» Smart Phones, Web Design, Google or whatever
Posts tagged google
Smart Rescheduler in Google Calendar
Mar 22nd
GCalendar Smart Rescheduler
Google has added another new feature in Google Calendar labs called Smart Rescheduler. If you are a heavy user of Google Calendar and schedule your meetings with others who also use GCalendar than this nifty feature might be right up your alley.
Instead of spending time researching everyone’s schedule manually Google says this new feature will:
apply some of Google’s search experience to the problem of scheduling… Just like Google search ranks the web, our scheduling search algorithm returns a ranked set of the best candidate dates and times… You’ll see ranked list of possible times for your meeting. By investigating the calendars others have shared with you, Google Calendar can make some educated guesses about how easy it might be to reschedule a conflicting meeting…
Sound worth a try? Go ahead and turn on Smart Rescheduler now!
GCalendar Gets 3 New Labs Features
Mar 18th
Google Calendar got 3 new features via labs recently, as mentioned in their 3 new Calendar Labs post from 3/10/2010. The new features are Event Flair, Gentle Reminders and Automatically declining events.
Event Flair lets you assign an icon to events. At-a-glance you can see which events are more important than others, or other things limited only by your mind. Gentle Reminders pops up less obtrusive reminders of your meetings, Automatically declining events and lets you automatically decline things at times like Vacation, or other times when they would conflict with your schedule.
Buzz off! Outta my inbox!
Mar 18th
One Google product I’ve not gotten into, nor even shown any interest in is Google Buzz. Because I can drag-n-drop my labels to hide them, I hid the new Buzz label the first day I noticed it. Considering Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo and other social timesuckers, errr social networks last thing I needed was another.
In their “Better Buzz Controls” post Google posted this:
“When you participate in a conversation in Google Buzz, we bring that post to your inbox to make it easy to keep up with the discussion. But we’ve heard loud and clear that buzz in your inbox can get noisy — we feel it too…“
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.
MORE GMAIL
More Gmail Storage
More Gmail Security Tips
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).
More Gmail Security Tips
Oct 27th
The Gmail blog today posted another security-related article as part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Of the 5 security tips in their Gmail account security tips the only one that causes me any pause is tip 3, Enable “Always use HTTPS.” Any of my friends would tell you that I’m a “Google Freak” and this blog will backs that up pretty well.
Here’s my issue with the Enable “Always use HTTPS” feature, just take a trip to Gmail Help’s “Enabling the HTTPS setting” and read the yellow warning box at top. Call me spoiled, but I don’t want any problems with Gmail Notifier (patch available here), Gmail for Mobile application (if you have a new enough version a workaround is posted here, at the cost of speed), or my Google Toolbar (a minor issue you can read about here).
With that one exception I heartily recommend the security tips, and in case you missed the link, you should read Gmail account security tips for all 5 tips!
MORE GMAIL RESOURCES
Getting Started
Gmail Support
Known Issues
Suggest a Feature
Gmail – Wrong Bob and Gmail on-the-go
Oct 13th
Wrong Bob
In Gmail’s New in Labs: Got the wrong Bob? post they reveal the updated, renamed release of Suggest More Recipients. The name has changed to Don’t Forget Bob and now if you’ve emailed at least 2 people in a “known” group of 3+ people you will get a reminder if any of the 3 are not in that “known group”.
Gmail On-The-Go
Gmail posted a reminder that you don’t need to have a special cell phone to get Gmail. Sure, a cool smart phone with a touchscreen and all the latest gadgets is great but so long as you have a phone with a data plan and a browser you have the minimum requirements!
Gmail Links
Hide Gmail Labels Not Containing New Messages
Sep 25th
Organize your Inbox with a new gmail feature. Now you can hide labels that have no new messages in them! If you have many labels and get lots of email you may find this new feature paticularly useful.
To turn this new feature on just login to Gmail then click Settings > Labs > Hide Read Labels. Now you may have to get used to using your inbox differently, because each label that has no unread messages in it is only available via the “More” link under your labels, or through searches.
