Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

gmail-labs posts

Filed under: E-mail, Google, Beta, Web

Gmail's "Got the wrong Bob?" helps avoid misfired emails

Gmail Bob
Gmail's auto-complete address feature is kind of awesome. I can't remember the last time I actually looked up a contact's email address before sending a message in Gmail. Instead I just start typing their name and Gmail usually locates the address within a few characters.

But there's a downside. Sometimes you'll have more than one contact with the same first name. If you've ever sent a message to the wrong Dave, Jen, or Bob, there's a new Gmail labs feature that can help... sometimes.

The feature is called "Got the wrong Bob?" and it works much like the "Don't forget Bob" feature that was already available in Gmail labs. When the Don't forget feature is enabled, Gmail will pay attention as you start to type a list of email addresses. If that list looks similar to lists of recipients for previous email addresses, it will automatically suggest additional people you may want to include.

Instead of suggesting recipients, Got the wrong Bob will notice if you normally send emails to Paul Simon, Neil Young, and Art Garfunkel and if you accidentally address a new message to Art Vandelay instead of Garfunkel Gmail will ask if you meant to send the message to the other Art.

Of course, there's no way for Gmail to know if you've got the wrong Bob when you're sending a message to a single recipient. But that's why you should really pay more attention to what you're doing in the first place.

Filed under: E-mail, Google

Want to see GMail subjects instead of tons of labels? Hide 'em in labs


Thanks to GMail on my iPod Touch I've gotten used to a label-free view of my inbox. The actual subjects of the message I receive are much more important to me than seeing how my filters auto-sort things. Let's face it, by now most of you probably know whose messages get labeled as what.

Don't need the multitude of multicoloralism cluttering your inbox? Head over to the labs page and turn on remove labels from subjects.

If you work on a cramped screen at all (hello, netbook users!) you'll likely welcome the change. Instead of subjects getting shoved rudely aside by multiple labels, you'll actually be able to glimpse what new messages are about before opening them.

Labels are great for sorting things, but I'm glad I can now enable a more minimal look for my inbox.

[via Official GMail blog]

Filed under: E-mail, Google

Gmail tweaks labels, kind of turns them into folders

Gmail labels dragn and drop
Google is rolling out a handful of changes to the way it handles labels in Gmail. First, labels are moving into the top left-side navigation area, right by your shortcuts for inbox, sent, starred, and other items. You can also choose to hide some labels while showing others.

Probably one of the biggest changes is that users will now be able to drag and drop messages into labels. In other words, you can sort your messages much the same way that you would add them to folders in almost any other webmail system.

Google is also removing the "right-side labels" feature from Gmail labs. The company says the new labels behavior makes it unnecessary. But try telling that to users who have gotten used to their labels hanging out in a sidebar on the right side of their screens.

The new features aren't showing up in my inbox yet, but Google has a way of rolling these kinds of changes out gradually to some groups of users before others. Have you noticed any changes to your Gmail interface? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Filed under: E-mail, Google, Beta

Preview your inbox before Gmail finishes loading

Gmail inbox previewGmail may have a simple look and feel, but there's a lot of JavaScript running behind the scenes. And that means that even if you're using Google's own web browser, it can take a while for Gmail to load properly. But what if you need to see what's in your inbox right now and you cannot possibly wait?

There's a new feature in Gmail Labs called Inbox Preview that will actually show you the 10 most recent message headers in your inbox while you're waiting for Gmail to fully load.

Honestly, I'm not sure how useful this feature is, since 90% of the time Gmail loads quickly enough for me that I would have to struggle to read even the first message header before it disappears. But if you have a slower system, maybe you'll find Inbox Preview more helpful.

To enable the feature, login to your Gmail account and click the little green bottle icon next to the settings link at the top of your screen. Then scroll down until you find Inbox Preview and click the enable button.

Filed under: E-mail, Google

New Gmail feature will suggest recipients for your emails

Gmail suggest mor eusers
There's a new experimental feature in Gmail labs that you probably didn't know you needed until it existed. OK, you still probably don't *need* it, but it's a great example of how a service like Gmail can take the information it automatically gathers about your behavior and use it to make the simple act of sending an email easier.

Here's how it works. If you enable the "Suggest more recipients" option in Gmail Labs (which you can find by clicking the green test tube icon in the Gmail menu), Gmail will attempt to suggest people in your contact lists you might want to add to group emails. For example, if you have five friends that you frequently forward pictures of cute puppies to, the next time you enter two of their names, a menu should pop up suggesting you also include the other three contacts on your email.

You'll need to enter at least two names before the suggestion feature kicks in. And it only works if you've regularly sent emails to groups of people. If you enter the names of two people who you've never sent group messages to before, no suggestions will appear.

Filed under: E-mail, Google, Search

Gmail Labs gets an autocomplete feature

Gmail Autocomplete
Google has added the ability to turn on autocomplete for the Gmail search box. In order to enable autocomplete, you'll need to visit the Gmail Labs section and enable Search Autocomplete.

Once enabled, you'll notice that when you start typing anything in the search box Gmail will start to offer suggestions. If you enter the first few letters of a person's name, for example, you should see a list of email address from your contact list that include those leters.

But one of the coolest things that autocomplete does is it helps you navigate Gmail's advanced search operators. For example, if you wanted to search for emails with attachments in the past, you had to enter "has:attachments." If you couldn't remember the correct operator, you had to click the "show search options" button. Now you can just start typing "att" into the search box and see what pops up.

