A preview of Gmail’s new look

You might have already noticed that lot of changes in the Google interface. Soon changes will be coming to your favorite Gmail as well. Much cleaner and contrast interface to Gmail.

"This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products." Says Gmail Blog. You can slowly notice the changes in the future as Gmail team apply the changes.

We’re kicking things off with two new themes for you to try out as a sort of sneak peek at what we’re up to. Starting today, you’ll see the “Preview” and “Preview (Dense)” themes in the Themes tab in Gmail Settings. Why two themes? Our new interface will eventually expand dynamically to accommodate different screen sizes and user preferences, but until then you can pick the information density that you prefer.

A preview of Gmail’s new look - Official Gmail Blog

Alert! Fake Gmail Account Verification

There is a fake Gmail Account Verification email is going around. Please make sure you double check before you enter logging details. Let's look at some simple steps where you can identify whether it is fake or genuine email and steps you can take in a case you have already given out your username and password.

Creating a fake login is one of the simplest and effective ways of hacking a gmail, msn, yahoo or any email account password. It dose not involve much programming or hacking knowladge. Attacker will fool you to steal your user name and password. I will show you how you can identify such fake emails and protect your username and password.

Lets have a quick look at a fake Gmail Account Verification I have received.

At a glance, you will not find much difference. Specially Gmail hides the senders email address. So you will see senders display name, Subject and email body, which sounds like a genuine email from Gmail team. 

As soon as an email ask you to provide username and password (for any account) , bank account details or any sensitive information you should go through the following step. 

1. Check the Senders email address. Check whether it is coming from genuine domain name. If the email is from your bank email address need to be from bank website domain or related domain name. In this example email came from a  domain name which is not related to Google or Gmail. Definitely, this email is fake and you do not even need to check further. However, do not forget there are ways to change the senders email address as well. In this case the attacker was not intelligent enough to change the email. 

2. If the senders email address seems to be ok them move to the links provided in the email body. Normally attacker would direct you to a website or ask you to reply to the email. In this scenario, they have given a link.  It looks like it is from Google but once it is clicked it actually goes to a different domain name, which is not Gmail. So, do not type your username and the password. 

In case they have ask you to reply back to an email, you can check the reply to address. It is hard to fake the reply to address, Because, they wants you to send the login details to one of their accounts. 

3. Thirdly you can check the website they have provided and find out the differences. However, that might not be a good idea. Anyways, first thing I have noticed is that even though I am logged into Gmail when I click on the link it did not log me in automatically. 

Finally, make sure you do not send usernames, passwords bank account details or any personal details to strangers. 

New connection bar in Gmail for iPhone

Using Gmail in Safari on your iPhone gives you access to fast search, conversation view, stars, labels, and more. But it’s sometimes frustrating not knowing whether your email has been sent or whether your phone has a functioning internet connection at all. To address this, we recently introduced the “connection bar.”


The connection bar appears at the bottom of the screen when needed to give you the info you want— and then gets out of the way.

New connection bar in Gmail for iPhone - Official Gmail Blog

How to Turn off Gmail’s conversation view

I am big fan of GMail conversation view as I can see the history of related emails without any problems. How many times I though that Outlook should have similar functionality. However, if you don't like it you can switch it off.

This is what Gmail opinion about it.
"It turns out not everyone feels the same way. And just as an outspoken minority has banded together in unison to declare their distaste of one of nature’s most delicious herbs, some of you have been very vocal about your dislike of conversation threading. So just like you can order your baja fish tacos without cilantro, you can now get Gmail served up sans conversation view. Go to the main Settings page, look for the “Conversation View” section, select the option to turn it off, and save changes. If you change your mind, you can always go back."
Turn off Gmail’s conversation view - Official Gmail Blog

5 tips for using Priority Inbox

Gmail has recently introduce the priority inbox where you can have a separate inbox only for VIP emails. Here are 5 ways to make the maximum out of it. You will able to save lot of time you waste to read all the email.

1. Customize your selection

By default, Priority Inbox has three sections: "Important and Unread," "Starred" and "Everything Else.” But that doesn't mean you have to leave them that way. You can make a section show messages from a particular label (like your “Action” or “To-do” label), add a fourth section, or change the maximum size of any section. Visit the Priority Inbox tab under Settings to customize your sections, or do it right from the inline menus.

