I thought I’d put this post together for two reasons. One to highlight the GMail Labs features that I know and love to those GMail users who may not be aware of their work. And, perhaps more importantly, to make non-GMail users aware of the poetry that is Google Mail, and its ability to manage beautifully all your mail without you having a care in the world.
For those not in the know, Labs are essentially GMail extensions that can be enabled (or not) from the Settings link at the top right corner of the GMail screen. So, here goes.
Stuff I love
- Forgotten Attachment Detector: if you put some words in your email indicating that you’re attaching something, it warns you if you’ve not attached anything. Lovely
- Send & Archive: a new button allowing you to send the response and archive the conversation in one fell swoop
- Title Tweaks: changes the order of things appearing in your title bar. Upfront: folder and unread items. Way more useful to see in a tab than your domain name
Stuff I like
- YouTube Previews in emails: not used it yet, but I’m sure it’ll come in handy whenever someone sends me a YouTube link via email. Do people still use email for that now that they have Twitter?
- Picasa and Flickr previews in emails: a separate Lab feature for each, but they behave as for videos above. Less clicks for those lucky enough to be sent links instead of files. I expect it only works for publicly available images, but not sure
- Fixed-width font: adds to the Reply menu dropdown an option to view emails with a fixed-width font
- Custom date formats: lovely addition to allow 24-hour clock and UK date formats across the piece
- Old Snakey: at the press of an ampersand, a game of Snakes appears before your eyes. Useless, yes. Funny, kind of
- Hide unread counts: does exactly what it says on the tin. For those fearful of the task ahead
- Undo send: not used it yet. Not sure how effective it will be. I’ve never really understood how that feature works in Outlook; nor here in GMail
- Google Calendar Gadget: a little module bottom left showing your upcoming events
Stuff I see the point of, but don’t use
- Quick Links: creates a module of customisable links to searches and pages within GMail that you use regularly. One-click access is the idea
- Superstars: labels and stars not enough? Superstars gives you a wealth of other icons (ticks, explamation points, stars of varying colours etc.) with which to tag your conversations
- Mouse gestures: wow. Combines mouse clicks and directional movement to determine what you want to do. I’m too scared to turn this on
- Canned responses: useful for people who use GMail as a big driver of process-based tasks, I expect
- Default Reply To All: keep forgetting to copy everyone? This is for you
- Mail Goggles: makes you answer some maths questions if you try to send emails late at night to make sure your mental state is suitable for communicating
If you don’t have your own domain, then start using GMail and route everything to it. Seamless. If you have your own domain, then use Google Apps. You’ll never look back!