Official Gmail Blog
News, tips and tricks from Google's Gmail team and friends.
Tasks graduates from Gmail Labs
July 14, 2009
Posted by James Watts, Software Engineer
Our little baby's all grown up.
We
launched Gmail Labs
as a forum for delivering useful (and maybe
not so useful
) features that might not be quite ready for prime time. The idea was always that the most popular and viable Labs features would graduate and be made more readily available to all users...and that some of the less used, less viable ones would disappear forever.
I'm proud to announce that Tasks is in that first bucket — it's been one of the most popular experimental Gmail features and it's now the first graduate from Labs.
To access Tasks, starting today you can just click "Tasks" under the "Contacts" link above your chat list (no need to turn it on from the Labs tab anymore).
We've been continually improving Tasks since it
first launched
in Labs. We believe simple and fast is best, so we've been working to make Tasks more responsive and get basic interactions working better: we've added
mobile and gadget
views, made
improvements to task editing and management
, launched in
more languages
, and
integrated with Google Calendar
. We've also added a printable view for those people compelled to do things away from their computers or mobile devices.
Rest assured there's more on the way for Tasks— just because we're graduating from Labs today doesn't mean we're done.
We've received a lot of positive feedback about Gmail Labs, and we've found that testing something in Labs can be a good way to help decide whether it should become a regular part of Gmail. So we decided to extend the same model to
Google Calendar
. Beginning today, you can add Labs features to your calendar too, such as Free or Busy, which lets you see which of your friends or coworkers are currently in meetings or World Clock, which helps you keep track of different timezones when you schedule meetings. Take a look at the
Google Apps blog
for more info.
New in Labs: The super-trustworthy, anti-phishing key
July 13, 2009
Posted by Brad Taylor, Gmail Spam Czar
We're always looking for new ways to protect Gmail inboxes from spam and phishing. Last year, we started taking
extra steps to protect you from fake eBay and PayPal emails
, requiring that any email claiming to come from one of eBay's or PayPal's domains actually comes from them. We do that by looking at the "From" header, and when it says "ebay.com" for example, it means it really did come from
ebay.com
. Anything else is rejected; it won't even appear in your spam folder because Gmail won't accept it.
Now, unless you are a regular reader of this blog with a photographic memory, you may not be aware of this extra protection. So, we thought we'd add a little something to remind you. Turn on "Authentication icon for verified senders" from the
Labs tab under Settings
, and you'll see a key icon next to verified emails that are super-trustworthy.
"Super-trustworthy" is a technical term I just invented that means: (1) the sender, usually a financial institution, is a target of phishers, (2) all of the sender's email is authenticated with DKIM, and (3) Gmail rejects any fake messages that claim to come from this sender, but actually don't.
It's a bit of work for senders to make their email super-trustworthy, which is why this feature is limited to just eBay and PayPal right now. We hope to add more senders in the future, and when we do, you'll know because you'll see the super-trustworthy key icon magically appear by those senders too. Give it a whirl and
let us know
what you think.
Tip: Recover your password via text message
July 9, 2009
Posted by Cristelle Blackford, Online Operations Strategist
Even the best of us forget our passwords from time to time. In fact, recovering passwords is one of the top reasons people visit the
Gmail Help Center
. To help with these situations, we recently added the ability to recover your password via text message.
To turn this on for your account, just
sign in
, select 'Change Password Recovery Options,' enter your cell phone number and click 'Save.'
Next time you forget your password, enter your username on the
password-assistance page
, and Google will text you a recovery code. No need to check another email account or even leave the page.
In general, it's a good idea to add as many
password recovery options
to your Google Account as possible, like a secondary email address and security question. And don't forget to keep them up-to-date.
Gmail leaves beta, launches "Back to Beta" Labs feature
July 7, 2009
Posted by Keith Coleman, Gmail Product Director
We get asked all the time why Google keeps its products in beta for so long. And Gmail, five years after launch, is consistently a subject of this questioning, even of jokes.
Some people thought that once we
opened sign-ups
, Gmail should have come out of beta.
Others said that once we
integrated chat
, developed new
anti-spam technology
, expanded to
53 languages
, shipped a
mobile app
, added
group chat
, launched an
iPhone UI
, added a vacation autoresponder, launched
Gmail Labs
, subsequently modified the vacation autoresponder with a Gmail Lab, launched 48 other Labs, launched
video chat
, enabled open protocols and APIs (
POP
,
auto-forwarding
,
IMAP
, and the
Contacts Data API
), let you POP mail in from other accounts, added a delete button,
rearchitected our entire javascript code base
, and added
key functionality
to get large companies, startups, universities, and many other organizations (in addition to Google itself) running on Gmail, we should have come out of beta.
Some people think we should wait until we launch < one of ongoing secret projects >.
