Last week we helped you identify some of the best alternatives for Google Reader. Google has made some significant changes to the Gmail interface in the past few months – all which lineup with their direction towards a more “Google+” type of world. Google has introduced their new, more simplified interface for Gmail which they…

I’ve got a whole stack of standard responses that I cut and paste into emails. There are certain requests for information, for instance, that I get on a pretty regular basis. I don’t really have an interest in retyping the same message over and over again, so I have saved my commonly used emails…

We’ve covered the basics of productive email use with Gmail. By now, with an average email load, you should be able to power through it all within 15 minutes. But that doesn’t mean you can’t cut down on even more time, or make Gmail an even more powerful application, with the help of a few…

Last time we redirected all of our email accounts to the one place, our central email hub at Gmail. Once you have all your accounts trickling into Gmail, you’ve got to manage that flow of information so that a) it’s possible to get through all of your email in fifteen minutes or less and…

Gmail is a powerful tool, but many users of this service aren’t tapping into its full potential. To help you get more productive and get the most out of Gmail, I’m going to spend the next few articles talking about the most effective features of the software and the techniques and practices you can use…

Tonight, Google has released a bunch of new experimental features in Gmail, which you can enable any of them through a “Labs” tab in your setting area. Interesting enough – this is a development effort of Google developers’ free 20% time. Initially, there are 13 features available: Most of them could enhance your productivity…

The Washington Post recently had an article on email bankruptcy that discussed a number of people who are giving up on email (or just deleting all their old messages) after being buried under the pile of messages. Merlin Mann responded by saying that even bankruptcy isn’t enough to save him: A one-time erasure of…

One of the coolest things about Gmail is its filters — set up properly, filters can add loads of functionality to your already-powerful Gmail account. Save time and space, rid your inbox of unwanted emails, and turn your Gmail into a multi-functional tool with simple filters. There are some limitations to Gmail’s filters that I’d like…

If you ever wanted to send yourself a quick note or ToDo without opening up Gmail, What’s The Next Action have an easy hack to put a bookmarklet that does so in your browser. Click on “compose” in Gmail, and then click on the pop-out button in the compose area to bring it to a new…

There are a million tools out there to keep track of your tasks, your appointments, your emails and reminders. But let’s face it — each of them have their drawbacks, and finding the right combination can be an ongoing quest. Many people also love Gmail and Gcal as two of their online tools of choice -…

Recently the Gmail Team updated the list of keyboard shortcuts for the online email client. There’s quite a few new ones such as shortcuts for Mute, Save Draft and Delete plus a few others. m – Mute Archives the conversation, and all future messages skip the Inbox unless sent or cc’d directly to you. Learn more. u -…

Instead of relying on Gmail’s feeble 2-3GB of storage space, Google Tutor shows us how we can backup all the emails through Google Groups. 1) Create a new Google Group. Name it with something like “yourGMailaddress+archive” or “archivefor+yourGmailaddor” something similar. 2) Give it a description that will give you a hint that this is your backup archive…

We can make this a running discussion of uses for Gmail’s Filter feature. It’s a simple tool that makes organizing your emails a breeze, and importantly, automatic. Today we’ll focus on three topics: Storage, Bookmarking and Organization [GTD]. Either in Settings or next to Gmail’s search box, is a link to Create a Filter. When adding a…

Steve Rubel from Micro Persuasion has put together a handy multi-tutorial for using Gmail as the center for a variety of applications. These include: How to turn Gmail into a massive personal database (Gmail + the Google Toolbar) How to get real-time news updates in Gmail (Gmail+ Google Talk + Twitter) How to automatically store your bookmarks in…

Flagrantdisregard.com have written a nice little piece on creating multiple users [writers] from the one gmail address. Their example for use is a parent who wants their young children to be able to send emails to friends and family without the parent needing to write it. My kids, 6 and 4, are too young to have…