STFU && RTFM

Spending as much time online as I do, Google is an integral part of my day to day routine. This is my top five list of Google apps:
 

• 5: Google Search
  • Google Search has been the market leader for search for years now, and that is not a situation that looks like it is going to end anytime soon. Being the driving force behind many of their other apps, it clearly deserves a spot on this list.
• 4: Google Documents
  • Using Google Documents means that most people can get away with not having any Office-suite installed, such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or others. It integrates excellently with Google Mail, and is, in my opinion, the best choice for Netbooks.
• 3: Google Calendar
  • Google Calendar is a perfect example of how a web-based calendar should work. It is simple, intuitive, and allows you to create as many different calendars as you could wish for, as well as subscribing to other calendars.
• 2: Google Chrome
  • The browser wars are definitely on, and one of the contenders is Google Chrome, running on WebKit. It is light-weight, and my second choice for browsers, beaten by Firefox, except for on my Netbook. It seems to run smoother than Firefox on low-end computers, and is yet another example of how a thing like tabbed browsing can be done. I also like the fact that there is no separate search field. Instead, search queries are prefixed “?” when you hit CTRL+K.
• 1: GMail
  • As far as e-mail goes, GMail is the neatest thing since bread came sliced. It is intuitive, simple and quick, and the use of labels rather than folders makes retrieving messages simple. With the power of Google Search behind it, finding an email, more or less any email, is quick and simple.

In a previous post, I talked about Google Gears. Now, let’s take a look at a practical application. First, the developers at Google brought us the next big thing in web-based email. Now, they are bringing a way to take it offline.
 
Bear in mind, Offline is a GMail Labs feature, so it is wont to be a bit unstable for now. That being said, here’s how to enable the feature:
 

1. Sign in to Gmail and click ‘Settings’.
2. Click the ‘Labs’ tab and select ‘Enable’ next to ‘Offline Gmail’.
3. Click ‘Save Changes.’
4. In the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username, there will be a new ‘Offline’ link.
5. Click this link to start the offline synchronization process.

I use GMail a lot. I also send a lot of emails, many of those originating from mailto:-links. Hence, it is practical to have mailto:-links open in GMail.
 
This is quickly and simply achieved by going to Tools, Options, Applications. In the search-field, simply enter mailto, then use the Action-field to select GMail, Yahoo Mail or something else, like so:
 

 
Some installations of Firefox do not have the GMail-alternative. This is simply fixed. Open a new tab, then enter about:config in the address-bar. Into the filter enter
gecko.handlerService.AllowRegisterFromDifferentHost, then doubleclick the value so that it is set to true. Then copy/paste the following piece of Javascript to your Addressbar: javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto", "https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","Gmail"). When asked whether you want to add GMail as an application, answer “yes”.

At this year’s DefCon, a security problem inherent to the default settings in GMail was unveiled. The problem is that, by default, GMail does not use encrypted sessions.
 
This can be a problem if you use public computers, because the session key might be retrievable. With the session key in hand, access is apparently simple enough to gain.
 
Luckily, this is simply corrected. Here’s how:
 

• Log in to GMail
• Go to “settings”
• In the General tab, find the “Browser connection” setting
• Set it like so:

I’ve been using email since 1998, and from the get-go I’ve been using various webmail-clients, in addition to locally installed clients such as Outlook Express (urg), Outlook (Yum-yum), Lotus Notes (Oh-so-bloated) and Thunderbird (Weighed, measured and found wanting). My first email address was a hotmail one, and although that specific incarnation of my online presence no longer exists, I still have a hotmail address.

In addition to my hotmail adress, I’ve got five other main emails, three personal and two professional. All in all, this is a whopping total of five. Two of my four personal addresses are hosted by traditional mail and web hosts, and normally speaking they’d be accessed using a locally installed email client. Not so with me, mine are forwarded to my non-hotmail webmail provider, GMail.

Now, you can like or dislike GMail, it doesn’t change the fact that GMail has garnered a large following, and I for one love the archiving system they’ve got, as I do tend to need old emails from time to time, and at times need to label emails with more than one label.

I’ve spent two years abroad, one in the South England town of Poole, and one all over Israel. Both places, email was a great way of communicating with family and friends back home. However, not having my own computer in England, and not wanting to risk my personal communication being spread for the winds in Israel, webmail was the perfect solution, for a few simple reasons:
•If you’ve got ‘net, you’ve got mail
•Read and reply to email when and where you can and want
•Read old emails at need

Nowadays, getting an email address costs nothing, you get loads of space, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to set up or learn how to use. Simply put; if you know how to use the web, you already have the tools to acquire and start using your very own email adress.