Others say that, over the last five years, a beta culture has grown around web apps, such that the very meaning of "beta" is debatable. And rather than the packaged, stagnant software of decades past, we're moving to a world of rapid developmental cycles where products like Gmail continue to change indefinitely.
The end result (many visible and invisible changes later) is that today, beta is a thing of the past. Not just for Gmail, but for all of
Google Apps
— Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Talk.
However, we realize that after five years, this leaves some of you wrestling with some tough questions. How will you ever get used to using Gmail without that familiar grey "BETA" text greeting you when you log in everyday? What example will you cite the next time you make an internet joke about perpetual betas? Don't despair... for those of you long-time Gmail-ers who might feel some separation anxiety, we've got a solution. Just go to Settings, click on Labs, turn on "Back to Beta," and it'll be like Gmail never left beta at all.
Labels: drag and drop, hiding, and more
July 1, 2009
Posted by Damian Gajda, Software Engineer
A few months ago
Gmail got some new buttons and keyboard shortcuts
to make
labeling
easier, especially for those of you accustomed to that familiar folder feel. Now we're making some more changes to Gmail's labeling toolkit.
1) New location for labels
You'll notice your labels in a new location on the left of your inbox (or on the right, for those of you using the Arabic, Hebrew, or Urdu versions of Gmail). Instead of having their own section, your labels are now above your chat list, grouped together with Inbox, Drafts, Chats and other system labels.
2) Label hiding and showing
You now have control over which of your labels show. We've done our best to get you started by automatically showing the labels you use most and hiding the rest. Label hiding is my favorite new feature, since it saves me from having to look through labels I rarely use. If I ever need to reach any of my old labels, I just click the "more" link.
You can show, hide, or delete a label by clicking the down-arrow to the left of that label.
If you want to make a lot of changes at once, go to the
Labels tab under Settings
where you can edit labels in bulk.
For those of you who created label names like _stuff or ++todo++ to force your most-used labels to the top of the list (come on, you know who you are, I did it too...), you don't have to come up with clever tricks like that anymore ;)
3) Drag and drop
You can now drag messages into labels, just like you can with folders. This does the exact same thing as "Move to" — it labels and archives in one step.
You can drag labels onto messages too. It's the same thing as using the "Label" button. To label or move many messages at once, first select the messages and then drag and drop the label.
It's also possible to drag labels into the "more" menu to hide them and vice versa. If you only want to move a couple labels around, I've found it quicker than going to Settings.
All of these changes also mean the end of
Right-side Labels
, an experimental Gmail Labs feature. This is the first Labs feature we're retiring. (The idea behind Labs was always that things could break or disappear at any time or they might work so well that they become regular features. More on that soon...) Now that labels aren't in their own little box and take up much less space, moving them around the screen didn't seem as important. We realize quite a few of you used and liked Right-side Labels, so if you feel strapped for left nav screen real estate without it, try turning on Right-side Chat in Labs instead.
We hope these new changes make labeling even easier and help you stay organized. We'll be rolling out these labeling features for everyone throughout the day, so if you don't see them right away please check later today.
So, you want to be a Gmail ninja?
June 23, 2009
Posted by Zach Yeskel, Product Marketing Manager
If you got 100 new messages, how long would it take you to get through them all? An hour? Five minutes? How would you find the important ones, reply to the ones that require an immediate reply, and mark the ones that you needed to take care of later? Would you use stars, filters, keyboard shortcuts, labels? What about Gmail Labs like tasks or canned responses?
Everybody has their own system for managing email, but some are definitely more efficient than others. Even if you only get a few messages a day, there are probably some simple things you can do to make it easier to get through your inbox and maybe even have a little fun along the way. We know time is valuable, so we asked lots of Googlers for their tips and tricks on how they make the most of Gmail, and we combined the best of these into a guide at
www.gmail.com/tips
, cheekily entitled "Become a Gmail Ninja." The tips are categorized into ninja belts (white, green, black and master
) based on how much mail you get each day.
For a handy reference that you can pin to your wall or keep on your desk, we even made a
printable version
of the guide where all the tips fit on one page front and back. And for the first 1024 of you who want them, we'll send a limited-edition, laminated guide for free. Just
fill out this form
with your address. Sorry, we can only ship to addresses in the US. If you're not one of the lucky 1024, you can still buy a laminated guide at
www.barcharts.com
.
If you're already a Gmail ninja and have your own tips you'd like to share,
let us know
and we'll add the best ones to the online guide.
*Our lawyers asked us to make sure it was clear that your contact information won't be maintained longer than necessary to send you the laminated guide and that this offer is "void where prohibited and only while supplies last."
Update (11:59am)
: Well, that was fast. We've run out of the free laminated guides, but if you weren't part of the first 1024 people to sign up, you can still can buy them for $1.25 at
www.barcharts.com/gmail
.
