Talk about Gmail

A couple Greasemonkey Gmail hacks

2005-12-27T09:44:00.000-08:00

For the GreaseMonkey users, developer Mihai Parparita has released two Gmail hacks: Gmail Macros "adds additional keyboard shortcuts to Gmail."
And Gmail Labels which allows color coding of Gmail.

Hat tip to Download Squad

2005-12-19T19:07:00.000-08:00

Switch to Gmail guide by Google

Automatic vacation request and contact groups

2005-12-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

Nice to see Gmail getting a few new features, including and particularly the automatic vacation responder. You can set that up so that only those in your contacts list get the responder or so that everybody gets it.

Gmail added contact groups

-- thanks Download Squad www.downloadsquad.com/2...

New Blogger Firefox extension

2005-12-15T09:41:00.000-08:00

Just testing out the Blogger Firefox extension . This should make it even easier to post to Blogger-based blogs. I only have two of them (this one) and my very first official blog at tdavids.com/blogger. You can also post from within Microsoft Word.

Yeah, this isn't really related to Gmail, but I decided to test this here.

Unofficial Gmail Windows file system: Gspace

2005-12-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

A curious use of Gmail, but may violate the TOS, so be careful if you use it this way, but here comes Gspace v0.1. This reminds me somewhat of gDisk for the Mac discussed earlier here.

(thanks Lifehacker)

Rolling your own del.icio.us with Gmail, well, sort of

2005-12-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

Lifehacker posted a short tutorial for how to setup a tagging engine of sorts using labels and gmail sent to/from yourself.

Requires the GmailThis! bookmarklet

(Optional) see Gmail tweaked GmailThis! bookmarklet

Extreme Tech Gmail Tips

2005-10-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Extreme Tech has an article talking about various different Gmail uses like rerouting and tagging Gmail by adding a + after your address, using Gmail as a to-do list, using Gmail as an RSS reader and more. It's one of the best Gmail articles I've seen in awhile.

Why I'm using and blogging Gmail more again

2005-10-14T04:16:00.000-07:00

For awhile there I wasn't using Gmail that much nor blogging about it (obvious from viewing the archives, I suppose) but since I've decided not to renew my .mac account this week and use Gmail in its place on the Mac, I am back in the groove again. This also means that there were probably be an increased focus on Mac-related Gmail information at this blog, but I still use Gmail occasionally on the PC side too.

I updated the blogroll and dropped most the links there because the blogs hadn't been updated in many months. If any of those bloggers happen to start updating their information again then please drop me a line so I can add you back.

Other blogs I contribute to
For all Mac blog coverage, you can read my Mac blog. That is updated a couple times a month on average, so it's a low volume read. PHP users can read my PHP-scripts Blog which is updated roughly five times a week. The most frequently updated blog I've written for since July 4, 2003 is Things That ... Make You Go Hmm which covers news, reviews, opinions and muse on a wide variety of topics, primarily web/tech-related, but sometimes other topics. This is a high volume, high content value read, but can be subscribed to by keywords, so it is possible to subscribe any time I write about Gmail only over there: MakeYouGoHmm "Gmail" keyword RSS Feed link

gDisk for Mac

2005-10-14T03:40:00.000-07:00

This could be handy for Mac users who want to use their Gmail as online storage space.

gDisk:

software that turns your GMail account into a portable hard drive so you can always have your important files accessible accross the Internet.

Gmail This Bookmarklet

2005-10-14T03:27:00.000-07:00

The Gmail This bookmarklet will open a small window (doesn't work right in Internet Explorer, but is good in Firefox and Opera) with quick access to Gmail.

Use Gmail as POP3

2005-10-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Via PC Magazine, instructions for how to use Gmail as POP3 account:

In Gmail, click Settings and then click the "Forwarding and POP" link at the top of the page.

Gmail spammed, Gmail Talk blog comment spammed

2005-10-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

While on a routine cleaning mission this morning I noticed a bunch of spam in my Gmail account for this blog. I get a copy of every comment emailed to a special address and I noticed most of the comment spam was from one account.

Does Blogger have a report user for spam function? I didn't do any poking around, so maybe it's obvious. I spent a good five minutes removing 15 or so identical messages pasted across entries from the last 1 1/2 years at this blog.

I've now turned on the CAPTCHA image which sucks for accessibility, but should keep the garbage mentioned above to a minimum.

There's been a few good things added to Gmail lately like the auto save on messages and more functions. Most blog software could use that functionality.

Not using Gmail as much any more

2005-06-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

Turning the tide, recently I've gotten away from using Gmail as much. Is the thrill gone? Probably, it's a result of over-filtering on Gmail's part.

Update: testing something with the edit function. Testing again.

