domain Settings–>General and check the “Enable SSL” box since I notice you’re not using SSL. :)

]]> By: Andy Simmons http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40694 Andy Simmons Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:10:45 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40694 My favorite Gmail feature is the "extendable" email addresses (I don't know that Google has an official name for it, so that's what I'm calling it). For example, if your Gmail address is somebody@gmail.com, you can append a plus sign and additional text to the end of your username. For example, email to somebody+work@gmail.com or somebody+urgent@gmail.com will still go to your inbox. This seems pointless at first, except that you can filter on these email addresses. You could automatically star everything that comes to somebody+urgent@gmail.com, or forward it to another email address. I've actually used this to create a whitelist of sorts for mail on my iPhone. I have a filter on my primary Gmail account that forwards emails from a select group of contacts to mysecondaryaccount+notspam@gmail.com. That secondary Gmail account has a filter that deletes anything that isn't sent to mysecondaryaccount+notspam@gmail.com, and my iPhone is set to poll only this account for email. This way, the only mail notifications I get on the iPhone are for mail from people I know and want to hear from. You could also use this to generate a near-infinite number of disposable email addresses that all deliver to your regular inbox. My favorite Gmail feature is the “extendable” email addresses (I don’t know that Google has an official name for it, so that’s what I’m calling it). For example, if your Gmail address is somebody@gmail.com, you can append a plus sign and additional text to the end of your username. For example, email to somebody+work@gmail.com or somebody+urgent@gmail.com will still go to your inbox. This seems pointless at first, except that you can filter on these email addresses. You could automatically star everything that comes to somebody+urgent@gmail.com, or forward it to another email address.

I’ve actually used this to create a whitelist of sorts for mail on my iPhone. I have a filter on my primary Gmail account that forwards emails from a select group of contacts to mysecondaryaccount+notspam@gmail.com. That secondary Gmail account has a filter that deletes anything that isn’t sent to mysecondaryaccount+notspam@gmail.com, and my iPhone is set to poll only this account for email. This way, the only mail notifications I get on the iPhone are for mail from people I know and want to hear from.

You could also use this to generate a near-infinite number of disposable email addresses that all deliver to your regular inbox.

]]> By: Julie http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40693 Julie Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:46:02 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40693 @Ben I use the other labs that you mentioned too. Hey, how do I change the logo? I didn't know that was an option. I could put the Cummins logo on the page so that people will think I'm working when I'm emailing during the day ;) @Ben I use the other labs that you mentioned too. Hey, how do I change the logo? I didn’t know that was an option. I could put the Cummins logo on the page so that people will think I’m working when I’m emailing during the day ;)

]]> By: greg http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40692 greg Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:45:35 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40692 Gmail has th most efficient spam filter. That alone is worth using it. Th only catch is ... it's from big brother google. Gmail has th most efficient spam filter. That alone is worth using it.
Th only catch is … it’s from big brother google.

]]> By: Ben Udkow http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/08/12/three-reasons-why-i-love-gmail/comment-page-1/#comment-40691 Ben Udkow Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:37:36 +0000 http://the-gadgeteer.com/?p=19328#comment-40691 My main gripe with GMail is that I can't use it at work. :) I am so used to being able to label and search through messages with gmailese that at work I feel frustrated when I have to pick a single folder for messages. My absolute favorite lab feature is Undo Send. When you click send you get a few seconds to cancel the message. Sounds silly, but I've used it a couple times after I get the "Oh crap!" feeling when I forget to include something or sent it to the wrong "Joe Smith". The other two VERY useful lab features I use are "Send and Archive" which, well, sends and then archives the thread with one click and "Title Tweaks". That changes the tab title to show the folder and number of unread first so when you have a ton of tabs open you can see the message count. BTW, why haven't you added your own logo to replace the GMail logo yet? :) Useless but nice customization. My main gripe with GMail is that I can’t use it at work. :) I am so used to being able to label and search through messages with gmailese that at work I feel frustrated when I have to pick a single folder for messages.

My absolute favorite lab feature is Undo Send. When you click send you get a few seconds to cancel the message. Sounds silly, but I’ve used it a couple times after I get the “Oh crap!” feeling when I forget to include something or sent it to the wrong “Joe Smith”.

The other two VERY useful lab features I use are “Send and Archive” which, well, sends and then archives the thread with one click and “Title Tweaks”. That changes the tab title to show the folder and number of unread first so when you have a ton of tabs open you can see the message count.

BTW, why haven’t you added your own logo to replace the GMail logo yet? :) Useless but nice customization.

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