Filed under: E-mail, Google, Beta

The problem with Gmail Labs: Remember The Milk gadget goes dark

Remember The Milk Gmail gadgetI don't know about you, but I've gotten so used to the Beta label in Gmail that I don't really take it seriously anymore. Sure, Gmail is still a work in progress, but it's been pretty reliable with just a few hours of downtime over the last few years.

But there's beta, and then there's Gmail Labs, which is a collection of admittedly experimental add-ons and tweaks for Google's email service. The problem is that while intellectually I know these plugins are experimental, I kind of expect them to work as well as Gmail. And sometimes they don't.

Case in point: The Remember The Milk task manager gadget for Gmail. I first wrote about this gadget for Gmail labs in November and I've been using it ever since. Today it stopped working.

When you try to add the gadget, you get an error message stating that it's an "invalid gadget specification." There's no information about the change available from Gmail or Remember The Milk. But if you've grown used to having the RTM task manager in your Gmail sidebar, it's a sad day.

It's possible that Gmail or Remember The Milk broke compatibility with a recent update. Or it's possible that Gmail wants to encourage users to switch to the official Google task list. Hopefully we'll know soon enough. But the takeaway point here is that it can be dangerous to rely on experimental features as if they were officially supported.

Update:
Thanks to Will for pointing out a workaround for the Remember The Milk Gmail gadget. Just use the HTTPS version instead of the HTTP version of the URL. But the larger point is still valid: Somebody (either Google or RTM) broke the compatibility of this feature, and it could happen again.

Update: And support for the gadget using the original URL is back.

Filed under: Internet, E-mail, Web services, Google, web 2.0

10 GMail Labs features worth enabling

The GMail crew has been doing a great job of adding useful features of late -- some of them right into GMail, others in Labs. If you haven't clicked on the little green beaker in the top toolbar yet, there are plenty of excellent features worth turning on. Here are 10 that I find particularly useful.


Offline
Arguably the most powerful feature available in labs right now. Offline access requires the installation of Google Gears, but it's an invaluable option for anyone who needs access to their inbox any time internet access isn't available.

Undo Send
Newly added, the five-second windows is just long enough to evaluate any misgivings you might have or catch the rare but horrendous typo that you didn't notice was underlined.


Media Previews
Apart from the obvious convenience of previewing Flickr and Picasa images and Yelp comments below a message, the YouTube preview is a much less obvious way for you to watch that clip your buddy sent you about the kid that just left the dentist's office.

Read more →

Filed under: E-mail, Web services, Google, Beta, web 2.0

Gmail labs adds previews for YouTube, Flickr, more


Word came down today from the official GMail Blog that several new preview options had been added in GMail labs. Included are YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, and Yelp, and you can choose to activate previews on a per-site basis.

The previews may not always work - my test attachment, Tay Zonady's epic YouTube video Chocolate Rain, failed to appear in both Firefox and Google Chrome. I did succeed with my other attempts: linked Flickr images appeared in both browsers, as did Yelp comments.

If nothing else, the new feature should make it a little bit easier for you to watch the viral videos your cohorts email you during the work day. GMail's message view is definitely more discreet than pulling up YouTube in a new window or tab.

[via Google Operating System]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, web 2.0, Web

Theme GMail your way with a custom color scheme


First they rolled out themes, now Google has decided to give us free reign over the look of our Gmail inbox.

That's right, you're no longer limited to Google's 31 pre-made themes - you can now fully customize your color scheme. The template allows you to choose colors via a panel of presets, or you can click the + symbol to access the full range of available colors. The preview updates instantly as you make your color choices.

Once you've got things set up the way you like them, just click save and close and your new design will be applied.

[ via Google Blogoscoped ]

Filed under: E-mail, Google

Multiple Inboxes adds extra panes to Gmail

Multiple Inboxes
Gmail lets you sort messages by labels, starred items, or other items like sent mail, inbox, spam or drafts. But up until now there's been no way to see all of that information on one page. You had to apply one filter at a time, or do one search after another to bring up all the information you were looking for.

Multiple Inboxes changes that. The tool is part of Gmail Labs, which means you can enable it by clicking the little green icon next to the Gmail settings link. Once you enable Multiple Inboxes you'll notice a few extra panes hanging out next to yor main Gmail window. You can adjust what shows up in these areas by clicking the settings link.

For example, you can see all of your starred items in one panel, while viewing all items with attachments in another.

Multiple Inboxes will probably work best for users with high resolution, wide screen monitors. If you've got a 1024 x 768 pixel display, there's a good chance you're going to have a hard time reading your message headers when running this tool.

Filed under: E-mail, Google, Beta

Google to launch Gmail labs: Allow you to test beta features

Gmail labs
Sure, Gmail's been in beta since is launched almost four years ago. But you know that Google has thoroughly tested the email service at this point. And before publicly rolling out any features, the company conducts thorough internal tests. But now Google is getting ready to let the general public get in on the action with the launch of Gmail Labs.

Here's how it works. Starting tonight at 6pm PST, you should notice a new tab in your Gmail settings marked "Labs." When you click that tab, you'll have the option of adding new beta services that have not yet been extensively tested. As of tonight, there should be about 13 new features, including:
  • A tool that lets you bookmark specific gmail messages
  • Superatars tool that lets you choose custom stars to label your mail
  • Mouse Gestures
  • See profile pictures in Gmail chat
  • An "email addict" option that lets you ban yourself from checking your email for 15 minutes
Right now all of the features will be created by Gmail engineers, but eventually Google may open the project so that third parties can create Gmail features that will be available to the general public. In the meantime, anyone can send feedback to the developers behind each add-on. Eventually the most popular add-ons will be added to Gmail.

[via WebWare and TechCrunch]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse