Generating Additional E-Mail Addresses from GMail

There are two really great ways to use your Gmail address that can give you greater control over your inbox and save you time and headaches. When you choose a Gmail address, you actually get more than just "yourusername@gmail.com." Here are two different ways you can modify your GMail address and still get your mail:

1. Insert one or several dots (".") anywhere in your email address. Gmail doesn't recognize periods as characters in addresses -- instead, they are just ignored. For example, you could tell people your address was assmoothassilk@gmail.com, but that address has some visual problems. However, tell them instead your address is as.smooth.as.silk@gmail.com. 
2. Append a plus ("+") sign and any combination of words or numbers after your email address. For example, if your name was cookingguy@gmail.com, you could send mail to cookingguy+friends@gmail.com or cookingguy+mailinglists@gmail.com. 

The great part...for both of these tricks, you need to configure or set up ABSOLUTELY nothing other than have a GMail address. You have infinite e-mail addresses available to you, with just one account.

One of the significant values in being able to manipulate your email address is that it makes it really easy to filter on those variants. For example you could use cookingguy+bank@gmail.com when you sign up for online banking and then set up a filter to automatically star, archive or label emails addressed to cookingguy+bank@gmail.com.

You can also use this when you register for a service and think they might share your information. For example, you might add "+donation" when giving money to a political organization, and later when you see emails from other groups to that address, you know exactly how they got it. Then build a filter, perhaps to auto-delete.

More About the Cloud, and How It Helps The Sun Shine

Ever used Gmail?

How about Yahoo Mail?

Or that passing fad called Facebook?

If so, you've used the Cloud. In fact, many people have been using the Cloud for a long time without every quite realizing it. For some reason, web-based applications like these have not registered with most people as being in the Cloud. Only when applications like Google Docs replace softwrae that you install onto a computer that has traditionally been locked inside a PC (like Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint) do people seem to twig to the Cloud angle.

Last time, I talked about why companies or schools might use the Cloud to power their computing environments. It frees business to focus on what they do best, and leave some of the very mundate and technical work of maintaining servers and drivers and patches and inventories to someone else, who will do it on a VERY large scale for a fee.

But what does the Cloud mean to everyday users who just want the sun to shine to have a good day.

Quite simply, the Cloud is a software application hosted in a central location and delivered via a web browser or other thin client. Rather than purchase and install the application on individual computers, people that use the application just access it from a computer..

..or a smart phone..

..or an iPad..

..or your friend's computer..

..or whatever device you happen to have.

Users--whether students or employees or everyday folks--just log on to access the application. The information in the application (like a Facebook update, or the fare for your airline ticket, or tomorrow's weather, or your bank balance) is not locked into a single computer that you tote around. Instead, it becomes available the moment you login, and how you login is up to you.

To the end user, the experience is essentially the same as if the application were installed on the user's hard drive. By having the application delivered as a service, however, people can update their Facebook status from any location, or check up on e-mail using most any device. HR managers can do payroll from the comfort of their living rooms; teachers can work on lesson plans after hours. What's more, users can utilize different devices without having to tote around thumb drives to port over updates, since the contents of the project are stored in the cloud. Want to share a photo? You can put it on a thumb drive and walk it around, or you can upload it to Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, etc. Which is easier? Usually the Cloud-based choices.

From us everyday folks who just want to check in, we are no longer tied to a specific computer with a specific set of software. If I have an access point--often called a thin client--I have access.

And, from an IT perspective, there's a beautiful upside: No longer do you have to update software on machines scattered around a business or campus. Does Facebook send you a CD every time it updates its interface? No, and whether you like Facebook's changes or not, this ability allows applications like Facebook to innovate much more quickly. No more patches, no databases tracking installs and software updates. And the nightmare of keeping track of thousands of software licenses? Gone.

This freedom of checking applications anywhere, anytime, from almost anywhere, is what allows me to go sit in the sun without lugging around a specific computer to do my work, or check in, or update my status or watch a cute video of puppies. 

Things are easier, faster, and more accessible. And free you up from the nightmare of maintaining it all. And that is how the Cloud helps the Sun to shine.

What's a GMail? (Part 2)

As promised, and finally, the second half of the GMail discussion. Back here I waxed eloquent about all the reasons I found GMail to be a great product. And it is. I can recall the days when using GMail required an invitation and having access was something of a mark of status, with people who had climbed about the GMail train trying to determine who would receive their 100 coveted invitations to GMail.

Now, GMail is available to anyone. All you need is a Google account and boom! You have email, calendar, tasks and all sorts of other cool gadgets at your beck and call...for free.

