» Smart Phones, Web Design, Google or whatever
Posts tagged gmail
Chrome Plus Gmail Equals LIVE Popout Windows
Jun 10th
Gmail is reminded us about popout windows back in March (when reading an email, chatting in Gmail, composing a message, replying , and forwarding email), adding that they had sped up page loading on email popout windows. They also mentioned that when you log out of your main Gmail window, that your popout windows also “expire”, or are logged out.
Today’s post Long lived new windows points out that Chrome users can now forget that last detail, and when they have logged out of the main Gmail window, their popout windows continue to be logged in.
MORE
Fast new windows
OTHER RECENT POSTS
Making it easier to video chat, voice chat, and group chat in Gmail
Google Maps previews in Gmail and Google Buzz
Gmail sweatshirts
Gmail Triumphs in the UK
May 6th
The UK and Google win in the UK…
Since “gmail” is 50% fewer characters than “googlemail,” we estimate this name change will save approximately 60 million keystrokes a day. At about 217 microjoules per keystroke, that’s about the energy of 20 bonbons saved every day!
You might be wondering what I’m talking about, and its the new option for UK users of GoogleMail to switch from their @googlemail.com addresses to @gmail.com addresses. If you ‘re a Brit and want to make the switch, there’s a screesnshot below, and if you want more details have a read of the official Gmail post: Google Mail is becoming Gmail in the UK.
Gmail Drag-n-Drop Attachments
Apr 19th
Beginning 4/15/2010 if you use Firefox or the Google Chrome browser you can drag and drop attachments into your email. Drag and drop attachments onto messages on the Gmail blog has some nice screenshots (minis below) of exactly how simple the new process is.
Its not working in FF 3.6.x for me, but I do have lots of add-ons. It worked great in Chrome, though. Great thing is that you don’t need to go into Gmail Labs or settings, its already activated.
Gmail April Fool’s Joke – vowel outage and Topeka!
Apr 1st
There’s a vowel outage on the Gmail sign in page today! No surprise there. Playful and fun Google is experiencing a vowel outage. Google Analytics and Google Adsense login pages are “unaffected” by this outage.
At 6:01 am Pacific Time, during routine maintenance at one of our datacenters, the frontend web servers in that particular datacenter started failing to render the letter ‘a’ for a subset of users. As error rates escalated, the strain spread to other datacenters. We worked quickly to avoid a cascading failure of the entire alphabet by implementing a stopgap solution that limited the damage to the letters ‘a,’ ‘e,’ ‘i,’ ‘o,’ and ‘u.’ As a result, we’re experiencing Gmail’s first temporary vowel outage. (We’re still investigating whether the letter ‘y’ is impacted and will post an update here shortly.)
Oh, and more cool news on April Fool’s day, Google has changed its name to Topeka! For more details visit either of the links here and check out the fun.
Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.
Enjoy your April Fools!
Gmail, China and Security
Mar 25th
Gmail has beefed up account security a little recently, possibly in part due to the recent China hacking and phishing attacks and intrusions. Now, detecting suspicious account activity has gotten a little simpler.
You may remember Gmail’s 2008 Remote Sign Out and Info post where they announced the then new remote sign out and info feature which allowed you to see from what IP, and at what time your past several logins occurred in your Gmail account. You can access the Activity on This Account info window when logged into Gmail by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the Details link you can see in the screenshot below.
Now, if Gmail notices logins from different locations and figures you aren’t likely to have accessed your account from those locations, you will see a notice when you login next.
For example, you aren’t likely to be able to access your account from Canada and Mexico within 15 minutes of one another.
Now, if it looks like something unusual is going on with your account, we’ll also alert you by posting a warning message saying, “Warning: We believe your account was last accessed from…” along with the geographic region that we can best associate with the access.
- Google’s Pavni Diwanji, Engineering Director
The Activity on This Account info window has been changed to reflect new information now available to you as a result of this latest security change. Here’s what it looks like now.
Now you can more easily detect if your account has been accessed without your permission or knowledge more easily. If you think your account has been compromised you should change your password, and it won’t hurt to check your Google Account settings to make sure that your secondary email address has not been changed – or in the case you don’t have one making sure that one has not been added. I’d guess that in the future it will only get easier to determine if someone has been tampering with your Gmail account.
RELATED READING
Gmail – Merge Contacts
Dec 15th
Finally, merge all duplicate contacts with one button. I just tried this out and it found and merged several contacts, and now I don’t need to do it manually “later” since this one-click and review option was so easy!
How? Go to Gmail > Contacts and look for the “Find Duplicates” button. Press it and follow the directions, and visit the original Gmail blog post (link above) for more detail.
Learn more about merging contacts.
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More Gmail Storage
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Hide Gmail Labels With No New Messages
Gmail Robot – Hey its Android!
Nov 18th
Sometimes a snippett speaks for itself, and this new feature letting you know which of your IM buddies is “online” using their cell phone (hence not really online, but not offline) is one of those cases:
Turn on Green Robot, a new experiment in Gmail Labs, and you’ll see a robot icon next to people who are currently using Android phones. In the case below, Shirley is online with Android, Nicolle R. is using regular Gmail chat, and Chris I. is currently away but also on Android. Slatka is not an angry robot — she’s online with Android but currently busy.
- Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Green Robot Icon
Click the link above for a small screenshot and more detail (if the snippett above wasn’t enough for you).
Gmail more storage for less
Nov 14th
On Nov 10, 2009 the Gmail blog announced lower pricing for extra storage, specifically the price for 20GB is only $5/year. Here’s some extra info on that:
This extra storage acts as an overflow that you only start using when you reach the limit of your free storage, and is shared for use between Gmail and Picasa Web Albums.
- Gmail Blog
Read Gmail Post: More Extra Storage For Less
