Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Tips from a Digital Mom - How managing emails can be like picking up toys
September 13, 2007
Posted by Jen "Digital Mom" Grant, Group Product Marketing Manager
So here's my next tip in the series I
started a few weeks ago
:
I laugh when I remember what I was like as a new mom. I was determined to be perfect: feeding only homemade food that I blended or pureed myself (
great book
about this btw) and organizing toys into drawers with labels like cars, puzzles, and blocks. But when the reality of every day life sets in, it's almost impossible to keep that up. Nowadays, I'm just proud when my house doesn't look like a hurricane just blew through it and my kids have eaten something green for dinner.
Lots of things I do work this way. Take email. First, I make very specific labels for all of the categories that I might need - meeting notes, action items, personal - and I very meticulously use these labels for maybe a month or so. But then, I get overwhelmed and don't have the time to spend filing things under each of these categories. This is the point where Gmail really starts to help me out. The reason I categorized everything in the first place was to find it again quickly, right? Well, if I can find anything easily with search, then why should I take the extra time organizing? For my purposes, searching takes much less time and works just as well.
Now, when I'm done with an email, I archive it. It's not deleted, but I don't have to see it and I can find it quickly anytime. And every day I have a few more bits of time to spend having that wonderful glass of wine after the kids go to bed - oh, and more time to spend with the kids too.
If only I had Gmail for my living room. With one button, I would remove all toys from the floor to a placeout of sight,and then, at any time, quickly find that special
Thomas the train
that my son is asking me about. Now
that
would make me a supermom. :-)
Here's a snippet from blogger Megan Morrone, who also has twins (
here's a post
from when her twins stopped napping - so funny!), talking about archiving, searching and how she uses Labels to organize her Gmail:
"I love Gmail's archive and search features. They give me license to get e-mails out of my inbox quickly without fear of losing them. It took me a little longer to appreciate the Labels feature. Now, I'm in love. Each of my kids gets a label so I can look at e-mails that apply directly to them, whether it be about playdates, school, or activities. I also have labels for my real job, my
podcast
, my
blog
, and other blog networks I belong to. And if e-mails ever fall in more than one category, I give them more than one label. It makes things really, really easy."
Send your own work-life balance suggestions to
digitalmomtips@gmail.com
and I'll share them here.
Top 10 little-known Gmail features (Part 2)
September 7, 2007
Posted by Bill Kee, Associate Product Marketing Manager
Here are five more entries in my list of little-known features begun
last week
:
5. Smart links on the right
When you get an email that references an address, look to the right and you'll probably see a link from Gmail pointing you to a map of the address on Google Maps. Gmail also recognizes email text that refers to an event (e.g., 'dinner tomorrow at 8pm'), and will give you a link to
add it to your calendar
. It'll even pick up on package tracking numbers from UPS and link you directly to the tracking page, so you don't have to copy and paste the number. I really like this last one when I order stuff online and want the instant gratification of knowing a package is on its way.
4. Conversation update notification
It can be really annoying to write up a whole response to an email and click send -- only to discover that someone else has already responded. Gmail has a little feature that helps solve this problem. When you're replying to (or reading) a conversation, and someone else replies, a small notification window pops up to let you know. I sometimes think of it as the "prevent embarrassment" notification. Plus, it can save a lot of time by avoiding the series of follow-up emails needed to clear up the confusion.
3. Advanced search
Most people know that searching your archive is a huge part of what makes Gmail useful. But there are a few search features that you may not know about, which can be really handy. For instance, if I want to narrow down my search to only messages sent from Kevin, I can just add "from: Kevin" to the query. You can even search only for messages with attachments by including "has: attachments," or narrow by date with "after:" and "before:" Check out this whole list of
advanced search operators
.
2. Offline chat
Offline chat is another feature which makes chatting in the context of your email particularly useful. When you're chatting with a friend and they suddenly go offline, you can keep sending IMs and your friends will receive your messages the next time they open Gmail. The chat will show up as a new item in their inbox. And, of course, if you're still online, your friend can go ahead and reply by chat.
1. Create event
Since I use Gmail and Google Calendar at work (through
Google Apps
), I'm constantly emailing people about meetings, and scheduling them on everyone's calendars. When I'm writing an email to set up an event, I can actually do it all from within Gmail by clicking the "Add event info" link below the subject line. Then choose the time and location for the meeting or party. When you send the email, the event details will be added to to your Google Calendar, and Gmail will send an invitation to the email recipients to add it to their calendars as well.
Gmail eats your Bacn
September 5, 2007
Posted by Kevn Systrm, Gmail Team
Recently, the Internet has been
abuzz over a new term: 'bacn'
- with the requisite missing vowel - which is pronounced, you guessed it, "bacon."
