New Yahoo Mail (Beta)

So Yahoo launched their new yahoo mail (Beta) which I switched to today....and then switched back for 2 crucial reasons. The new layout had a much thicker header taking up much more screen real estate than the current layout. This is a huge blunder and problem that yahoo MUST fix before releasing the new version. I for one will not switch unless the header is brought back to the current size. The second reason was that the inbox has gone back to page views. While in the current mail layout just scrolling down will load the older email as you scroll, the new layout has gone back to the even older yahoo mail where the inbox was divided into pages of 20, 50, or 100 emails. I find this an unnecessary return to older design principles which are less user-friendly. While Yahoo mail is still props over Gmail through the use of tabs, these new backward features will set the mail service behind once more.

Google Reader

I am a follower of the official Gmail blog. It started when I saw a Gmail post on the Gmail site (before you login) and decided to follow it. I must say, they don't post drivel on that blog. It's all pretty useful stuff. So I pretty much frequented the Gmail blog and learned new useful stuff about my Gmail with every new post they posted there. That was also where I learned about Google Calendar and recently about Google Reader. This is the direct link to the post: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/find-great-stuff-to-read-in-google.html. I must say that I am now hooked to Google Reader and I can't believe that I lived without this useful tool for so long.

Google Reader is a web based feed reader. Basically, this means that a feed enabled website (most websites) can be viewed through this reader as posts whenever there is an update on the website. There are a bunch of websites that I check everyday for my hobbies, entertainment and latest news. Not all these websites have updates everyday nor are most of these updates interesting to me. Before Google Reader, I would visit each of these websites everyday in search of the latest updates. Most times I would just forget about one particular website and by the time I visit it next, I have already missed several posts which are no longer relevant for today. Even if they are not time dependent, I would feel lazy to go back read each and every post that I missed. Google Reader has simplified this process by bringing all the updates to all my favourite websites to one place. I can read the new post directly in Google Reader or I can click the link and go to the website to read it. To me, it is the most useful tool since the advent of email and I would never have known about it unless I read the Gmail blog (which is now one of my many Google Reader subscriptions).

Google Reader even enables me to read posts/updates on websites that are months old. Nothing downloads to your computer because everything just loads as you scroll down to older posts...and it just keeps going. I bet that it is possible to scroll down to the very first post of any website. I find Google Reader particularly useful for reading blogs, and webcomics. Below is a screenshot of my subscriptions.


Notice that the boston.com's "The Big Picture" is a feed that is not updated everyday; but when they do post(usually thrice a week), it is not a post to miss. I also find it useful to follow webcomics which I am a fan of. Some comics update everyday while others update only once a week. So instead of wasting time (I consider reading comics a waste of time) everyday checking the websites to see if there is an update, I just check my Google Reader to see if there are any new updates on the websites. Since the essence of the comic is in the post itself, there is no need to visit the website because I can just read the comic from Google Reader itself.


A word of caution though. When you first sign up for Google Reader, you will be given the option to subscribe to a bunch of "recommended websites" which I maintain are crap. Not only are they useless, they would intimidate you with hundreds of unread posts which you might be compelled to read, get frustrated with the volume and ditch Google Reader as a result. Just start with a clean slate go to your favourite website (eg. abstrusegoose.com) and click the following icon:In other websites, there might not be an icon. It might just say "RSS", "RSS feed" or "Atom feed". So long as you are able to subscribe to the feeds, you can add it to Google Reader. Click the Google icon:If it does not appear, just choose Google from the list of readers. It will then give you the option of adding it to your Google homepage or Google reader. Choose Google Reader and you are all set! Try Google Reader on a few webcomics (it's the best way to test it out) to start off and then decide whether to make Google Reader a part of your life.

Gmail Labs that you should activate

I know for a fact that there are lots of people out there who still use Yahoo mail or Hotmail as their primary emails. To say that these email providers are obsolete is an understatement. Gmail has revolutionized email and continues to do so everyday. The stand alone Gmail without any lab experiments activated still beats Yahoo mail and Hotmail by miles. If you add selected lab experiments to your Gmail, you get to use email in its futuristic form. I never thought that email could have inline video embedding, ever! Gmail however, has made this possible in one of their lab features. I have summarized the most useful lab features available below.

1. Youtube previews: This is the video embedding feature I was talking about. Right now, it only supports youtube videos; but I'm sure this will expand to other video formats very soon.

2. Tasks: This creates a small notpad thingy where you can make notes or just jot down your daily tasks. A very quick and efficient way to write down and check your daily tasks.

