Today, the case is different and Google, MSN and to a lesser extent Yahoo, dominate the online messaging market. Facebook is also gaining momentum in this niche.

Enable Chatting with AIM buddies on Gmail!

• If you visit your Gmail page, it shows  an option to add AOL users directly into chat.
• Just add a contact into chat contacts list directly in the format “username@aol.com”.
• The difference here is that to add AOL contacts you do not need to have a AOL account yourself.

We cannot chat with contacts from one service to another unless we have an account. For example I cannot chat with my Facebook friends on Gmail without signing up with Facebook.

This is very strange when compared to email. We can send emails from one service provider to another without any trouble.

AOL has done the right thing!

AOL has done the right thing, by allowing Gmail users to chat with AOL users directly without the need to sign-up with AOL. This is possibly an admission on AOL’s part that it is not the dominant force it was once when it came to internet communication.

With offline messages, chat sometimes is often used as replacement for short emails.

What are you views on instant messaging? Do you think anyone from any account should be able to add each other like they do with email now? Do drop in your comments.

Source: Gmail Blog

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Gmail has announced that it is allowing storage of up to 25,000 contacts. The previous number allowed was 10,000.

Also the amount of space used by one particular contact has been increased from 32 KB to 128 KB. This size increase can help professionals mainly to keep notes and more data per contact. I doubt that someone might actually use up to 128 KB for all 25,000 contacts.

This increase of size limit, means we can store up to 3 GB of contacts!

Gmail’s recent subtle changes!

Gmail has recently made some subtle changes with features and options. With allowing personal images to be inserted in Gmail layout to sending emails in the background while surfing the inbox, Gmail is back to old roots.

Now, with a lot of businesses using Google Apps for their email needs, Gmail has needed to evolve more. Also with Chrome OS, Gmail id will come more into focus with all your data being tied to that Google account.

Do drop in your comments.

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The time between sending the mail and the Inbox can go up if your connection is slow.

Enable Gmail to send emails in the background while you are free to look-up other emails in your inbox.

Gmail’s Background Send Feature

• While on Gmail, look up the Labs feature, and search for “Background Send”. Enable the Background Send and click on “Save Changes”.
• This will allow sending emails in the background while you get to view the Inbox (see image below).

• Another great feature is if your email cannot be sent for a particular reason, it allows you to take action later and keep surfing your inbox in the meanwhile.

Most people who use Gmail once a day, might not really think much of this option but it will be very useful for people who receive and send 20-30 emails daily.

I will definitely use this for a few days to see how much it helps with productivity.

Will you be trying out Gmail’s Background Send? Do drop in your view through your comments.

Source: Gmail Blog

Related: Customize Gmail’s background with your own personal photos

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How to add your own image on Gmail Layout

• Sign-in to your Gmail account and look up settings. Settings can be looked up by clicking on the right hand corner icon that looks like a gear wheel.
• Now in Mail Settings look up the Themes tab. You will see the option of many ready to use themes.

• At the end look up Create your own Theme, which will a window that lets your customize colours and fonts.
• On the right hand corner of the window you can see a drop-down option which allows you to add the background image (see image below).

Select your personal photos and customize your Gmail layouts background.

This is a new and nice addition to Gmail, which will allow people to make their email a little more personal. Do try it out and drop in your views through your comments.

Credit: Gmail Blog

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For example, press “/” and the cursor is put in the search box. While reading an email, press “p” and the cursor moves to the previous message.

The logic behind these keyboard shortcuts is to use Gmail without using the mouse and hence speeding up your Gmail experience.

You can look up all your Gmail shortcuts at this link.  Recently Gmail has made it easier to access this list.

While you are on Gmail, just press “Shift + ?” and Gmail will display all the keyboard shortcuts. This means you can look them up without leaving Gmail. Also we can  now directly enable keyboard shortcuts from this screen itself.

Video

Gmail has tweaked a lot of features which make it a great service. This will make not just Gmail fans very happy but also newbies on Gmail. Do drop in your comments.

Source: Gmail Blog

Related: Common Keyboard shortcuts rarely used

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This feature is presently available only to Gmail users based in the USA however I have seen the feature a few times on my Gmail too. Mystery remains unrevealed!!

New Features

Coming to the point as the official blog said, there are 2 features added.

• Users will no longer need to type a phone number if they have it in a conversation in their Inbox.

Clicking the linked number in your conversation will open your dial-pad populated with that number.

• You will also see a little green colour phone icon next to phone numbers stored with your Contacts.

My Experience

I know I live in India and still nothing as such will work for users in India, though I would still like to share my screen with you.

I have hidden parts of the address/phone number for privacy reasons

As you can all see, there was no link appearing on the phone number above. Though I strongly wish to see a link appearing soon, what you all have to say on that? Do share your thoughts with me!

Source: Gmail Official Blog

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Google has announced a lab feature called SmartLabel which quickly creates a notification label and applies it to emails automatically.

SmartLabels in Gmail Labs

• Just look up under settings and click on Labs.
• In GMail Labs, search for ‘SmartLabels’ and you will be shown the smart labels feature. Enable it and save the changes.
• Once SmartLabels is enabled, similar emails are automatically sorted out and you can find them under a new label called notification.

Here is a short video on how to go about it:

This is a nice improvement for users who are not using Filters. I have an alternate Gmail account which does get a few updates from subscriptions and also get some personal mail. Because I do not use this account everyday, I was lazy enough to not take time and create filters on this account. I found SmartLabels a better alternative.

Do drop in your comments and views.

Source: Gmail Blog

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The problem has been explained by Gmail it is blog, along with also commenting on it further.

Gmail’s explanation…

Gmail explains that they do have data stored at multiple locations but the bug ended up infecting systems at multiple places. This led to the various Gmail accounts being affected.

Why did the bug affect Gmail users?

Gmail released a storage update which had an unexpected bug. This bug led to emails being deleted for over 150,000 accounts. I guess over the next week, some heads will roll in the Gmail team for this bug.

Gmail has all the data backed up to physical tape which is not online and hence does not get affected with bugs. This has allowed Gmail to restore all the accounts except that it is taking them well over 40 hours now.

Will Cloud computing be affected?

The answer for the short-term is yes. Especially as this has happened with Google, the champion of storing things on cloud. The new Chrome OS with all your files being stored on the cloud does not sound appealing if a bug over the weekend can wipeout your data and you cannot access the data for over 40 hours!

In the long-term, I do hope Google learns from these mishaps and improves cloud computing technology.

What are your views on this issue? Has your confidence in storing files on the cloud been shaken? Do drop in your comments.

Source: Gmail Blog

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Yesterday morning though did not happen personally to me, heard a lot of noise in the Google gallery. News about Gmail accidentally deleting entire data of about 5,00,000 Gmail accounts started spreading like wildfire and here’s a sample.

What did the Bug do?

An unknown bug cleaned up entire Gmail accounts of many users giving them a feel as if they have just opened a new account. Even the chat records vanished with 3 new emails welcoming the user to Gmail.

Image Credits

What now?

Google has already acknowledged the problem and has issued a statement that the engineers are working on the problem and accounts will be restored soon. There is another update which says only 0.08% of the accounts got effected by the bug (or 1,50,000 Gmail accounts) and not 5,00,000 accounts as believed earlier.

Latest: Recent updates claim that some of the accounts have already been restored and rest will be done as early as possible, but no specific timeframe provided.

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You need to set up the Priority Inbox feature on your desktop version first and then only it will be available to you on your mobile web app. Don’t forget to drop in your comments.

Source: Google Mobile Official Blog

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