New fields for Gmail contacts and better importing too
June 16, 2009
Posted by Benjamin Grol, Product Manager
Up until now, Gmail only supported some contact fields. Whenever someone imported their contacts from apps like Outlook and OS X Address Book, we used to put fields Gmail didn't recognize into the contact's notes section. Based on feedback from you, we added support for more contact fields (like birthday and website) and now store each of these fields separately, which makes syncing and round-tripping your data work better. We
updated the standalone contact manager
with this improvement last month and now it's available in Gmail too, with support for Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail and Yahoo in CSV format, and OS X Address Book in vCard format.
With all your contact info in Gmail, you can access it from anywhere,
sync
your contacts to your mobile phone or other devices, and more easily
collaborate
on Google Docs and
invite
people to Calendar events. We're working hard to make Gmail contacts even more useful, so please keep the
feedback
coming.
Tip: Check and reply from multiple email addresses in Gmail
June 12, 2009
Posted by Joyce Sohn, Product Marketing Manager
It's that time of year when students are graduating, and in many cases getting yet another email address to check — an alumni account — as a graduation present.
Whether you have an alumni address, a work account, or your own domain that you like to use, rather than logging in and out of multiple accounts, you can set yourself up so all your mail ends up in your Gmail inbox. And you can send mail from any of the other addresses you own right from Gmail as well.
There are two steps to make this happen:
1. Set up mail forwarding or fetching
Many email providers offer free auto-forwarding to other accounts. Log into your non-Gmail account and set your Gmail address as the forwarding target. If your other account doesn't offer forwarding but supports
POP3
access, you can use
Mail Fetcher
in Gmail to automatically check your other account for new mail and download it to Gmail.
2. Set up custom "From:"
Gmail's custom "From:" feature lets you send mail with one of your other email addresses listed as the sender in place of your Gmail address. There's a good
step-by-step
for how to set this up in the Help Center, but the basics are adding the address you want to use and then verifying that it belongs to you. Once you have your custom "From:" set up, you can pick which address you want to reply from in the "From:" address drop down while composing messages.
P.S. If you're a recent grad and want more tips on how to use Google during this transition period, check out the Google for Students Blog, where we'll be posting
more tips like this
weekly for the next couple months.
Like puzzles? Get ready for the Day in the Cloud Challenge on June 24th
June 11, 2009
Posted by Corey Anderson, Software Engineer (and puzzle creator)
Flying 500 miles per hour at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, it always seemed odd that I could use approved electronic devices, but I couldn't get online to chat or send an email. Luckily, the Wright brothers have been catching up with
the cloud
, and airlines like
Virgin America
have rolled out in-flight WiFi across their fleet.
To celebrate, we've teamed up with Virgin America to provide complimentary WiFi on all flights on June 24th, and we're co-hosting a timed online scavenger hunt called the
Day in the Cloud Challenge
. Whether you're going to be in the air or on the ground on that day,
you're invited
to participate in the challenge and can sign up at
www.dayinthecloud.com
.
If you use Gmail, there's a good chance you already have a leg up because some of the questions will involve your knowledge of Gmail (plus, you'll need a
Google Account
to play). To give you a little practice, we've just revealed some
practice questions
.
Curious how some people are getting ready for the challenge? Check out this video:
Tip: Slice and dice your mail with search operators
June 4, 2009
Posted by Zach Yeskel, Product Marketing Manager
My friends email me all the time with ideas for improving Gmail. Just this weekend, my friend Dave said he wanted a way to select all of his messages with a certain label (like "urgent"). Two weeks ago, Adam came up with the idea of a button that would filter his inbox to only show unread items. Good ideas, but it turns out that doing stuff like this (and much more) is already possible using
search operators
.
For example, Dave would just need to search for "
in:urgent
" to get all items labeled "urgent," and Adam would just search for "
is:unread in:inbox
" to see all the unread messages in his inbox.
Here are a few other useful ways to filter your inbox:
"
to:me is:starred
" shows all messages sent directly to you that are starred
"
is:chat from:heather
" shows all chat conversations you had with Heather
"
is:starred -in:inbox
" shows all your starred messages that aren't in your inbox (a good way to find anything important that you might have accidentally archived)
"
from:elliot filename:pdf
" shows all messages from Elliot that have a pdf attachment
We've written about search operators here before, but lots of people find them hard to remember. That's why we built
Search Autocomplete
in Gmail Labs, designed to make searching in Gmail much easier. Instead of having to remember the exact syntax for advanced searches, you can just start typing, and search autocomplete will help you fill in the rest. If you find yourself doing some of the same searches over and over again, consider creating a permanent link to them using
Quick Links
in Labs.
Update (6/10)
: Revised the example about searching for a label to use "urgent" instead of "important."
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