Six Gmail-related blog entries in the last month

2005-03-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

I haven't written about Gmail on this blog very much lately, but wait, wait, I'm not going to make excuses for not blogging (that's an annoying blogger trait, isn't it?), rather I'm going to point to some other places that I have written about Gmail lately. If you want a daily dose of reading from me, then by far my most regularly updated blog is Things That ... Make You Go Hmm. I'm averaging 3-4 new blog entries there a day on a wide variety of subjects.

One of the neat things added to MakeYouGoHmm recently was the ability to access RSS feeds by keyword, so if you want to know only when we last wrote about something Gmail-related you would do a search for Gmail (RSS Feed for keyword: "Gmail") and then save the RSS feed that is provided at the top of the search results (look for the familiar orange XML button).

The search reveals that in the last month we've had six Gmail-related entries:

Yahoo to expand free email to 1GB, provide virus cleaner and index email

Should Google worry about Yahoo entering contextual search?

Unofficial Gmail file system

Gmail spam filter sucks too, 3GB of spam in less than 6 months

Gmail Signature Generator

More Google evil?

I regularly use the free MakeYouGoHmm Internet Explorer toolbar (no spyware) to make searches through the 1,600+ entries since July 4, 2003. Quick and easy way to find what has been said, if anything, about Gmail. Also, you can search all the major search engines.

Happy Gmailing to you!

Gmail generator

2005-02-25T14:50:00.000-08:00

From Playtime comes the FREE Gmail signature generator

Burned out 2nd Gmail box

2005-01-03T13:25:00.000-08:00

After spam had filled up and ruined my email box, I started forwarding my email to my wife's gmail account. Now that has filled up too, but in the meantime mine emptied out of spam so I have started using mine again. Talk about juggling email accounts. It would sure be nice if Google would add the mass spam delete function that I've asked about several times. 30 days unfortunately isn't frequent enough.

Gmail adds POP access and auto-forwarding

2004-11-20T18:15:00.000-08:00

I'd been reading about these features being added for others, but I noticed today that they were available on my account. Gmail: Help Center:

"It's your mail. You should be able to choose how and where you read it. Access your mail the way you want to, with free POP access and automatic forwarding. You can even switch to other email services without having to worry about losing access to your messages. Think of it as email portability.

Free POP access
Download your messages. Read them offline. Use your Blackberry or Outlook or just the good ol' web. Learn more

Free automatic forwarding
Forward new incoming messages to any email account you specify. Learn more "

Joel on Software thinks Google is making a browser

2004-10-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

Of course Google is claiming the contrary, but is a Google browser really in the works? A Q&A With Joel on (Microsoft) Software: "In my ('How Microsoft Lost the API War') essay, I quoted a Microsoft guy (and Longhorn Avalon team member) named Joe Beda. I quoted him saying 'Microsoft is making a big bet on the rich client.' And now he works at Google with Adam Bosworth. I'm sure what they're doing is a new browser. It's the IE (Internet Explorer) team reconstructed inside Google."

2004-10-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

A FREE way to get into audio blogging via your phone. I'm going to check this one out.

Check Gmail messages without opening your browser

2004-10-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Gmail Notifier:

The Gmail Notifier is a downloadable Windows application that alerts you when you have new Gmail messages. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser.

Gmail adds new goodies: contacts, forwarding and Atom feeds for inbox

2004-10-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

While I'm not able to locate the Atom web feeds yet, Micro Persuasion is showing off some screenshots of this new functionality:

Micro Persuasion: Gmail Adds Atom Feeds: "Gmail has added Atom web feeds, a format that's akin to RSS. The feeds include a summary of each new message in your Google email. See screen grabs. "

One thing really cool about Google is they are always adding new goodies and this makes their products stay lively.

hriders vs. Gmail ... the battle for the biggest space continues

2004-09-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

100 GB ... really? Their site says hriders.com is giving away 10 GB but an article in Tom's Hardware Guide says they are boosting that to 100 GB. I'm still trying to check it out. Hriders offers 100 GB email ... for free?

Does Google have enough servers for Gmail?

2004-09-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

It sounds like maybe Gmail needs a few more servers and this explains the sporadic invites and offers. I pretty much think though they've reached a saturation point and everybody who wants one already has one. They should just open up the system full throttle to the masses.

From Things that ... Make You Go Hmm: Truth behind Gmail invitation distribution revealed.

Gmcp (Gmail Copy) 1.0 via addict3d.org

2004-09-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

Gmcp (Gmail Copy) 1.0 - addict3d.org: "A simple Perl based tool to use Gmail as a backup system. gmcp (gmail copy) is a simple tool to use gmail as a backup system. to run, the following must be installed:"

Gmail invite supply greater than demand

2004-09-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

I just posted somewhere that I think the time is finally here: Gmail invite supply is greater than demand. We had almost 30 Gmail invites to give away on last week's radio show and only 1 went. Yes, this is just one isolated example, but I'm seeing a saturation of invites all over the place. I think it's time for Gmail to just open it up to everybody and quit with the whole invite thing

Brilliant marketing on their part, but I think now the supply is greater than demand. The only requests on my blog are pretty much mechanized from foreigners.