Wikipedia defines it
as: "electronic messages which have been subscribed to and are therefore not unsolicited but are often unread by the recipient for a long period of time." Or, for the rest of us, bacn is "email you want, but not right now." I get a bunch of messages every day from sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google Docs & Spreadsheets, all of which are important to me but which I don't need to see immediately. In fact, I'd like to defer them until later, for my late-night Family Guy-email sessions.
We have a couple of features in Gmail that can help tame your bacn and bring order back to your inbox. Here are 3 easy steps to inbox feng shui:
1) Create labels for each service that sends your bacn by clicking "Edit labels" in the green box on the lefthand side of your inbox. I've created some for my inbox:
2) Create filters to put bacn in its place by clicking "Create a Filter" next to the search buttons at the top of your inbox. First, tell Gmail what types of messages you'd like to filter. I typed "LinkedIn" in the "from" box and then clicked "Next step >>".
If you're like me, you probably want to review the notifications at a later time, so you click "Skip the Inbox" and "Apply the label: LinkedIn". This keeps all your notifications in one place, accessible by clicking the "LinkedIn" label on the left hand side of your inbox.
3) Since at some point I may want to review all my bacn at once, I created another label called "Review Later" into which all my bacn goes. Then, I use one of Gmail's advanced search operators ("OR") to create a filter that matches any bacn:
Now I can easily view my LinkedIn notifications all at once OR I can view all my bacn together by clicking the "Review Later" label.
Top 10 little-known Gmail features (Part 1)
August 31, 2007
Posted by Bill Kee, Associate Product Marketing Manager
Gmail has a bunch of lesser-known feature that can end up being very useful once you get to know them. I've put together a list of my top 10 favorite features that you may or may not be familiar with. Here are the first five; watch for the second batch sometime next week.
10. Custom "from"
Most people end up managing more than one email account -- some are personal, others might be for work or school. When I graduated from college, I wanted to keep my .edu address for alumni-related things, but made Gmail my primary personal address. My university made it easy to forward my .edu mail to my Gmail address, so I could read all my mail from my within my Gmail account. I was happy to find out that Gmail would actually let me send mail "as" my .edu address, so I could continue to keep that identity, while managing all my email from one place.
Here's how to set that up.
9. Open attachments in Google Docs & Spreadsheets, or view as slideshow
If you are sending a Word document or Excel file as an attachment, Gmail lets you easily
open it in Google Docs & Spreadsheets
. (In case you're not familiar with
Google Docs & Spreadsheets
, it's our online word processor and spreadsheet application, which lets you store and access documents online and collaborate on them with anyone.) Since other people are working on many of the docs I receive as attachments collaboratively, it's really easy to just open them in Docs & Spreadsheets and create a single document to work from, rather than constantly sending versions of documents back and forth. If the attachment is a PowerPoint presentation, Gmail will recognize this and give you a link to"View as a slideshow." This will open a window with a Flash preview of the slides. This is great for quickly reviewing slides in the browser.
8. Gmail gadget for iGoogle
I use
iGoogle
to bring together a lot of the information I care about on the web (feeds, my
Google Calendar
,
YouTube videos
, etc). I use it as a dashboard at the start of my day to get an overview of what's going on in the world. I've added the
Gmail gadget
to my page to get a preview of my Inbox, which is great because it's one of the first things I'm interested in seeing.
7. Reply by chat
Most people know that you can chat with your contacts in Gmail if they're using Gmail too. But there are some subtle features that make chat particularly useful in the context of using your email, like
replying by chat
. If you've received an email and notice that the sender is online (by seeing the little green dot next to his or her name in the conversation), you can click the button "reply by chat." What's particularly convenient about this is that the chat will be archived as part of the email thread to which you replied. I like this most because it means when I search for anything related to that thread, I find the chat transcript alongside all the relevant email messages.
6.
Gmail for mobile application
It wasn't that long ago that my cellphone could barely handle sending text messages. I didn't used to think of it as being an efficient place to access my email. That's changed -- big time. Email has become one of my primary forms of communication when on the go. Unfortunately, on a lot of phones, dealing with email can still be a pretty annoying experience, especially if you're not using a device like a PDA. Enter
Gmail for mobile
. It's fast, it syncs with your online account, and it gives you virtually all of the same Gmail functionality like search, filters, and access to your whole archive of mail.
Next week: another 5 for you.
Watch the final Gmail collaborative video
August 28, 2007
Posted by Arielle Reinstein, Product Marketing Manager
Several weeks back, we posted a
video
to YouTube giving a behind-the-scenes look at how Gmail messages "really" travels around the world. We then invited you to
submit your own clips
to continue the story, and Gmail fans from more than 65 countries submitted more than 1,100 fantastic videos! We have to say, we are quite overwhelmed with everyone's creativity. From two
Rubik's
cubes
, a few jaunts
in a bottle
, countless
babies
, and one
dog's trip
to the Southernmost point of the continental US, to
jugglers
,
firemen
,
camel-riders
, and original
animation
, we've had a lot of fun watching the responses come in, and we hope you have too. A big thanks to everyone who submitted clips, watched videos, and left comments for making this project so much fun!