So what is the downside? What gives many people the shivers when it comes to GMail? It's the ads. The ads that GMail inserts onto your screen make some very leery of GMail.

When you search for something at Google itself and Google serves up the content you are after, but it also tends to place 2-3 links at the top or in the right column of the screen which companies have paid to have displayed. That is why you sometimes see the same search results twice. If you  search for AutoZone, just to select an example, you may see two identical results for AutoZone. One appears there because it is a match for your search, but the one at the very top (often slightly shaded in rose or yellow backgrounds) is there because AutoZone paid Google to have it appear there. And which ads appear depends on what you type into the search box, where you physically reside, sometimes even what you recently browsed for and a host of other information which Google is able to learn about you.

GMail does something similar. It delivers ads based on the content of your email. Rest assured, Google does not have a room full of peeping Toms reading all of your email and deciding which ads to place before your willing eyes. This is all done automatically, with Google essentially scanning the contents of your message looking for key words and phrases, addresses, etc. and then offering ads they have been paid to place there.


That scanning of GMail is the part that bothers some and fosters the idea that someone at Google is reading your mail. In reality, I have very boring mail, and if someone really gets paid to read about my Electric utility bill or a hilarious joke from my dad, they I feel awful for them. My life is just boring enough that I would likely run out to buy To Kill A Mockingbird so they can do something interesting with their reading time.


So use GMail for all its worth. I find it an amazing platform that I use on my laptop and smartphone. I integrate my work and home calendars very easily to make my scheduling more simple. And I will cover how to do some cool GMail things ahead.


Just venture in with the knowledge that Google is learning about you from your email and presenting ads which might be tailored toward you. No one has your email on a screen other than you and the people you email frequently, but if it bothers you that an automated process is reading your mail, then GMail may not be best for you.


(If you feel that way, just remember to shut down your Facebook account, your Foursquare account, and pull down your online photos too, because we give away far more coveted information within Social Media channels voluntarily than we ever give Google's scanning algorithms.)


All that said, I will venture into some more cool GMail features and advanced settings very soon. Stay tuned!

Keep holding

Friends and readers,

The Encyclopedia of Matt got a little sparse lately, I admit. This has much to do with some tremendously great transitions for me by way of new job, new city and the like.

But stay with me. I commit to bringing some great stuff your way in the very near future, especially regarding GMail and Facebook.

In the meantime, Facebookers should check out this fantastic blog. Will covers some of the basics of Facebook in a very easy-to-read and quite informative style. Stop by and you will be sure to learn something.

http://facebookforbeginners.blogspot.com/

What's a GMail?

A blog reader recently said to me, "I like your blog because I am learning quite a bit. You write a lot about GMail. I don't even know if I have a GMail, so I better go get one right away."


My lightbulb popped on...I often write about topics by jumping in mid-stream and assuming you have been privy to the thoughts in my head all along. So here I answer the question: "What's a GMail?"

GMail is a Internet-based email program, and in my opinion, one of the best. It is free, and allows you to send or receive email anywhere you have an Internet connection. It follows the SaaS model, or Software as a Service. Don't let that vocabulary startle you; SaaS essentially means there is nothing to install onto your computer. You find a computer, laptop, smart phone, iPad, etc and login.  That's it; end of story. No more CDs, disks and things to install onto your computer.

(Just think how brilliant you are now...you know what SaaS is. Impress your friends this weekend by talking about how GMail is a SaaS service. So are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  They are all SaaS applications. No software to install; you just login.  That's SaaS.)


So remember, GMail is not something you buy off a shelf at the store. It is a service you login to from anywhere you have an Internet connection.


So, what makes GMail so special?


It is all searchable. If you have a message you want to look up, you do not necessarily have to spend have your day hunting through dozens of folders in search of where you placed that one elusive message. (It's probably with that lone sock you lost in last week's wash.)  Instead, just search for the message. Type any word in the message in the search box at the top of GMail and GMail automatically returns all messages with that word.


So if you are trying to find the message from Aunt Kathy with the funny story and photo about her trip to Orlando, just type Kathy Orlando in the search box and you will probably have it.


You get a lot of storage. Typically you do not have to delete any messages from your GMail. You can leave them in there forever and typically not run out of space (more on this in a future post.)


You get a conversation view of messages. Huh? What does that mean? GMail does something novel with your messages: GMail groups all replies together into one message that it calls a conversation. So if you send out a message to 10 people asking for help planning your dad's birthday party, all 10 replies will be grouped into the same conversation instead of coming back as individual messages.  This helps me organize my messages into conversations instead of each message being on its own.