Gmail invite flood continues

2004-08-31T11:03:00.000-07:00

Now my wife and I have 10 Gmail invites to give out. I'm surprised that more haven't entered the contest which ends tonight C'mon, you know you want to at least check out what Gmail is like! Let's see what your sense of humor is like.

More Gmail invites

2004-08-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

Another batch of Gmail invites appear to have been redistributed to beta testers. We got a few more and are running a contest to get them out. Sure you can make me laugh!

New Blogger nav bar at top of page

2004-08-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well, I just checked and as of this writing ~~it hasn't migrated to this blog yet~~ (after posting it showed up), but it is showing up on some blogs. farkleberries: The New Bloggger NavBar. I'd rather see that then the Google ad that is there now.

Gmail: Desirability of Scarcity

2004-08-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

Rob Adams is getting into the marketing aspect of Gmail being in scarce supply.

roBlog dot org: Gmail and the Desirability of Scarcity: "Since April, Google has given current users of the service the ability to invite a limited number (2 or 3) of their friends into the fold. This has had the effect of introducing an artificial scarcity of Gmail accounts. I'm guessing that it's also had the effect of making them much more desirable than they otherwise would have been."

I'm hoping that Google comes up with some sort of mass delete tools before they leave beta or people are going to be really annoyed when they reach their 1 GB quota with spam. I've maxed out my Gmail account and have since started diverting all that mail to my wife's account. She isn't too happy about it. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a solution to this issue to clean out that spam bin in one fell swoop.

GMail adds new feature including attachments

2004-08-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

I agree this is a cool feature.

GMail Adds Feature - Aimless Words - GMail Adds Feature: "Until today, whenever I would read a MIME multipart text message such as one generated by the Python-Announce list, GMail would display the main body and the provide links to view or download the attached MIME pieces. Now, GMail is displaying the entire message with all text attachments inline. Therefore, I can read the entire message without opening a bunch of attachments! "

Gmail canned response when you "submit feedback"

2004-08-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

It's free, so I guess you can't really expect any kind of personal response ....

Thank you for your message. We regret that the volume of incoming inquiries we have received has prompted this general auto-reply. We hope that this message will provide the information you need. Although we cannot respond to every inquiry, we read each individual message, and thank you for taking the time to send us your comments and suggestions.
Your feedback is important to us, and all feature requests and suggestions for improvement are forwarded to the appropriate teams.

You are receiving this message because you classified your request as 'Spam' on the Gmail Help Form. If your request was misclassified, we ask that you resubmit your question or report using the topic that most closely relates to your inquiry.

Please find answers and links to the most common issues for these categories at the end of this message.

If the information we have provided does not address your problem, we will respond to your message and provide further assistance. Thank you for your patience and understanding during our limited test of Gmail.

Sincerely,

The Gmail Team

239,329 spam emails in 3 months fills up 1 GB of Gmail space

2004-08-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

Wondering how many spam emails it took to clog up the 1 GB of space over three months? In my case it was 239,329 spam emails. Now one of my next questions is how do I easily get rid of those nearly 240,000 spam emails. It looks to me -- though there must be an easier way -- that I have to go through those spam emails, 50 at a time, and use the select all option and then click the "DELETE FOREVER" button. Google please tell me you have some sort of mass delete of the spam bin ... PLEASE ... there is no way that any sane human being would go through this much garbage, 50 at a time. Somebody in the comments please show me the easy way? I'm going to start searching around for how to dump all this so I'm back to an empty spam bin again.

Out of Gmail space in 3 months from normal usage!

2004-08-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

It's over! I'm out of Gmail space from normal usage from a couple of our domains. Google says that it should take an average user 5 years, but it took me three months: (May 12 - Aug 13) The original thread where I talked about this is here

Gmail: Help Center - How to search spam and trash

2004-08-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

Gmail: Help Center: "Gmail's 'Search Mail' feature does not search messages located in 'Spam' or 'Trash' by default. To include messages located in 'Spam' or 'Trash' in your search results, please follow these steps:
Log in to your Gmail account.
Click 'Show search options' at the top of any Gmail page.
Select 'All & Spam & Trash' from the 'Search:' drop-down menu.
Enter all other criteria for your search in the appropriate fields.
Click 'Search Mail.' "

Mark Lyon's list of Gmail apps

2004-08-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Mark Lyon's list of Gmail apps contains ways to tweak Gmail like checking from a pop3 mailbox, various conversion utilities, notify you of new Gmail, launch a new Gmail with a bookmark, use Gmail as a backup service and more!

Warning: Gmail password hurlers

2004-08-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Password hurlers are alive and well in the Gmail space too. Don't use common word passwords. The Security Mentor: "Near as I can tell from the early reports, all that's going on is that someone wrote and released a program that keeps trying to log in to GMail accounts using every possible password it can think of."