Because of the international reach of the submissions, we used the
Google Maps API
to put together this map showing where many of the clips came from:
View Larger Map
As you can probably tell from viewing all these amazing videos, it was truly a difficult task to try and piece together as many of these clips as we could. We know that some of your favorites (and ours) may not have made it into the final cut, so we encourage everyone to surf through
all of the submissions
.
But now, drum roll, without further ado, here is
the final video
. We hope you like it!
Tips from a Digital Mom
August 21, 2007
Posted by Jen "Digital Mom" Grant, Group Product Marketing Manager
When I found out I was having twins a year or so ago, I was pretty worried. How could I possibly manage 2 babies, a three-year old, a dog, and a "I like to start companies and not hold down a 9-to-5 job" husband -- all while managing my own full-time job? This phase certainly started out rockily (mostly for our dog, Tobey, whom I consistently forgot to feed; he's fine, though, just a little hungry now and then). It turns out that Google actually offered much of what helped me survive. Well, Google and that great book about getting your
kids to sleep through the night
. So now, almost a year later, I have a few tips to share with other folks looking to find that balance between work and family - craziness and sanity - caffeine and a good night's rest - potty training and conference calls.
Without further ado, here's my first "Digital Mom" tip: keeping in sync with your spouse.
Sometimes when you get home from work and the kids are hollering about dinner, babies needing a change, and you just have time to kick off your shoes and throw something in the microwave, you don't really get a chance to talk to your spouse. In my case, with twins and a 3-year old, it can be days before I actually get a chance to ask him how he's feeling or what he's been doing. That's where
Gmail chat
comes in. Both my husband and I are on Gmail (his company uses it as a part of
Google Apps
and, of course, so does mine). So even if I fall asleep within minutes of wrestling my son into bed, at least my husband has already heard about how I'm feeling throughout the day. With a little :-) and a little <3, it's a wonderful way for us to stay connected.
Keep an eye on the Gmail blog for my tips, and I'd love to see yours. Send your own work-life balance suggestions to
digitalmomtips@gmail.com
and I'll share them here.
Gmail video deadline extended to Friday, 8/17
August 14, 2007
Posted by Bill Kee, Gmail Team
Just a quick update to let you know we've extended the deadline for entries to our
Gmail collaborative video
to this Friday, August 17th. We've received a bunch of requests to extend the deadline, so we wanted to give people a bit more breathing room to get those last edits in. You can check out all the submissions (over 1000 now!)
here
. Some of them are just amazing - we've been blown away by the creativity and effort behind so many of the clips. Check out these:
Gmail par avion:
Email in a bottle:
Gmail cereal!
Gmail handstand delivery:
Hyperpolyglotic Gmail
August 13, 2007
Posted by Jonas Shen, Associate, Consumer Operations
According to Wikipedia, the world’s most accomplished
hyperpolyglot
is
Ziad Fazah
. This guy can readily communicate in 58 (f-i-f-t-y e-i-g-h-t) languages. Wow.
Well Mr. Fazah, while we’re not quite up to your standard yet, you better watch out -- because Gmail is now available in 41 languages, and don’t think we’re going to stop there.
If you’re multilingual, feeling adventurous, or if you just want to test how well you know the Gmail user interface, try changing your account language settings. Sound a little risky? Don't worry - it's easy. You can change the language through the Settings menu. Get a taste of what hyperpolyglotic Gmail has to offer:
How many of these language UIs do you recognize?
192 t-shirt designs (and counting!)
August 13, 2007
Posted by Kevin Systrom, Gmail Team
On July 16th, we launched a Gmail t-shirt design contest with Threadless.com. Needless to say, we're psyched to see the quality of work that is pouring in. At last count, we had 192 submissions from designers around the world. Now, with under a week left to submit designs (contest ends Aug. 16th), I'd like to encourage everyone to
submit a design
. Or, if you're like me, and drawing stick figures is an accomplishment, then you can
help score designs
too!
Here are samples of some fun designs from the contest that recently finished scoring:
Some great Gmail video responses!
August 3, 2007
Posted by Bill Kee, Associate Product Marketing Manager
Since we posted about our collaborative Gmail video project last week, we've gotten a lot of excellent submissions from around the world, and we wanted to share some of them with you here. I couldn't have imagined some of the ideas you've come up with, and they're going to make for a great final video. Here are just a few of the coolest clips made so far:
One of the first entries we got, from Taiwan:
Here's one that took some serious imagination:
Lightning mail:
Lego animation!
Gmail, the underwater edition:
X-ray Gmail:
Lots of people involved their kids. Here's a father and daughter from Spain:
You can see all of the responses
here
and learn how to submit your own clip at
http://mail.google.com/mvideo
. Remember, you can submit clips until August 13th.
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