2. Train the system
If Gmail makes a mistake, you can help it learn to better categorize your messages. Select the misclassified message, then use the importance buttons at the top of your inbox to correctly mark it as important or not important.

3. See the best of your filtered messages
You can set up Priority Inbox to show you not just the best of your inbox, but also the best of messages you filter out of your inbox and might otherwise miss. Just change your Priority Inbox settings to “Override filters” and Gmail will surface any important messages that would otherwise skip your inbox.

4. Use filters to guarantee certain messages get marked important (or not)
If you read and reply to a lot of messages from your mom, Gmail should automatically put incoming messages from her in the “Important and unread” section. But if you want to be 100% sure that all messages from your mom (or your boss, boyfriend, client, landlord, etc.) are marked important, you can create a filter for messages from that sender and select “Always mark as important.” Similarly, if you regularly read messages from your favorite magazine, they should automatically get marked as important. If you’d rather they end up in the “Everything else” section, you can create a filter to never mark them as important.


5. Archive unimportant messages quickly
One of the features that can help make you more efficient is the ability to archive all of the visible messages in the "Everything Else" section at once. Just click on the down arrow next to "Everything Else" and select the "Archive all visible items" option. If you want to be able to archive even more messages at once, you can increase the maximum number of messages that show in that section from the same drop-down.


5 tips for using Priority Inbox - Official Gmail Blog

[Important]How they steal your GMail password

Surprise! Surprise! Gmail team sent me an email to verify my user name and password. They are moving the databases and I about to loose my email id. In order to save it I need to go to the link they provided and put my username and password. Don't! Someone is trying to hack my GMail my password. If you receive similar email ignore it, delete it and delete it from the trash. I will show you how to identify genuine emails out of the fake.

You don't have to be a computer guru to check a whether a email is genuine or fake.

If email ask you to provide the

Bank Account / Credit Card Details 

Login Details (Email/Netbank) 

Any personal details 

99% it is trying to hack your bank account or emails address.

First check the senders email address

In Gmail you need to click on show details link to see the senders email address. In this case email address is "mailserver.team1@gmail.com" which sounds like Gmail team is sending the email.
I have already covered some basic ways that Outlook can be used to disguise your email address. So, you cannot depend on the senders email address all the time.

Then go to the content. In this scenario, they have provide me a link to click on and put my user name and password. Don't click the link but you can check the link by just moving the mouse pointer to the link. Almost all the browsers display the link at the bottom of your browser.
Or you can right click and copy the link and paste it in note pad(It is Safe).

Bingo!!!

Link is not going to Gmail but mailserver.my3gb.com which is a free website hosting company. Why Google has to use a free web hosting company. I will not bother to visit the link. I will delete the email and also remove it from the archive box.

Always remember to check couple of times if an email ask you to provide bank details or user name and passwords.

Forum Discussions I have got a mail saying we are moving our server and a link given by Gmail Team? Is it True or Fake? Plz suggest.

Can you get this in Gmail

It is really hard to fill over 8GB with email. That is what Gmail is offering and once they were saying that GMail is providing infinity plus storage. So couple of days ago I had came cross this message.

"You have run out of space for your Gmail account. You will not be able to send or receive any emails until you delete some items"

So I start deleting the emails and it was taking some times to delete the email and problem was not fixed until you empty the deleted emails as well.

A tool to see how others view your website

Do you maintain a website and you know where exactly you places the Donate button, Register now button and even Google AdSense ads. These are couple of things you would love when your visitors click on them. Don't you? Then find out whether your visitors notice what you want them to notice.


Google has come up with a simple webpage to show what and how others are viewing your website. If you get considerable number of visitors and still they do not do what you want them to do then you better test your website using Google Browser Size.

I am sure now you need to do some changes to your layout. I will leave it to you and share how you improve your website.


Official Google Blog: Browser Size: a tool to see how others view your website

Google Docs previews in GMail

Small but effective new GMail Lab feature if you are sending and receiving so many Word and Excel files.