Mac user doesn't like Gmail

2004-08-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

phives dot com: gmail: "after using it for a few days i've got to say that i am disappointed with gmail. i know that google likes to be very simplistic, which is good in terms of use and speed. i also know that gmail is currently in beta, but with other email services like yahoo and hotmail out there i was expecting an interface at least up to par. it is fairly ugly. also, the gmail address book is pretty much useless. you can't store multiple email addresses for contacts and can not add someone to an email via the address book. i use a powerbook, and gmail runs very slow sometimes, i am not sure if people using winblows are experiencing the same slowness or not. "

Disappearing Gmail invites: use 'em or lose 'em

2004-07-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

I had one Gmail invite left that I was saving for a friend. As it turns out, by the time my friend got back to me the Gmail invite was no longer available! So here's a word to the wise: use 'em or lose 'em!

GMail traffic drops off

2004-07-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, was just looking over the stats and I've noticed a significant dropoff from traffic surrounding this blog. From this I can deduce one or more of the following possibilities:

1) people feel that this blog is boring and/or is no longer worth reading
2) people already have a Gmail account and don't want to talk or read about it
3) the bulk of the traffic was only interested in getting a Gmail invite and figured this would be a good place to find one. (I do actually have some invites still, BTW).
4) saturation from other Gmail-related blogs and websites. There are a lot of them out there, though I notice a pattern of them starting to die slow deaths.
5) fill in the blank: ___________

I'll continue to update this blog as there are new things in the Gmail-sphere to talk about. If there is a Gmail-related topic that you, gentle reader, are specifically interested in then please use the comment area to tell me about it.

And BTW, I have now used over 70% of my 1 gig of Gmail space.

Oops wrong Gmail addy!

2004-07-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ever send email to the wrong Gmail address and wonder what happens to it? Gmail Email reversal system: "Karanbir Singh pointed me to a problem ( Gmail might say that it is intentional) that Gmail has with it's email system. Whenever we sent out email to non-existant Gmail email accounts from non Gmail addresses or even in Gmail address, we do not get any Permanent errors or fatal error messages back to the senders address which is normally the case. As per Karan, they store the emails. What makes it quite interesting is that someone signed on as {username}@Gmail.com and found over a 100 e-mails waiting for him on his first login, some from as long as 2 months back. Apparently someone had been mistakenly sending emails to this {username} and the emails seem to have been stored up . "

What's new with Gmail (July 14)

2004-07-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Being on vacation, I'm just getting caught up with some news, so here is what's new with Gmail:

Gmail: Help Center: "Import Contacts
You've made a list. You've checked it twice. Now you never have to check it again. Move all your contacts from Yahoo! Mail, Outlook, and others to Gmail in just a few clicks. Then simply rely on our auto-complete feature to prefill all your addresses for you. Keep all your contacts in one place and keep in touch with all of them using Gmail. Learn more

Signature options
From the settings page, create a signature that's automatically added to the end of all your outgoing messages. Change it as often as you like, but always get the last word. Learn more

Safari browser support
Everybody's gone surfin's now Mac OS X's Safari is surfing Gmail as well (versions 1.2.1 and newer)."

Rich Tehrani: Gmail Improves

2004-07-20T07:27:00.000-07:00

Rich Tehrani: Gmail Improves: "Gmail has only been around for a few months and already it's improving. Recent features include the ability to import contacts from Outlook and Yahoo as well as the ability to add an autosignature. Finally there is support for the Safari browser that runs on the Mac's OS X. "

2004-07-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

Gmail having a few server issues. First time I've ever seen this during beta.

Google says NO to GMail sales

2004-07-02T17:26:00.000-07:00

Cannot blame Google for this one. BBC NEWS | Technology | Google bans GMail sales: "Search giant Google has updated the program policy for GMail on Monday adding clauses that ban the sale, trading, reselling or exploiting of GMail accounts for commercial purposes."

Unofficial Gmail to POP3 converter

2004-07-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

Unofficial Gmail to POP3 converter

Gmail invite supply has met or surpassed demand?

2004-06-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

It would seem that Gmail invites are no longer as sought after as they once were. The market for folks selling them is not what it once was and you can talk to several folks who have Gmail invites and are willing to give them away. Sites like Gmailswap are not going to last much longer in this type of market.

Also I've removed the ability to add anonymous comments. It's lame when people don't leave their names. Don't be a pussy when you make a comment on someone's blog :)

[ screenshot ] blogger Gmail invite -- do you want it?

2004-06-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

Finally received a Gmail invite for being an "active blogger" at blogspot. I wonder if this blog was helpful to furthering this invite. Since I already have Gmail, I'm willing to give this to the first -- related -- blogger (must be a blog that has something to do with Gmail) who links back to this blog and posts a comment showing me where I can find this linkback on their blog.

