Goggle recently announced they would no longer have the Google Blog. In honor of this, I am taking a look at just how helpful Gmail can be for bloggers and power users by listing the top five features and functions of Gmail that all its users should know about.
Most of these are built right into Gmail (or Google Apps). You should easily allow you to use them without having to enable any of the ‘beta’ features. In other words, they are ready right out of the box.
1. AIMing from Gmail – almost everyone is aware that Gmail has a chat feature built right into their interface that will allow them to use Google Talk right in their browser. Gmail also allows AIM conversation too.
First, log into chat and open up the settings. Click the “chat” tab. The final available option will allow you to enable AOL Instant Messenger for that particular account. A pop-up window will appear that lets you enter your AOL Instant Messenger name and password. Once you have done this, you can begin chatting using AIM.
Don’t forget that right now AIM is the only chat service that you are able to use right out of Gmail and it only lets you be signed in at one place. If you enjoy chatting out of your browser, this feature is very useful. As an added benefit, your chat sessions will be saved right to your own Gmail account – exactly like your Google Talk sessions as long as that option is enabled.
2. More Efficient Filters by Using And/Or - Anyone who receives a large amount of email most likely uses filters to make things easier. Using a lot of filters can be almost as bad as no filters at all. In fact, Gmail actually limits the filters that are sent to another address.
The good news is there is a simple way to combine these filters. A great example is the case of multiple email addresses you wish to block. Instead of setting up one filter for each blocked address, combine into one. To do this, look under the filters tab. Create a brand new filter. Type “1@domainname.com OR 2@domainname.com OR 3@domainname.com into the filter box. This works great if you want the same action done for all of the filtered addresses.
Adding additional addresses to that list is easy. You can simply edit the filter instead creating a whole new one. This simple function will allow you to keep a clean simple filter list that is a snap to edit.
Some common filters are available at Lifehacker. The have a list of the top 10 mail filters for Gmail. Be sure to turn on the Labs feature before you import them.
3. Using Gmail for Sending and Receiving Other Account Emails - Gmail will allow you to use it to send and received email from all of the accounts you own As long as your other services have POP access, it is easy to do this.
First, opening the setting feature in Gmail and choose “accounts.” Next, click “Add a mail account your own.” This is located under “Get mail from other accounts.” You will then need to add in that services POP details. This feature can be enabled to add additional Gmail accounts just make sure you have turned POP on under the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.
After this, you can customize the feature by having Gmail put the new messages under a specific label – you can even skip your inbox!
In order to send email using another address, go to the same tab and select “Add another email address you own” located in “send mail as.” Fill in the required information. Gmail will send a ‘test’ to make sure that the account you have added is indeed your own. After you have completed this step, you can pick which account you would like to send each email from under the heading labeled “from” on your compose mail page. Gmail will also let you decide if you want that address to become your default address. It will then automatically process email from that address.
This function makes handling multiple email accounts a snap as you they will be completely centralized under Gmail.
4. Gmail for Your Domain - anyone who owns a domain and would like to enable Gmail, you have two different options.
First, you can forward your mail. Simply set up your own server to allow it to forward any mail right into your own Gmail account. Follow the steps located above to instruct your Gmail account to send all mail from it.
Alternatively, you can use Google Apps. You can create a 100% free account and then have Google host your personal email for you. The standard addition of Google apps is a completely free service for hosting your domain email on Google. There is some work that needs to be done along DNS lines, but Google simplifies this with an easy to follow walkthrough. It may take unto a day to get the set-up just right, but once you have completed it, your email servers will become worry free. The reason this is such a great feature is that if you ever have a problem with your own mail server, like a power out, you will continue to be able to work. This option is quite professional. Google Apps will not list your Gmail address in the header, which it typically does when you use your own Gmail account for sending email using a different address.
5. Advanced Searching - Gmail has an advanced search feature that will allow you to quickly search through all of your email to locate a particular email. Some of the different search options include: Has attachment, Only emails that have attachments, Only emails with an attachment containing a specific file name, After and Before allows you to change your date range, Subject allows you to search the subject of all emails, read or unread, and search starred.
All of these features make using Gmail easy and efficient. Spending a little bit of time getting to know their functions and capabilities is a great way to save you time in the long run!
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