Comments on: Extending Gmail

Extending Gmail

JJBotter — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 17:26:19 -0800

Gmail Apps I'm a self-described GMail addict and overall Google product whore, so this page of applications for Gmail has me doing the happy dance.

By: davidmsc

davidmsc — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 18:01:20 -0800

Holy crap! I have a GMail account, but haven't used it for anything but "testing" mails to a couple of people. I'm amazed - delighted, too - that someone has done this, and expanded the GMail horizons. I'm not sure that I understand even half of what the tools are or will do, but I'm impressed nonetheless. Very cool.

By: Salmonberry

Salmonberry — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 18:24:38 -0800

Great find.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 18:28:32 -0800

For anyone trying to get the OS X Mail.app > Gmail scripts to work, it looks like the script in step 1. is now offline, so the script in step 2. has nothing to reference. Workarounds? Or am I misunderstanding the instructions? I haven't been using my Gmail account either, other than to send invitations to MeFi members (no), simply because there hasn't been an easy way to send all of my old mail there. This looks promising, if I can get it to work.

By: dobbs

dobbs — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 18:45:40 -0800

Thanks. That gCount program is very useful!

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 18:57:09 -0800

I'm still not sure why GMail is so great, but I'm hoping it is....

By: O9scar

O9scar — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 19:16:14 -0800

Another great tool is G-mailto (win|mac), which redirects mailto: links to Gmail.

By: mike3k

mike3k — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 19:53:53 -0800

My favorite GMail utilities are Gmailstatus and gCount, which add a menu item showing the number of unread messages in Gmail. Right now Gmailstatus has the edge, since it shows the unread count for each label.

By: Utilitaritron

Utilitaritron — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 19:55:01 -0800

O9scar: exactly what I was looking for!

By: Espoo2

Espoo2 — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 21:54:07 -0800

gmail rocks. the interface and logic is just so much better than the older apps. I, for one, WELCOME our new google overlords.

By: amery

amery — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 21:56:01 -0800

The login method in libgmail is currently broken. I guess that means I'm going to get some sleep tonight. Drat and double drat.

By: Quartermass

Quartermass — Mon, 09 Aug 2004 23:47:52 -0800

Wow, now I too can use these to upgrade my google brand gmail account. Super-de-duper.

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 02:14:48 -0800

gtray is super cool.

By: uncanny hengeman

uncanny hengeman — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 04:55:49 -0800

I have a Gmail account - and I find it less easy to use that Yahoo's free service. For example, when I hit "contacts" it shows me my addresses all right, but I can't select people and then compose an email! Seems stupid that Gmail doesn't have this feature. I'm not very computer savvy, admitted. But at this present point in time, Yahoo is waaay more intuitive and easy to use when compared to Gmail. Even at a mere(!) 100mb, I still prefer my Yahoo account. ps: Nice link JJB. I'll bookmark it and try and figure out what it all means.

By: Karmakaze

Karmakaze — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 07:00:05 -0800

I still want gmail to support IMAP...

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 07:30:24 -0800

Uncanny: there are a bunch of other things I find lacking in the current release. For example, there's no easy way to delete an attachment without also deleting the message it came with, and attachments seem to fill up the storage quota disproportionate to their size. But I expect these issues to be addressed over time as the system gets up and running and begins to evolve in response to user feedback. In the meantime, I've migrated completely to gMail, as I see this as the future of email. The standout features? 1. Having access to *all* your messages from anywhere on the web. 2. Being able to instantly pull out a single email by searching for a single unique or nearly unique key word in the message text. This has already paid off when I've been on the phone to a customer and have been able to get up to speed with what our past correspondence was while I'm talking to them. 3. Easy reporting of spam, and the expectation that the continuing reports by all users in the system will allow Google to keep the upper hand. I've already seen a dramatic reduction in spam, even though I'm forwarding all the email I receive at my old, incredibly spam laden address. (2 per day vs. 30 per day).

By: JollyWanker

JollyWanker — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 07:35:53 -0800

Turtles, out of curiousity: what is it about Google's implementation of those three features that you find so compelling? There are several other services that provide exactly those same features, just not with the Google "branding" - so what's the attraction?