Another GMail user experience

2004-06-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

Another Gmail blogspot site has surfaced - GMail Experience: "This is my documented experience with GMail. I plan to expose features as I see them, good and bad. Eventually this could be a really good resource for information for those of you who do not have GMail."

I'm going to add a list along the left to the various Gmail-related blogs that I come across.

2004-06-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

Google continues their tradition of having cool Google logos for holidays. Happy Father's Day to all fathers out there!

GmailfortheTroops.com

2004-06-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

GmailfortheTroops.com - "A site dedicated to getting Gmail invites for troops serving or about to be deployed to Iraq, Afganhistan or anywhere else far from the ones they love."

2004-06-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

Is there anything else that could look MORE like spam? And yet Gmail's filters didn't mark this as spam. Check out that ultra intelligent subject line: bqgeygxabkeiwegwzagrktjvifu qz x...

More third party Gmail screenshots

2004-06-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

Lots of good screenshots grouped on one page here: Karanbir Singh - Thinkability - Gmail Screenshots, everything you ever wanted to see

2004-06-14T22:33:00.000-07:00

I've reached 1/5th of the Gmail allotment in under 30 days!

Conspiracy site alert: Gmail is too creepy

2004-06-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

This website: Gmail is too creepy would make JFK conspiracy buffs proud. Gmail is too creepy? Huh?

Today is the day to win a Gmail invite!

2004-06-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

Reminder: tune into the Script School Radio show later today to have a chance to win a free Gmail invite! Here's the full line-up:

- be giving away a free Gmail invite to at least one listener! Have you wanted a chance to see what all the hype is about surrounding this free email program? Well, today is your chance!
- learn step-by-step how to setup MySQL database on a Windows machine locally
- how to set/change the root password
- how to "talk" to MySQL using the Windows Command Prompt
- some basic MySQL commands
- discuss the popular and not so popular browsers, surfer statistics, and layout and designing websites for your surfer audience: the love/hate relationship between browsers and HTML
- review a program that allows you to view your site stats in real time with animated Sim City like graphics and animation. Would you like to view a virtual passport of your surfers showing what pages they are navigating on your website in real time or via a VCR function and/or be able to initiate a chat session with them with no plugins while they are surfing your website? Want to see a bus drop off surfers to your website with Google, Yahoo or whatever search engine they come from? We'll show you what, where, when and how.
- more news on the upcoming mainstream version of Script School and much, much more!

radio show <-- radio feeds
java chat <-- Java Chat
irc.scriptschool.com #scriptschool port 6667

2004-06-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

I stand corrected from that last post, I am indeed at 15% space used now! I'm curious if I'll run out of space before Gmail leaves beta

Up to 14% of Gmail space used now .. looking like 5% usage per week

2004-06-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

This is true that 14% of my Gmail space is gone now. For those who are wondering what type of contest we'll have for the Gmail invites please plan to tune into the radio show this Friday where we'll be kicking it around there and actually be giving at least one Gmail invite away.

Remember that I started tracking my spam situation in Gmail on May 16 which is only three weeks ago. Let's call it 15% and say that I'm using about 5% of space per week on average. That means the Gmail space is going to run out in approximately 20 weeks, not even half a year.

I guess the 2-3 years estimation was for very, very casual email users because I'm not even sending all of our email to it and it won't last a half year at current spam throughput.

Gmail invite giveaway at Script School Radio Friday June 11, 2004 2pm PST / 5pm EST

2004-06-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Finally we have a few Gmail invites! This Friday during our Script School Radio show we are going to give away a Gmail invite to one lucky listener. The show starts at 2pm PST / 5pm EST so if you'd like a chance to get a Gmail invite for free then make plans to stop by. If the crowd is large enough then we might give away more than one during the show. I'm also going to be giving away one at our parent blog: Things That ... Make You Go Hmm and one invite here at this blog. Details to follow soon so subscribe to our blogs and keep an eye for your chance to win a coveted Gmail invite!

More Gmail invite opportunities

2004-06-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

Looks like the following blog might have some Gmail invites available:

We've gots em, the shiny, the precious ("Do some good") | a preponderance of evidence:

"It's not free, however. If you're interested in one, comment here and let me know what you're willing to do for it. Not to me (though I am more than ready to trade for a few good massages), but to someone else. A random act of kindness, maybe? Work in a soup kitchen? Help out at a needle exchange? Or maybe you're doing that already - you'd be the ideal recipient."

2004-06-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Ever run out of memory and see your Google search bar like this?

Gmail: 6 concerns and 3 solutions

2004-06-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Article: SPECIAL Report on Google Gmail : Six Concerns & Three Solutions ...
e-consultancy - UK

Listen up, spammers: the worst days to hawk you wares is Friday, Saturday

2004-06-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

I know what the spammers are thinking: hey, let's send our spam on Friday or Saturday so it gets read by the folks who work all week and are home to relax on the weekends.

