Gmail Contact Manager Making Big Improvements

Gmail's contact manager has traditionally been terrible. Since the release of Android, Google's mobile phone system, they have made some significant improvements. Today, they officially rid themselves of the Double Stamp seal of suckiness. I'm proud to say I can now use gmail contacts without getting mad.

It's not perfect yet, but way better. Read here for the new features.

New Gmail Features: Remote Logout and Account Activity

Email has become an essential form of communication, and there is no doubt that keeping our email accounts secure is of high importance. Web-based email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail, are excellent tools because they allow you to check your email from anywhere at any time. This also creates a security issue, because anyone who somehow gets your password will be able to log into your account from another computer. For you Gmail users, however, this just became MUCH less of a problem.

Gmail just released a new feature that allows you to see how many computers are logged into your account, when they logged in, and what the IP addresses of those computers are. At the bottom of your email inbox, there is now a line that looks like this:



Why is this helpful? Well, if someone is logging into your account from somewhere else, you will see that more than one computer is logged in, and you will know that something is wrong. This morning I opened my gmail to find that someone from another computer had accessed my account. I looked up the IP address and noticed that it was coming from the online contact management website called Plaxo. It's possible that Plaxo is accessing my account to import my contacts, but I was completely unaware of the situation. I am now investigating why this is happening, and have sent Plaxo a request for an explanation.

Another extremely useful feature is that you can now "remotely logout" of your gmail account. Have you ever left your gmail account open on another computer? Now, you can click into the "details" link on the account activity line, and then click "Sign Out All Other Sessions." This will log you out from the other computers so that no one can mess with your account. Superb!

Gmail 101: Labels and Archiving

No! Gmail does not need "folders!"

Recently, and on more than one occasion, people have complained to me that Gmail does not have a "folders" feature for organizing email. They said that their inbox was really cluttered in Gmail because they couldn't move their emails into folders. I am here to tell you that it DOES in fact have this capability. In fact, it can do more than regular folder organization can.

First of all, a "label" is the same thing as a "folder," only a single email can be given multiple labels for convenience. For example, let's say that you get an email with the subject "Job Fair at the University." You could apply the labels "Job" and "School" to this email.

Secondly, if you would like to move an email out of your inbox without deleting it, simply click the button that says "Archive." This will take it out of your inbox, but you will still be able to find it under the labels that you have applied. Archived email can also be found under the "All mail" link.

If you're interested in automatically applying labels and archiving, check out this help file on Gmail filters.

Task Lists (To-Do) in Gmail

Don't you wish Gmail had a nice task list feature? Maybe something like this:


Looks really cool, right? This article will show you how to set it up in about 3 minutes using the Firefox web browser.

First of all, you need a free account with the Internet's best task list service Remember the Milk. You can learn more about it by reading my previous post, or by visiting their tour. After you set up your free account, all you have to do is download and install the Remember the Milk for Gmail Firefox extension.

After installing the extension, just restart Firefox, log in to Gmail, and BOOM, you've got yourself a feature-rich task list right along side of your inbox. Excellent! Be sure to read up on all the great features that this extension has. The people over at Remember the Milk really are doing some exceptional work.

Are Your Gmail Contacts a Huge Mess?

Gmail is one of my favorite internet products of all time, but it's contact manager sucks. Many of you who have tried to manage your contacts in Gmail have probably given up and used some other site or software. This article is how to keep track of your contacts in Gmail, without pulling your hair out.

The biggest problem with Gmail contacts is that anyone who you send an email automatically gets added to your contact list. This can obviously drive you crazy when you go to look up a friends phone number, and have to sift through all the people that you emailed one time, and can't even remember who they are. It also creates a problem when you accidentally type someone's email incorrectly. Then, when you go back to send another email, you can't remember which one is correct. If your like most people, your Gmail contacts are probably a huge mess, so here's how you fix it.

Does your Gmail contact list look like this?

Go into the contact manager by clicking the "Contacts" link on the right side of the page. Next, click the button that has a plus sign and a picture of two cartoon people. A box will pop up that says "What would you like to name this group?" Enter something like "My Contacts" and click OK.

Now you have a new group for contacts that will only be added to if you intentionally tell Gmail to put a contact in this group. You'll need to spend some time adding your existing contacts into your system. To do this, select the contacts from the "All Contacts" group and then click the button that says "Groups->Add to...->My Contacts." If you are using another program for contacts, you'll need to import them into Gmail first.

