Blog Archives

Google Adds Superstars, Nested Labels, and Advanced IMAP Controls to Gmail’s Settings [In Brief]

Three of our favorite Gmail Labs features have graduated and moved on to out-of-the-box Gmail. Superstars lets you assign different levels of stars to an email, making a killer to-do list based on priority; nested labels creates labels within labels, so you can organize your mail by sub-categories; and if you use a desktop mail client, you can now adjust which labels show up in your client and which don’t. The Google Search Box lab has been removed altogether, since there’s already a “Search the Web” button in Gmail. All features are available from Gmails’ Settings page. Hit the link to read more. [Official Gmail Blog] More »







Manually Refresh POP Mail Fetching in Gmail [Gmail Labs]

Gmail uses a common timing algorithm to fetch messages from POP accounts, one you can somewhat game, but sometimes you want to get at a message you know has arrived. A new Labs feature adds a manual refresh button for POP grabbing. More »







Set a Default Text Style in Gmail [Gmail Labs]

If you wanted to change the font, size, or color of your messages in Gmail, you normally have to do so on a mail-by-mail basis. Not so anymore, if you enable a new default text styling option from the Labs.

After enabling the new feature in the Labs menu from Gmail’s settings, head back to the “General” tab and look for the new text box. Set your font, size, color, and other options there, and they’ll stick from message to message. Most of us probably don’t need 18-point purple Garamond text, but, then again, a few subtle changes might help your own missives stand out in your message view.

New in Labs: Default text styling [Official Gmail Blog]






Google Tasks Client Puts Tasks (or Any Google App) On Your Desktop [Downloads]

Windows/Mac/Linux (Adobe AIR): We’ve written about a lot of desktop clients that are essentially site-specific browsers (SSBs), but free AIR client Google Tasks helps you consolidate your clients by allowing access to most Google apps in mobile form.

Google Tasks may be one of the lesser-used Google services, but for those who like their tasks integrated with everything else Google in their lives, it certainly does the trick. Now, thanks to the same developer as Remember the Task (a desktop client for Lifehacker-favorite Remember the Milk), you can get Google Tasks in a small window on your desktop—plus so much more.

The really cool thing about the Google Tasks client is that, since it’s merely built on the Google Mobile API, you can actually access any Google app available as a mobile site from Google Tasks. Just scroll to the top and choose your app (or hit “more” for a larger list), and you can access Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and others within the same client, essentially making it an all-around Google Mobile client. If you feel like you have one too many SSBs open at any given time, this is a pretty nice solution.

Google Tasks is a free download for all platforms, and requires Adobe AIR.






Google Voice Message Playback Comes to Gmail [Gmail]

If you’re both a Gmail and Google Voice user, you should be thrilled with the latest feature from Gmail Labs: The Google Voice Player feature embeds a voicemail player inside Gmail so you can listen to new messages directly inside Gmail.

To enable it, just hit up the Labs link in Gmail, find the Google Voice player in mail feature, click enable, and save your changes. Now not only can you read your transcribed voicemail from directly inside Gmail—you can listen to it, too. In fact, your message status will even sync to Google Voice, so if you've listened to it in Gmail, it'll show as listened to in Google Voice, too. Handy.






How to Integrate Your Google Apps

Google apps piecesThe information you keep in Google apps like Gmail, GCal, Reader, and Voice doesn’t just live in one place. There are a few easy but non-obvious ways to plug different Google apps together and share their data and features.

Thanks to things like Labs and gadgets, you can get your Calendar in Gmail (and vice versa), Docs in Calendar and Gmail, Profile info in Google Reader, Google Voice SMS in your Gmail, and just about everything on iGoogle. Here’s how.

Read the rest at Lifehacker »

Seven Easy Ways to Integrate Your Google Apps [Google Apps]

The information you keep in Google apps like Gmail, GCal, Reader, and Voice doesn’t just live in one place. Check out a few easy but non-obvious ways to plug different Google apps together and share their data and features.

Get Your Calendar in Gmail

One of the most useful integrations available for Gmail and GCal users, the Google Calendar gadget puts upcoming events on your email sidebar. To turn it on, just enable the Google Calendar gadget in Gmail Labs. Click on the Options link to configure which calendars you want to display events from, and schedule events directly from Gmail using the gadget’s Add link. (Gmail Labs offers lots of other app integrations, like YouTube previews in Gmail, the ability to create a Google Doc from an email conversation, Picasa image previews, Google Docs as well as a Google web search gadget.)

Put Your Gmail Messages on Your Calendar

Gmail Tasks’ killer feature is how it can act as a bridge between your email inbox and your calendar. If you add a Gmail message to your Tasks list (just choose “Add to Tasks” from the “More Actions” drop-down) and add a due date, that task shows up on your Google Calendar on that date. Even if Gmail’s Tasks module isn’t your primary to-do list app, this is an easy way to “schedule” email you don’t need to deal with right now but does have a deadline in the future.

Get Google Docs in Your Calendar and Gmail

Courtesy of Google Calendar Labs, you can easily attach Google Docs to any event—like the batting lineup for the company softball game next week. In GCal's Labs area (in Settings), just enable the "Attach Google Docs" feature.

Gmail has had built-in integration with GDocs since back in 2006; any time you have a Word document or spreadsheet email attachment in a message, Gmail gives you an “Open as a Google Document” link next to it. You can also convert an entire Gmail conversation to a Google Doc by enabling the Gmail Labs’ “Create a Document” feature.

Get Google Profile Feeds in Google Reader

Google’s newish Profiles tool offers an interesting integration into Google Reader: the ability to associate people with the feeds they create. When you configure your Google Profile and enter the web sites where you've set up shop, the feeds available for those sites appear on your profile—as well as in Google Reader. When you're following someone in Google Reader, you can easily see their blog and social network feeds alongside their photo and bio thanks to Google Profiles. From the ever-so-specifically-labeled "Browse for Stuff" section in Google Reader, click on the "People You Follow" tab to browse the folks you care about and subscribe to feeds they're creating.

Get Your Google Voice Text Messages via Gmail

Just this morning the Google Voice team added email integration with your text messages. As Kevin reported, you can now get your GV text messages forwarded to your email (Gmail or not) and respond to them from there, without ever touching your Google Voice tab or your phone.

Get All Your Google Apps on iGoogle

You can't mention integrating Google apps without giving iGoogle a nod. GApps addicts' homepage of choice, iGoogle offers Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Gmail Tasks, and Google Voice gadgets for the ultimate, all-in-one, Google apps jumping-off spot. (In fact, last week during the Gmail outage, iGoogle's Gmail gadget was still working—even when the proper Gmail webapp was down.)

…Not to Mention Integration Add-ons and Your Browser Sidebar

Beyond in-webapp ways to access Google apps data across products, you can also hook up browser extensions like Integrated Gmail or iGoogleBar for Firefox. Alternately, for easy Google apps access no matter what web site you’re on, put your browser’s sidebar to good use.

What other ways do you use one Google app’s data in another? Shout it out in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, likes finding new ways Google Apps inform one another. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.






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