Perhaps their response rate is higher from some folks on these days, but from past experience I come prepared to mass delete the inbox with very, very little attention on the weekends. False positives likelihood for us traditionally have been higher on the weekend, but it has been a necessary road bump.

No more.

I'm hoping that by using Gmail to be able to use to ferret out the good from the bad it will be easier with their fast search.

[ screenshot ] Gmail adds login cookie support

2004-06-04T08:21:00.000-07:00

It may only last a max of two weeks, but this morning Gmail added two week cookie support for login. No more having to login each time anew:

Mark Watson's opinions on Java, AI, semantic web, and politics: Google, GMail, Microsoft...

2004-06-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

Mark Watson has noticed a few cool things about GMail: Mark Watson's opinions on Java, AI, semantic web, and politics: Google, GMail, Microsoft...:

"As a beta user of GMail, I have been pleased by how fast Google sneaks improvements into the system. A while back, I noticed that the JavaScript in GMail started to change the page title (and thus the tab title if you use a tabbed browser) to include the number of unread email messages - a small detail, but something that I was anticipating. Just now, I logged in with Apple's Safari browser and noticed that I no longer received an unsupported browser warning. Cool."

No Gmail invites yet

2004-06-03T09:16:00.000-07:00

I really would like to spread around the love but I still don't have any Gmail invites to offer to others (yet). I will post here as soon as this changes so please check back. I also continue to be on the lookout for other people offering Gmail invites. With Father's Day coming up, I wonder if I'll get an invite for that?

Gmail accessibility issues

2004-06-01T07:13:00.000-07:00

If you are sight-impaired then waiting for Gmail to release a more accessible version could be the only option. Gmail accessibility [dive into mark]:

Furthermore, the most innovative feature of Gmail the global keyboard shortcuts appears to have been designed by vi users (j moves down, k moves up, and we are expected to memorize multi-key sequences for navigation). Yet by using fake links everywhere, Gmail throws away the most basic web feature, breaks useful browser-level innovations like Mozilla's Find as you type, and breaks third-party products like JAWS and WindowEyes. So the target market for Gmail appears to be vi users who use Internet Explorer, and have a working pair of eyes. In short, the only way to use Gmail is the way that the Gmail designers use Gmail. The only way Gmail could be less accessible is if the entire site were built in Flash. Update April 13, 2004: Kevin Fox, a user interface designer at Google, says Google is aware of these problems, and that accessibility is very important to them.

2004-05-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

I've noticed from the Google alerts I receive for the keyword Gmail have slowed down. In fact, no new articles have come in since May 25, which is almost a week. Could this be the first sign of the fever-pitched interest of Gmail slowing down? Of course all Gmail has to do is issue some more invitations and the fever will start anew.

[ screenshot ] Gmail 'all' link for checking many boxes at one time

2004-05-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

By checking the "all" link, you can easily drop all the spam on a page by basis. The only problem is you still have to look through all the subject lines to separate the good mail so you don't mark that as spam.

Books about Gmail

2004-05-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering how long it will be before someone writes a book about Gmail. It would be odd for this to happen while it is still in beta, because so much could change, but I wouldn't be surprised if at least one book is written and published before the end of the year.

Perhaps Gmail for Dummies ???

[ screenshot ] successful Gmail signup top half

2004-05-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

This is the upper part of the success screen after signing up for Gmail

[ screenshot ] successful Gmail signup bottom half

2004-05-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

After signing up for Gmail, this tease splash screen comes up.

[ screenshot ] Gmail thread display (24 messages)

2004-05-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of what it looks like when you have a threaded message with Gmail. In this case there are 24 messages in the thread.

2004-05-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Comstar is wondering when somebody will send some email to his shiny new Gmail address. Anybody want to help him out? He also asks about spam, but I don't think he really wants to receive any spam. I am going to send him a quick hello note.

[ screenshot ] no mail in Gmail box message

2004-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

When you have no email in your Gmail inbox, Google encourages you to check out the outstanding Google News Now, if only we could get Google to add an RSS (or Atom) feed (wish, wish, hope, hope)

Delete the spams, get nine more

2004-05-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

By the time I mark as spam, I've got 9 more spams telling me:

- I should submit to search engines (duh!)
- I can make $100,000 per year on eBay
- Windows azlsv NT 4.0 and Windows rtno 2000 server? Are these new OS?
- how I can get the best prices on OEM software
- I received email from Nitwi M. Sigh (nice name!)
- About the email advertising that I'm not doing and my "inquiry x" that I never made
- But hey, there's effective weight loss now available

Don't you just love scanning email subject lines? These are so obviously spam that I would never click through to any of them.

One week equals 5 percent space used on GMail

2004-05-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, well, 4% as of the screenshot below ... but I'm guessing later today it will be 5%.