Starting today, you can preview the contents of a Google document, spreadsheet, or presentation right in your Gmail inbox — just like you've already been able to do with YouTube videos, Yelp reviews, and Picasa and Flickr albums. Gmail will automatically detect when you receive a document link and display the name and type of doc below the email.


Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Google Docs previews

Push Gmail for iPhone and Windows Mobile

Gmail has become something that you cannot live without. Most of the time it is necessary to check the updates in your Gmail as all your information communications contacts are centralized with Gmail. So they have come up with more ways to connect with Gmail and sync it using your iPhone or Windows mobile.

Image by six steps  via Flickr

This is what Gmail says about this new feature and how to apply it.
"ou can set up push Gmail by itself or choose to sync your Contacts and/or Calendar as well. If you're using an iPhone, make sure you're running iPhone OS version 3.0 or above (on your device, click Settings > General > About and scroll down until you see Version). If your software is out of date, follow Apple's upgrade instructions. Then, visit m.google.com/sync from your computer for set up instructions. If you're already using Google Sync, you can just enable push mail.

Once you're set up, new messages are normally pushed to your phone within seconds. While this type of speed is pretty awesome, push connections tend to use more power than fetching at intervals, so don't be surprised if your battery life isn't quite what it used to be. We've done a lot of work to optimize power usage, but if you prefer to save battery life, you can always turn off push in your phone's settings and fetch mail every 30 or 60 minutes instead."

Official Gmail Blog: Push Gmail for iPhone and Windows Mobile

GMail is not the first or only one I need contact and mail import

Gmail is not the one and only email service available and not the first email service as well. But it is one of the coolest and craziest email service you can find now!!!

So I am pretty sure you have lots of emails out there in other email accounts your have. It can be in your hotmail, yahoo or outlook pst files and etc. GMail has decide to give the Mail and contact import function to everyone which was previously only came with new accounts. Now you can reunite all your emails and contacts in one place.

How to Import Emails and Contacts to Gmail?

This is what Gmail team has to say.

"

Now, with just a few clicks anyone can copy all of that to your Gmail account. It's easy — just go to the Settings > Accounts & Import page and click "Import mail and contacts." A window will pop out to lead you through the short import process. If you want us to continue to forward any new mail your other account gets for 30 days, we can do that too."

Isn't it a simple but important think that you've been waiting for?

Official Gmail Blog: Mail and contact import for everyone

GMail Hide labels, see subject lines on netbooks

Label is one of the coolest method that you can use to organize your emails in GMail. However, sometimes displaying the label in front of the subject line can hide email subject specially if your are using small screen with less resolutions. Here is the solution.


Now, there are some ways to work around this, like using Google Chrome's full screen mode, but I wanted a way to do more. So I created a new Gmail Labs feature called "Remove Labels from Subjects" that automatically hides the labels from messages in your inbox, leaving plenty of space for the messages' subjects.

To turn it on, just go to the Labs tab under Settings and look for the following icon:


Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Hide labels, see subject lines on netbooks

GMail Send mail from another address without "on behalf of"

I did not want to send emails from another address using GMail as it always goes to the other person saying "on behalf of". I am pretty sure you might had the same problem. Most of the cases you do not want to give out all your email addresses to everyone. For example why should you give your personal email for work related problem.

GMail came up with a solution for that.

"We heard your request for another option that wouldn't show the "on behalf of" text loud and clear, and now there's a new option that does just that. Instead of using Gmail's servers to send the message, we'll use the servers where your other email address lives. Since Gmail isn't the originating domain, we don't have to include "Sender" info in the header. No more "on behalf of."

How you going to fix this ? Simple....

To switch to this new method, go to the Accounts page under Settings, and click "edit info" from the "Send mail as" section. Then choose the option to "Use your other email provider's SMTP servers."

Now you can manage all your emails in one place. Yes, you will get lot of emails to one inbox but we will discuss how you can manage it in future...

Official Gmail Blog: Send mail from another address without "on behalf of"

Official Gmail Blog: Unsubscribing made easy

GMail is adding one more cool feature to support both GMail users and Big email senders. You might have subscribe for a news letter and later you might find it not that interesting. So GMail gives a option to unsubscribe from the newsletter rather than reporting it as spam. This is what GMail Blog says about this cool feature...



