Friedbeef’s Tech

Aside from ’search’, Gmail is arguably Google’s most successful home-grown product out there.   Gmail may be smaller than Yahoo! Mail and MSN Live Mail (Hotmail), but it’s certainly growing faster (doubling its share in the last 1 year), and it’s definitely a more polished product.  Now, the Google Labs website has long been an experimental haven for Google where the general public could mess around and play with Google’s latest web services.  The much newer Gmail labs hopes to tap into that same vein of experimentation and so far - it has accomplished that goal.  There are currently 24 features you can play with, but here are 7 of my favorite experimental features you can try in Gmail.

1. Get to where you want with ‘Quick Links’

Adds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.

2. There’s more than one way to ’star’ your messages with ‘Superstars’

Adds additional star icons. After enabling this feature:
(1) Go to the "General" Settings page to choose which superstars you wish to use.
(2) Use either the keyboard shortcut (’s’) or click to rotate through your selected superstars.
(3) Use the search operator "has:" to find all messages with your superstar (e.g. "has:red-bang", "has:blue-star"). Learn the name of a superstar by hovering over its image in the "General" Settings page.

If you enable both the ‘Quick Lists’ and ‘Superstars’ features, you have the ability to setup an awesome to-do list with this tutorial.

3. ‘Mail Goggles’ helps stop you from sending email which you will regret

Mail you send late night on the weekends may be useful but you may regret it the next morning.  Solve some simple math problems to prove that you’re sober and alert, and you’re good to go. Otherwise, get a good night’s sleep and try again in the morning.  Not as fail-safe as my Outlook tip on how to embargo your emails for 2 minutes, but it’s still a step in the right direction from Gmail.

4. ‘Custom keyboard shortcuts’ and you won’t need to use a mouse

Don’t like GMail’s default keyboard shortcuts?  This feature lets you customize keyboard shortcut mappings.

5. ‘Quote selected text’ easily

Quote the text you have selected when you reply to a message. This works best if you use keyboard shortcuts.

6. ‘Forgot attachment’?  Never again

Prevents you from accidentally sending messages without the relevant attachments. Prompts you if you mention attaching a file, but forgot to do so.

7. ‘Vacation Time’ helps you manage your out-of-office message

Lets you specify starting and ending dates for the vacation autoresponder so you never have to worry about forgetting to turn it on - or off.

How to enter and enable the lab: Look in your Gmail settings, and there should be a ‘labs’ tab.  Click on that tab to visit the Gmail labs, and enable the features you want.

Which email service do you use and why?  Let us know in the comments!