So here is where I'm at on Gmail space, just 4 hours shy of one week. I'm sure when the 4 hours is up, I'll be at 40MB which will be 5% of my Gmail allotment. Remember, this is my normal email inflow from a couple domains, this isn't me encouraging spam or signing up for special accounts. Here's my original blog entry last week when I turned on the switch.

At this rate, basic math tells me I'll have roughly 20 weeks or 4 months before I burn up the 1 gig allotment and need to start deleting. I'll continue to monitor this and update this until the space is gone.

2004-05-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

The blogger, Maritime Girl really wants a Gmail account and is listing the top 100 reasons she should be getting one.

[ screenshot ] Gmail vs. The Other Guys

2004-05-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Gmail vs. the other free email services

[ screenshot ] Gmail advertising that intrusive?

2004-05-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

Reading Gmail - is the advertising really that intrusive? I don't think so. Check it out along the right hand side. You can hardly tell it's there. Compare that to logging into Yahoo Groups and, well, there is no comparison.

[ screenshot ] creating a Gmail account

2004-05-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

Create a GMail account screenshot

Sleeping Monkey Blog rants about Gmail

2004-05-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Sleeping Monkey Blog:

"You know what the difference between Gmail, and Yahoo, and Hotmail is? (besides the fact you get 1GB of storage in Gmail). NOT A DAMN THING. It's not like it's going to spit out dollar bills through your CD ROM drive every time you log in. Why are people so excited about this?"

It's the search, mon, the seeeearrrch. It is that magic, mystical component that Yahoo and MSN have yet to be able to emulate as successfully. Fast, accurate search. The 1 GB is a gimmick, because yes it is true that setting up a POP box with multiple gigabytes of space is not that big of a deal.

User asks of Gmail: Do I really need yet another email address?

2004-05-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

bookofjoe asks:

"I mean, do I really need yet another email address? I've already got five. "

But you don't have one like Gmail! Gmail is different than "just another email account" ... is it better or worse? Time will tell.

Atom 0.3 to RSS 1.0 converter

2004-05-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

If your RSS reader cannot read Atom feeds (yet) then this service could be helpful: Atom 0.3 to RSS 1.0: "a simple Web service to convert Atom 0.3 XML feeds into RSS 1.0 ones" (I need to b-roll this as well)

The atom feed for this blog is located here: http://gmailtalk.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Gmail Gems

2004-05-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

Gmail Gems - tips and tricks for using Gmail (I need to b-roll this one)

Inside my Gmail: something I've never done before ...

2004-05-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

I did something I don't remember ever doing before a couple days ago: I actually responded to spam received to my Gmail account asking for more information. I was showing a spammer interest! This is virtual sacrilege.

The result? No response yet!

I thought the whole point with spam was to get people that were interested. So, here I respond to some spam with interest and I get ignored? What's up with that? No, I'm not going to run down the spammer and send a follow-up email. I do wonder, though ... here I'm getting 1000+ spams a day on average and the one time, the one time I respond, I get no response.

Amazing.

BTW, I just noticed when I went to post, this blog was listed first so I didn't have to choose from the dropdown menu. Very cool, thanks Google!

Gmail: from gigabyte to terabyte?

2004-05-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Things that ... make you go hmm - Google flirting with terabyte e-mail limit for Gmail?:

"Google must just have hard disk space to burn or something if they are contemplating offering folks a terabyte of storage ... could this be a reality?"

gmail swap

2004-05-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

gmail swap: "tells the people with Gmail about the people without."

Google lists (some) Gmail Reviews - news and blogposts

2004-05-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

Google lists some of their reviews that Gmail has received on their Gmail site.

Gmail News Reviews
Blog Posts

Darn, too bad this page is a PR0! I would have thought a link off of most any Google page is PR8, 9 or 10, although I guess Orkut is PR7.

Uster takes Gmail to limit and beyond: Gmail Stress Test

2004-05-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

One enterprising Gmail user wrote a program to bomb his own account with "heavy emails" just to see what would happen when the 1000 MB quota was reached: What if... Google Would Be Evil? (Part 4 of 10) | Gmail Stress Test | Attaching Keyword...

However, incoming mails still still got through, even at "1021 MB (102%) of my 1000 MB".
Could it be Gmail storage is in fact unlimited?

My current mailbox stats: You are currently using 14 MB (1%) of your 1000 MB:
4022 spam
74 legitimate

Gmail to bend to lawmaker pressure?

2004-05-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

What changes are lawmakers proposing with Gmail? Google hints at modifications to Gmail:

"According to the Oakland Tribune, Google had been locked in behind-the-scenes discussions with senators, one of whom said that Google has been 'very cooperative'. "

It will be interesting to see how this one shakes out.

So is it GMail or Gmail

2004-05-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

I have been using GMail and Gmail interchangeably when writing in this blog. Think I probably should be using the lowercase Gmail as that seems to be the most popular, although if you look at the Gmail logo, the M in mail is capitalized. This is a stupid little detail, or is it ... I like to be consistent. In the title of this blog I didn't use the capital M, but pretty much since that time I've used it.