Now that you have a new contact group, you can manage your contacts without Gmail screwing them up. Keep in mind that you can create any number of groups to solve the problem. For example, you could create a separate group for family, friends, and business contacts. When you need to find a number or address, just jump to your new group for a list without the clutter and incorrect contacts. It's a simple solution, but it's already saved me a headache.

There are still a lot of things that Google needs to do to improve it's contact management system, but this will at least get you by. If you'd like to join me in requesting Google to improve this system, use this page.

Gmail Features Everyone Should Know

Google's Gmail is by far the best web-based email system to date. In fact, I prefer it to any other email client that is on the market, including programs such as Microsoft's Outlook or Mozilla's Thunderbird. It's quiet design is refreshing, and the threaded conversations keep your inbox nice and tidy. On top of the great design, there are some powerful tools that allow Gmail users to organize and track their email very efficiently. Let's face it, most of you use your email multiple times every day. Isn't it worth a little time learning how to get your Gmail running like a well oiled machine? If you don't have Gmail, you can sign up for a free account if you'd like to try it.

Trick #1: Tracking Your Email with a "+"

When you add a "+sometexthere" to your email address in Gmail, it will still arrive in your inbox. For example, let's say that your email address is bob@gmail.com. Sending an email to bob+doublestamp@gmail.com, or bob+anything@gmail.com will still send the email to bob@gmail.com. Why is this useful? Because you can track where people are getting your email address from.

Next time you go to sign up for something on the internet, add a "+website" to your email address. For example, if you are signing up for ebay, you could sign up using the email bob+ebay@gmail.com. Now, if you start receiving tons of spam, all of which are addressed to "bob+ebay@gmail.com," you will know that ebay shared your information with other companies!

Note: Sometimes websites won't allow you to place a "+" character in your email. If this is the case, use trick #2.

Trick #2: Dots don't matter

Dots in Gmail addresses are ignored. That means that if you send an email to double.stamp@gmail.com, it's the same as sending it to doublestamp@gmail.com or d.oubl.e.st.am.p@gmail.com. This can be handy if the "+" is not allowed by a website to which you are signing up. Instead, you can add dots in certain places, then write down where you put them for a given website. For example, if you sign up for ebay, you could use b.o.b@gmail.com instead of bob@gmail.com. If you start getting spam addressed to b.o.b, then you know that ebay spilled the beans on you.

This trick can be useful to sign up for multiple accounts on the same website, since most will not allow you to use an email address that is already registered in their system.

Trick #3 (not really a trick): Using filters and labels

One of the best things about gmail is the ability to easily create custom filters to organize your incoming email. You can filter your email in almost any way that you can think of. For example, let's say that you would like to redirect any email that has the word "AOL" directly to your trash folder (I hate AOL). You would just go to Settings->Filters->Create New Filter and fill out the form appropriately. On the next page, you just check the box that says "delete it," and your done.

A "label" is exactly that, a label or tag on your emails. You can set up a "label" based on your filter criteria. For example, you could apply the label "family" to any email that arrives from someone in your family. Labels can help you quickly find past emails, and they keep your inbox tidy.

An example: Slammin' that Spam

Time for a real world example of how to use all these gmail features. These instructions will help you set up a spam bustin' system.

1. Set up a "junk email" gmail account. Something like yourname.junk@gmail.com.
2. Set the new junk account to forward all your email to your real account. To do this, go to Settings -> Forwarding and Pop and fill out the box.
3. Set up a FILTER in your real gmail account. In the filter criteria, place your junk email address in the "FROM:" box so that the filter will be applied to any emails forwarded from your junk mail account.
   
4. Next, choose to "Apply a label" and select "New label..."
   
5. Name the label something like "Junk account" or "Bulk mail"
6. Click "Create filter."

Da-duh! You're done. Now, when you sign up for that next website, put in your JUNK email address, and use the "+" or "." trick (as discussed above) to tag the site. If that website sends you an email, you will still receive it in your real email because it will automatically forward. You will see who is responsible for the email by looking at the "+tag" part of the email. If you start getting too much spam in your real email address, all you have to do is either stop the forwarding, or create a filter in the junk mail account! Spaminora!