3. Superstars: I recommend using either superstars or Gmail's inbuilt labels feature. Use one; not both. The function is to organize mail and keep your mail in easy to find categories. Personally, I use labels and don't see a real need to add superstars.

4. Old snakey: It's a game...and it gets pretty tough as you get to the higher levels. I like games like this that are simple yet challenging. It's also the only game on the list. You can add it...or not. It doesn't have anything to do with email; but whenever you need some fun, "old snakey" is always there.

5. Canned responses: This is perfect for those emails that require the exact same reply over and over again. Just store your template and use it whenever you need to.

6. Navbar drag and drop: This is required to rearrange your layout in your main Gmail page. The ability to customize your layout by moving your chat box, calendar box or labels box to optimum positions can have a significant affect on the way you work.

7. Forgotten Attachment Detector: This feature is genius. The amount of embarrassment this has saved me is too much to measure. It is a must have for all email users.

8. Multiple Inboxes: This is perfect for people having multiple email accounts. You can have up to 9 inboxes in your main page. It can also filter messages within your inbox, or sent items or even drafts and display them in your main page as a seperate inbox.

10. Undo send: This too is a must have embarrassment saver. It gives you a 5 second window to undo the message you just sent.

11. Search Autocomplete: This is a very useful feature for suggesting contacts, labels and attachments in the Gmail search button in the Gmail main page.

12. Inserting Images: I wrote a post not long ago where I described how you could add images to your email inline with the text using the "Send to" button on the Google toolbar. This lab feature now enables you to do exactly that. It looks like the Gmail team really do listen to their customers which is more than what can be said for the Hotmail team.

13. Google Calendar gadget: I use google calendar for my work. This gadget is perfect for reminding me of my appointments without having to go to the calendar homepage.

14. Add any gadget by URL: This is a good feature to activate; but since most of the google gadgets are not designed for Gmail, it might be not work as it should. Still, no harm in having a look through the gadget library and trying out some of your favourite gadgets in Gmail.

There are other gadgets which I'm sure are useful to lots of users; but lab features in the list I have compiled are perhaps the most important and most useful of them all. If you are still using Yahoo mail or Hotmail, I have only one piece of advice....ditch those pieces of s*** and switch to Gmail which just works!

Also, do check out the Gmail blog which is updated whenever there are new features added to Gmail or Gmail labs.

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com

How to Embed images in Gmail

Gmail is perhaps the most elegant and advanced free email services on the internet today. Google labs has made it even more flexible by allowing unbelievable customization. But the one thing that I was not able to do in Gmail was to embed images into my email messages. It's frustrating because an embedded image positioned in the right place in the body of the text has a significantly bigger impact than sending the images as attachments.

The suggestion on the internet by many people is to upload the image to a web hosting site and copy the image from there like text by dragging and highlighting the image. And then pasting it into your gmail message. But the process of selecting and copying the image is messy and very unreliable. You have to make sure not to copy any background text, tables, hyperlinks or any other doodles. If the image is the only item in the page, then it is difficult to select the image because it's difficult to know where to start dragging especially if it's an image that is bigger than the size of your screen. Also, I find that even after I have successfully copied the image, when I paste it in Gmail, the image still does not appear in the message most of the time; and I have to go back and repeat the steps until I get it right. Then I discovered a more simple and elegant solution that ALWAYS works.

You will need:
1. Google toolbar
2. An image on the internet.

I'm sure almost everyone who uses the internet has the Google toolbar. If you don't, you can stop reading this because you came to this post by accident. For the people who use the toolbar, lots of them do not activate the "Send to" button in the toolbar. Go to the Google toolbar Settings-->Click Options-->Click More-->Click Send to. That's it. You are done!



Now you need an image. If the image is not on the internet, you have to get it up there using photobucket or flickr or any image hosting site. Once you get it up, just go to that image url (see sample), click the "Send to" button and select Gmail. This will automatically embed the image into a new Gmail message. From there, you can copy it to another message or just use that message to send your email.

It's far simpler and less complicated than trying to highlight the image because this just works. This is a picture I took which has been uploaded to photobucket. Just go to this link and click the "Send to" Gmail to test this out.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y56/irfan_mailme/DSCF0421.jpg

Ta-daa!


Incidentally, the "Send to" button will add any highlighted text with images on any web page (you can highlight this post- images and all and "Send to" Gmail to see this work). It's a very cool function that I use a lot. I hope this solves the image embedding problem for all Gmail users.