So it will be Gmail from now on unless somebody comes along in the comments section and convinces me that it should indeed be as the "GMail" logo suggests.

My own, non-doctored, spam flow chewed up 5MB in one day

2004-05-16T12:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started diverting an email address since 1998 to GMail and also several of our domains through GMail. It's not all of my email but it's a good chunk of what I receive daily. This is sort of my own internal test like prattboy is running.

Spam received for first day, Saturday 5/14/04: 1446
GMail informs me: You are currently using 5 MB (1%) of your 1000 MB.

Guess this means at this rate I'll have about 100 days before I'm out of space, doesn't it? I'm not going to track it every day or spend much time analyzing the spam (Prattboy is already doing that), but I'll come back from time to time and give you an update with where I'm at with my own email.

It should be noted that he artificially requested an increase in spam delivery to his GMail box and I am just using the normal email that I receive every day, with one of those email addresses being active for over 6 years (1998-2004). I haven't published my GMail address anywhere, including here.

I'll have more to say about the spam and how to deal with it in GMail in future entries.

Grimms Fairy Tale comic on GMail at OK/Cancel

2004-05-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

The GMail Fairy? LOL! I love it: OK/Cancel

Let the onslaught begin

2004-05-15T09:12:00.000-07:00

Time to be deluged at GMail by the spam! I have now went in and set forwarders for several domains to start testing how good -- or bad -- the GMail filters are for spam detection.

90% of free email webmasters scammers and cheaters?

2004-05-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

During the Script School radio show today the discussion amon listeners came up in the chat about how several webmasters are blocking link submissions from free email using webmasters because of deceptive business practices. Things like once they get their site listed they take down the reciprocal link, redirecting the submitted URL, changing the site, etc. I suggested to the listeners that at least at this moment when GMail is not available to the masses it would be a good idea not to block submissions from GMail users.

This also got me wondering about the validity of these claims. It is true that if someone wants a free email address they are available easily. When I signed up for Yahoo I opted not to receive the email address. We also do not use our cable email address at this time. We never used the DSL one either for our office or home.

I do use GMail though. At least now I'm using it as a way to better manage some of my email. Will I go away from it once it becomes available to the masses? Perhaps for regular usage, but I still like the search aspect of it and I think it is easily better than Yahoo or Hotmail. I'm still getting used to it though and I still have a bunch of screenshots to share when I get to it.

Now if only I can figure out how to change the default dropdown option in Blogger so that it goes to this blog and not my other one whenever I make a post. Guess I need to search the knowledge base ...

GMail influence? Yahoo free email storage to increase to 100MB

2004-05-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

With all due respect to Yahoo, it is somewhat disingenuous to suggest that this move to increase their free email storage to 100 MB doesn't have anything to do with GMail offering users in beta 1GB of storage. Things that ... make you go hmm Yahoo free email storage to increase to 100MB

100MB = "virtually unlimited"? That's a nice spin. But hey, it's cool for Yahoo users that they get that much more space. Do Yahoo free email users have GMail to thank or is this just an odd coincidence?

GMail filtering Yahoo Groups verification as spam

2004-05-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

This should be helpful to those who have switched their Yahoo Groups email address to a GMail one and are not getting the verification emails through their GMail account: Mixing Google GMail and Yahoo Groups Search Engine News Journal:

"Google, while testing its new GMail email, has issued trial accounts to many Blogger owners and search/email opinion leaders and journalists. Recently there has been a discussion on the Blogger User Support group about GMail not mixing with Yahoo email addresses. When switching Yahoo Groups addresses from previous emails to Google GMail addresses, the GMail spam filter automatically filed the Yahoo Verification Emails as spam."

How long to fill up a Gmail account with spam?

2004-05-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

It seems Prattboy wants to find out and is blogging his results: Spam My Gmail Account (prattboy@gmail.com):

"How long does it take to fill up 1 Gig of storage with spam? How well do Gmail's junk filters work? Let's find out! Spam my shiny new G-mail account at prattboy@gmail.com Give my address to spammers, newsletters, annoying people, whatever, and let's see how long it takes!"

I could redirect some of my spam to him but I'm guessing he wouldn't like that too well ... I currently receive 1000-2000 emails per day with 98% of it being spam.

Rumor mill: Google Building Enterprise Gmail

2004-05-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

A rumor is circulating about GMail in: Google Building Enterprise Gmail:

"A Google employee revealed to someone attending the Toronto Search Engine Strategies conference that Google has plans to launch an email product for the enterprise."

Feedster Search: gmailtalk.blogspot.com

2004-05-10T21:08:00.000-07:00

Took a little bit, but this blog is finally listed at Feedster:
Feedster Search: gmailtalk.blogspot.com

If your RSS reader isn't ATOM-friendly, then you can use this: Feedster RSS feed for Gmail Talk Blog