We believe you should only get the mail you want to get. Some of you already use the "Report Spam" button on all kinds of unwanted email, and for that we're very thankful: the more spam you mark, the better our system gets at weeding out junk mail.

Official Gmail Blog: Unsubscribing made easy

Gmail Labels: drag and drop, hiding, and more

Most of the Gmail user might have experienced the cool message when they sign up to Gmail. Whats it all about?

Gmail have given you full control over the labels (Even with standard labels). You can hide whatever the label you do not use and bring up the labels that you use frequently. Isn't is giving another way to tweak your inbox and manage 100s and 1000s of emails that hit your inbox everyday.

This is what Gmail blog says about this new feature...

1) New location for labels

You'll notice your labels in a new location on the left of your inbox (or on the right, for those of you using the Arabic, Hebrew, or Urdu versions of Gmail). Instead of having their own section, your labels are now above your chat list, grouped together with Inbox, Drafts, Chats and other system labels.

2) Label hiding and showing

You now have control over which of your labels show. We've done our best to get you started by automatically showing the labels you use most and hiding the rest. Label hiding is my favorite new feature, since it saves me from having to look through labels I rarely use. If I ever need to reach any of my old labels, I just click the "more" link.

3) Drag and drop

You can now drag messages into labels, just like you can with folders. This does the exact same thing as "Move to" -- it labels and archives in one step.

Official Gmail Blog: Labels: drag and drop, hiding, and more

New in Gmail Labs: Suggest more recipients

Do you have a large contact list in your Gmail? Is it hard to select the recipients? How many times you have missed important people when you send group email?

New Gmail lab feature will sugest you recipients while composing messages. This is what Gmail has to say about this new Lab feature.

"Once you've enabled it from the Labs tab under Settings, you'll see suggested recipients while composing messages. Gmail will suggest people you might want to include based on the groups of people you email most often. So if you always email your mom, dad, and sister together, and you start composing a message to your mom and dad, Gmail will suggest adding your sister. Enter at least two recipients and any suggestions will show up like this:"

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Suggest more recipients

[Trick] Promote your Blog via GMail

This is simple trick to promote your website or blog using one  of GMail Lab features. If you have a website  or blog I am pretty sure you are using a link to your blog or website. 

Tip: It is always effective to send out different links with your email to your Friends as they wont be boring seeing the same link all the time. 

Lets see how we can add a link to a random post from your blog or website to your email signature

Gmail Lab Feature: Random Signature, Signature tweaks

*Log in to your GMail account. 

*Go to the Gmail Lab Page.

*Find the Random Signature and Signature tweaks.

*Enable both labs.

*Click Save Changes and Gmail will reload. 

*Go to Settings 

*Go to General

*Under signature select the signature box and type you name and other information you would like to display in your email. 

*Then check the check box Append a random signature from feed and add the feed URL to your blog or website. 

* click "Save Changes"

This is add random links to your post with the title from your RSS feed. Simple but quite effective method to add a random link to your signature from your blog or web

Similar to the Recall feature in Outlook?

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Undo Send

Gmail recently added UNDO sent feature. Very interesting!

But I wonder if this is similar to the recall feature in Outlook which can be cheated. i.e. The recipient can still read the email sent.

Gmail becoming Messy? Is Gmail for Geeks?

Gmail Labs introduce Multiple Inboxes for Labels. So it is kind of taking you out of clean and simple interface. Anyway the best part is it still optional so if you really do not want to make you Gmail account that complicated you can disable these features. 

Anyway this is a cool feature. So it is worth trying and keep it if it is really useful.

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Multiple Inboxes

How to sync Gmail Contacts, Google Calendar, Plaxo with iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile

This a dream freeware for anyone using an iPhone or a Windows Mobile device or even a Blackberry and who uses Gmail (Google Mail) or Google Calendar. Now you can keep in synch (synchronise) with Google calendar and Gmail contacts.

NuevaSync allows direct, over-the-air, native synchronization of certain smart phones and PDA devices with public PIM, and calendaring services including Google Calendar. NuevaSync does not need any software installed on your device because it uses synchronization protocols that are already built in.