By: Turtle

Turtle — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 07:53:52 -0800

I second what uncanny says, and I'll add to it, because I see mostly positive reviews of Gmail, which surprises me. My main email account is on Hotmail, where (I'm embarrassed to say) I pay $20 per year to have a measly 10 megabytes. What I get is fairly reliable mail that I can access from anywhere, which I also rely on for work. If it goes down for more than a few minutes it makes world headlines. I was waiting and praying to have a Gmail account, mainly so I could stop worrying about my mailbox filling up, but also because I figured Google would Do Mail Right. When I finally got my account via a friend, I was immediately quite disappointed. So disappointed that I generally began to doubt Google's savviness. The main reason I dislike Gmail is not its many missing features but the fact that it relies so heavily on frames and Javascript. It feels like someone's stupid web tricks project, a great technical idea whose implementation is piloted by some lame marketing droid. So, for example, you can't use the keyboard and tab to links by default. This approach is so counter to Google's simpler-is-better approach to searching that I'm baffled. What were they thinking? I hope I'm wrong, because I still have an image of Google as great force for good on the Internet (in a technical and aesthetic sense). They promised a plain HTML version (why didn't they start with that?). In the meantime, the honeymoon is over. I have Google to thank for Hotmail now giving me 2 gigabytes for my yearly $20 bucks, so thanks, and good luck.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:10:25 -0800

JollyWanker: to be totally honest, I was attracted to GMail initially for the cachet of having the account as well as curiosity at what the new service offered. I had avoided other web based email services because I'd tried them in the early days and found that with the limited storage capacity in an individual account I ended up spending a lot of time deleting emails and still didn't have access to all my archived messages, meaning I still had to maintain my own email application. With other services increasing individual accounts' storage capacity they may be just as good, but at this point gMail works for me. Turtle: sorry for stepping on your name! I didn't know that username existed when I signed up.

By: bachelor#3

bachelor#3 — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:14:33 -0800

Has anyone gotten Gmail working with Opera? I know it's not listed on their Browser Requirements page, but a boy can dream, right?

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:31:08 -0800

uncanny, you can just start typing someone's name or e-mail address in the "To:" field, and it'll pop up a list of all the contacts that fit what you've typed so far. Select one, and you're on your way.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 08:31:14 -0800

so when are they opening it up to us unwashed masses? i'd like to try it one day. i'm not sure i can trust any service that can't count to 10, however.

By: lbergstr

lbergstr — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 09:50:30 -0800

Turtle, gmail actually has the only webmail UI I find usable, period - mostly because of the keyboard shortcuts. I hate using the mouse. (Before gmail, I used a plain-text unix mail reader so I didn't have to take my hands off the keyboard.)

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 10:34:56 -0800

Care to elaborate mrgrimm? I see the full spectrum 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 in the correct order on your linked page.

By: stopgap

stopgap — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 11:44:32 -0800

I feel so dirty asking this, but does anyone have any invites?

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:11:09 -0800

stopgap: sent.

By: Turtle

Turtle — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:12:05 -0800

bachelor: Opera support is listed as We'll try. Why this should be hard is a mystery to me. lbergstr: I tried using the keyboard again on Gmail. It is kind of nifty and fast (and brings back memories of rogue and vi), but it's very non-standard. Tab and Backspace don't do what they usually do in a browser, and the Back button doesn't work (what is this, Flash?). I can't imagine many non-geek people will have the patience to learn this. Turtles: No problem, your name is lovely.

By: haqspan

haqspan — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 13:13:46 -0800

I like gmail but it's missing two things I really want: The ability to automatically go to the next message after reading an email without having to go to the inbox first. And a keyboard shortcut for deleting. Or am I just missing how to do these things?

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 13:37:20 -0800

Use the keyboard shortcuts. 'k' will take you to the next message. 'y' will archive the message. 'y' then 'o' archives then moves to the next message. It is true you can't delete entirely with keyboard shortcuts, because they don't want you to bother deleting. But you can archive.

By: apollonia6

apollonia6 — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 14:11:11 -0800

I'm with you on that, Haqspan. It's really, really, REALLY irritating that one has to use a menu to delete.

By: spatula

spatula — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 16:04:45 -0800

Like stopgap, I want to join the cool kid's table. Please be my invite enabler.

By: lbergstr

lbergstr — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 17:00:55 -0800

Turtle: I agree that breaking the Back button is nearly unforgiveable. I don't care about the Tab and Backspace keys. So the question is: which is more esoteric and useless, tabbing through links or vi-style keyboard shortcuts? We'll see...

By: Turtle

Turtle — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:26:55 -0800

> Tab and Backspace don't do what they usually do > in a browser, and the Back button doesn't work Actually this morning they seem to work a bit better. Maybe the Google God is watching...

By: JJBotter

JJBotter — Wed, 11 Aug 2004 05:59:14 -0800

I find that my suggestions to the Google staff don't go unnoticed. Maybe it's because I've had a Blogger account since two days after it opened, but they seem to take user suggestions very seriously. Me? I'll never use another mail service again.

By: haqspan

haqspan — Wed, 11 Aug 2004 10:53:05 -0800

Thanks for the advice. Although, when I Use the keyboard shortcuts. 'k' will take you to the next message. 'k' takes me back to the inbox. Looking closely at the instructions, it appears 'n' takes you to the next message, but only if you're in a conversation.