Some folks do not like the conversation view of messages, and you might not either. It can be turned off.


And some folks have some some serious concerns about GMail, how it works, and some of the privacy (or lack thereof) afforded to people who use it. So stay tuned; I will cover some of the GMail turn-offs in my next post.

Using GMail to Search (but not Sort) your Mail

Back to GMail...


I received a couple questions from blog readers and am excited to answer them.  The first has to do with Sorting through your GMail. Thing is, GMail really isn't sortable, but it is highly searchable. Huh??? Read on.


GMail, being powered by the search giant Google, has what I feel to be the most powerful and simple search features of any email client.  You just pop words into the search bar located at the top of any screen and GMail returns your messages containing that word.


Simple.
Easy.
Intuitive.


But, try to sort your GMail and you'll have a whole different thing happening.  You cannot readily sort your GMail by message size or by subject or by sender.  Here is a huge departure in philosophy from Outlook, where all the column headers are clickable and instantly resort the messages in your view according to the column you click.  (In Outlook, click on the Subject column and all your messages will sort alphabetically by the Subject field.)


So you have to outsmart GMail just a bit, and start thinking like a searcher instead of a sorter.  You can use keywords to search (for example, searching on the term weather would give you all messages with the word weather, or searching on an email address gives you those messages to/from that email address.)


But that search box has more power, in two ways:


First, there is the Show Search Options link out there on the right.  Click it and you will see several additional search options pertaining to keywords, to, from, date and attachments.  This part is fairly intuitive.

Second, if you do not want to use the Show Search Options link, that search box itself can handle many arguments which will help you search your GMail and return the results you want.  For example, if you have many unread messages scattered out over your Inbox and you want to view ONLY your unread messages in your Inbox, use this in the search box:

is:unread in:inbox

Bingo.  You will see all unread messages in your Inbox.


Change the operators to change your search.  You might try:

is:starred in:anywhere

The above search returns any starred message from anywhere within your GMail account.  This is all rather fun once you catch on.  


Or consider:

delta from:matt

Now GMail returns any message with the word Delta from anyone named Matt.  So now I can easily lay my hands on my travel itinerary with Delta Air Lines which Matt sent me.


Just keep thinking about searching, instead of sorting, and you will have it.  I am closing with a great video (less than one minute) which also shows you some of these same features visually.  Just like Life cereal...Try it; You'll Like it.

Using GMail in Multiple Windows

One of my initial significant beefs with GMail was the premise that everything happened within one web browser window on my computer.  When I flipped through messages or lists of messages, every single one of those transactions appeared in a single browser window, a serious departure from Lotus Notes (which puts everything on tabs) or Outlook (which uses separate windows).

Call me petty, but this was always a problem if I had things to cut/copy-and-paste between messages.  I could still copy-and-paste, but only if I drove my single window back and forth between GMail spots, and it reminded me of my non-ability to parallel park--back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until I finally settled into some semblance of order.

Then I figured out how to have GMail run in multiple windows, and I loved it.  I could have two windows open to copy e-mail addresses, phone numbers or text between GMail messages.

There are 2 routes to use GMail in multiple windows:

First, you can click the In New Window icon.  This icon does not announce itself very loudly, so look for it near the top right of your message.  Clicking this icon takes whatever message you are reading and opens it within its own new window.  This icon also appears when composing new messages, so if you are mid-way through composing a message and suddenly realize you want it in its own window, click the In New Window icon and instantly you will have another GMail window with your outbound message, with an underlying window available to you for GMail navigation.

Second (and you already know this if you read previous Encyclopedia of Matt entries), you can use the Shift key with the keyboard shortcuts to open a new window.

• Shift + C to Compose a new message in a new window.
• Shift + R to Reply in a new window.
• Shift + A to Reply To All in a new window.
• Shift + F to Forward in a new window.

I fear I have made this entire concept more difficult than it really is.  So just try it.  Trust me that you cannot actually break anything.  You will not accidentally erase your entire GMail contents.  And you might just like it.

Keyboard Shortcuts in GMail: Part 2

The more I learn about GMail, the more I find it is a fairly ingenious email application, but there are several hidden gems in GMail that are not exactly undocumented, but are rather unknown to most.  Foremore among them are keyboard shortcuts, which allow you to use your keyboard to register actions rather than mousing to a button each time.


I covered Part 1 of keyboard shortcuts, including the help, Compose and Archive shortcuts.  Below are three more keyboard shortcuts that form the family of actions we most often take on pieces of e-mail:


R - Reply to a message.  Again, there is no hint or menu that tips you off that simply pressing the R key will start a reply.  Just try it while reading a message.  Press R and presto!  You have a reply started without your hands ever leaving the keyboard.


