Google's Gmail isn't quite like its rivals Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Instead of trying to replicate the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Gmail is built around search. This is a philosophical shift that filters through the whole application.
When it first launched in 2004, you couldn't even delete a message. To get one out of your inbox your archived it.
If you needed the message again, you used the built-in power of Google search to locate it.
While you can now delete, the visual metaphors used within Gmail often confuse those first starting with it. For a few moments at least.
Today, 147 million people around the world find it second nature and some think it will overtake market leader Hotmail in the near future. With its built-in instant messaging and voice and video chat, I tend to agree.
It's to these current and future users I give the following advice: spend some time in the Gmail labs. Seriously.
The labs currently contain 58 gadgets — or add-ons — that ease your emailing and increase your productivity. Try some out and see what works best for you.
To access them, look to the top right of your browser window once logged into your account. See the little lab beaker icon next to the "Settings" link? Click it.
Here are some of gadgets you'll see that make my life easier.
- Send & Archive: Once you get used to archiving rather than deleting, this one gadget is worth the whole bunch. It includes a "Send & Archive" button with the compose form. Click it and the email you're responding to is archived. Tidy inboxes are nice inboxes.
- Signature Tweaks: Time once was that you'd reply to an email, scroll down to the bottom of the email to find your signature, and then cut and paste it after your message. No more. Signature Tweaks places your signature above the message you're replying to.
- Email Addict: Face it. Some people manically check their email. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Email Addict makes you take a break from email by blocking the screen for 15 minutes. This is a good thing. Stretch and think again about what your really should be doing right now.
- Default 'Reply to all': Maybe it's a personal kink in my behavior but I've written too many follow up email's that start, "Hello, I meant to include you on this reply..." Enable this gadget and the problem's solved.
- Forgotten Attachment Detector: I know I'm not alone on this one. It's almost a universal. This gadget sniffs your text and if it smells anything remotely suggesting that you meant to attach a document, it will alert you when you hit send that you've forgotten to attach one.
- Don't forget Bob: We often email the same groups of people en masse. This could be club members, work colleagues or family members. Don't leave anyone out. Gmail recognizes your recipient patterns and asks if you might want to include "Bob" when you finally hit "send".
- Got the wrong Bob?: Oops, sent your latest rant to Bob your boss rather than Bob your friend? If you're emailing a group Gmail will double check that the recipient Bob is really who you want to vent to.
- Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat: This one's clever. If you know a friend, colleague or loved one is away from their computer, send them a text message from within Gmail instead.
- Mail Goggles: And then of course are those special moments when maybe, perhaps, it might be best if we weren't sending out emails at all. Like, say, after the 50th birthday party for your crazy college buddy who's now your crazy 50-year-old buddy. Goggles kicks in late night and makes you solve simple math problems before letting you hit that send button.