A - Reply to all.  This one is just like the Reply command above, except of course your response goes to everyone in the original message rather than just the sender.  Of course, this explains a mystery from Part 1 of keyboard shortcuts where the A key was not used for Archiving.  The developers at Google likely figured Reply to all was a more often used command than Archive, and this reserved the letter A for Reply to all.  (Remember A for Reply to all; E for Archive.)


F - Forward a message.  Again, fairly straightforward.  Press F and GMail automatically starts a Forward message so you can pass along your inbound message to someone else.

Now here is one more major trick that I really like, and it helps you bust out of GMail's limitation of sticking to one window: Add the Shift key to any of the above commands and your reply or forward will open in a new window, leaving your original message neatly in its own window.  Play around with this feature and you will really look and feel like a pro.  Having multiple GMail windows open lets you cut/copy and paste between messages much more easily.


In the screenshot to the right, I wanted to reply to my friend Rodney, and I used the Shift + R keyboard shortcut.  Instead of starting my reply in the same window, addition of the Shift key opened a new window with my reply, and made it easy to cut and paste information into my Reply.


It's a pretty sweet trick, will make you look like a GMail black belt, and may just make your life easier too.

Keyboard Shortcuts in GMail: Part 1

GMail is probably one of my favorite applications ever because it does so darn much, doesn't require anything on your home computer except a web browser, is very customizable, has some outstanding search capabilities, and is readily available anytime anywhere, such as on my mobile phone or someone else's computer.


Because I formerly used Outlook at work, I learned the keyboard shortcuts in Outlook to avoid the back-and-forth time wasting motion of moving my right hand off the keyboard to the mouse.  A journey of just three inches does not seem like much until it is done repetitively for every single message.


Thankfully, GMail has some great keyboard shortcuts built which can save you some time.  In my customary style, I will throw out a few at a time.


One CRITICAL prerequisite: The Keyboard Shortcuts must be turned On.  They are On by default, but this could be a great thing to check, and it's easy to do.  To verify:

1. Click the small gear icon in the far upper right, then click Mail Settings. (You'll be going here a lot as you keep learning more about GMail.)
2. On the General tab--which should appear by default--look for the Keyboard Shortcuts section a few lines down from the top.
3. Make sure this section is tuned to Keyboard Shortcuts On.
4. If it is already, just go back to your Inbox by clicking Inbox on the left.
5. If not, change the radio button to Keyboard Shortcuts On, then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button.

The keyboard shortcuts that I think are most useful:


Ctrl + ? - Show a list of all the keyboard shortcuts.  This is a great way to review the list of dozens of shortcuts and spot the ones you think will be used most often.  Occasionally the list will trail off the bottom of your screen.  If so, just click the link marked Open in a New Window to make them easier to read.


C - Compose a new message. What a huge timesaver! No need to navigate that mouse onto that Compose Mail button.  This one seems a little counter-intuitive because there is no hint that a single keystroke on the C key will do anything.  But try it; it works.


E - Archive the message.  One of the most powerful features of GMail, archiving is available with one press of the E key.  Why E instead of A?  Well, I'm not a GMail developer so I can't say for sure, other than to report that A is reserved for something else, so stay tuned.


Hope this helps you speed along the Information Superhighway.

Removing the Conversation View from GMail

GMail can do a "love it or hate it" set of organizational tricks with your Inbox, in that it uses the Conversational view by default.  That is, GMail groups back-and-forth messages between you and other people together in a continuous string rather than showing a unique message in your Inbox for each new reply or message, like Outlook does by default.  GMail tends to group messages with a similar subject line into conversation threads.


Experience tells me that people either love this or hate this.  I happen to be in the LOVE category, yet avid Outlook users occasionally have trouble making the transition to the Conversation View, especially if they are using Outlook on a daily basis for work and GMail for personal.  


Some prefer to have a separate message for each reply or forward because it is more intuitive, more similar to Outlook or other e-mail applications, or because keeping track of replies and forwards to and from multiple parties is simply easier without the threading.  


To turn off the Conversation/Threaded view of messages within GMail:

1. Click the small gear icon in the far upper-right corner of the window.
2. Click Mail Settings.
3. About 5 sections down from the top, find the section labeled Conversation view.  Change it to Conversation View Off.
4. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and click the Save Changes button.

I personally will keep the conversation view, but I am curious which you favor, and more importantly why.  Let me know if you try the instructions above and if you find this helpful