BLADAM - Entry - Got a Gmail account? Here are a few interesting tricks ‘n’ tidbits

DISCLAIMER: This is my personal blog. The blatherings here aren't (necessarily) the views of the current company I work for, companies I've previously blessed with my presence, my loving parents, the Illuminati, or anyone other than me, me, me!

Got a Gmail account? Here are a few interesting tricks ‘n’ tidbits

[In case you didn't already notice, I wrote a pretty detailed review of Gmail earlier, in which I also noted that I'm unfortunately unable to procure accounts for folks. Sorry! For those who already have accounts, I hope the tips below are useful and/or fun

- Adam]

So, you're one of the Gmail testers and you want more bang for the buck, eh? Try these tips on for size:

SENDING & SHORTCUTS
- Send mail to fellow Gmail'er by just entering their username in the TO, CC, or BCC spot. No need to include @gmail.com

- Did you reserve and now wish you had left out the darn period? It's not too late! For whatever reason, Gmail treats that e-mail address the same as one without a period (and visa versa), so works just as well as . As you may have guessed, Gmail is flexible with regards to capitalizations, too!

- Using the handy-dandy spell-checker and want to quickly Resume Checking without using the mouse? Just hit 'R', an undocumented shortcut key in this context.SEARCHING
- "or" is not the same as "OR." Only the capitalized version (sans quotes, by the way) will work with searches. So if you want to find mail from your friend Jen, you can use this in search: FROM: (jen OR jenny OR jennifer). Note, by the way, that the actual search terms are not case-sensitive. "jen" works just as good as "Jen."

- But, using the same Jen example, it's important to realize that the search engine of Gmail (and Google, for the most part) does not search partial words. So "jen" will not find "Jennifer."

PERFORMING ACTIONS ON A GROUP OF E-MAILS
- Let's say you have 150 e-mails, listed over two pages (100 max per page), and you want to archive all of them. I initially made the mistake of clicking ALL, then hitting ARCHIVE and thinking that this would do the trick. Nope. Commands -- whether TRASH or ARCHIVE or LABEL -- only affect those items that are both selected and on the page you're currently viewing.

- And speaking of groupings... don't forget that when you archive or label e-mail, you're affecting the entire Conversation of e-mails by default. If you want to trash just one of the e-mails in a Conversation, you can do this by expanding that particular e-mail, clicking on MORE OPTIONS, and then clicking on TRASH THIS MESSAGE.

ALL THIS *PLUS* A LITTLE BIT MORE
Gmail supports "plus" addressing, which means that if your address is , you can receive e-mail at maryhadda+littlelamb@gmail.com or maryhadda+longaddress@gmail.com, etc. Why is this useful? Well, Mary (or you!) could use one, er, I'll call it a "plussing," for mailing lists ("maryhadda+lists"), and another for shopping online ("maryhadda+shopping") and so on, and then create filters to put useful labels on the different types of mail.

Some have suggested that this could also be a useful spam deterrent (e.g., using maryhadda+2004q2 and then discarding e-mail sent to this address the following quarter), but I think this suffers from two key flaws:
1) Spammers are probably smart enough to start stripping off the plussing :(.
2) After a while, you'd have to create a LOT of filters, and -- at least for the moment -- we only get an allotment of 20 filters total. It'd be a shame to use those all up in a (likely futile) attempt to thwart spamjerks.

*** Edited 4/30/04:
Some folks had expressed concern that plussing was seemingly not working for them. However, I've worked with them to track down the cause: Due to the way Gmail handles discussion list mails -- not showing one's own contributions in the Inbox to avoid duplicate views -- people who were testing the plussing feature by mailing themselves via Gmail wrongly assumed the mail was 'lost'. As it turns out, the mail was indeed received, but -- since it appeared to be part of a 'discussion list' -- was not shown in the Inbox, which is what caused the confusion.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Plussing works; just don't try sending tests to yourself FROM your Gmail account TO your same Gmail account :D.

* * *

Well, that's pretty much everything off the top of my head for now! How about you? Got some cool Gmail tips or tricks? Speak up below, or feel free to contact me

* * *

*** Added 4/21/04
Uh oh! I have competition! :D It's been pointed out to me that there's already a blog dedicated to Gmail tips and tricks, called Gmail Gems. Definitely worth checking out.

*** Added 10/11/05
Want to read more stuff about Gmail and Google? Check out the BLADAM Google category! and don't forget to subscribe to this blog! (see the options in the top menu!)

- Blathered by Adam on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 at 21:20 [ Permalink | Trackback ]
- Filed under Geekery • Communication tools • Search engines • Google • Grab bag • Tips
- Commented on by 36 folks so far. Scroll down and see for yourself (and join in the conversation!)

Comment from LordRich [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	I’ve always been able to send emails to just the username at any place I’ve ever been. Using Thunderbird it not only offers the autocomplete for the domain, it offers previously used addresses. I’ve also always been able to send emails to either people’s usernames or their email address - it’s simply the way mail servers operate. Searching sounds pretty poor - Squirrel mail on my servers can do better than that. The one free email address I use has better group selection than that. I can tick the box at the top which selects the whole page, or I can tick the box at the bottom which selects the entire folder. I own my domains, and usually the mail servers, so I can have any adress I like - and one of my mail servers has a pretty nice feature where emails to username+folder will store the email in the relevent folder on the imap server - no extra filters needed. And every email address in the world is case-insensitive - that’s hardly a feature, presumably gmail is actually smart enough to do it’s searches ignoring case? I’m still to see anything outstanding offered by gmail yet. - Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 at 9:58 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member Adam San Francisco [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	> I’ve always been able to send emails to just > the username at any place I’ve ever been. But not everyone knows of this trick. And I’m not certain it work on other popular Webmail systems. > Using Thunderbird it not only offers the > autocomplete for the domain, it offers > previously used addresses. Gmail does this as well, and quite nicely at that. > Searching sounds pretty poor - Squirrel mail > on my servers can do better than that. Aside from the lack of partial-word searching, Gmail’s search features are—unsurprisingly—quite good. Lots of modifiers and blazing speed. > The one free email address I use has better > group selection than that. [...] Yes, Gmail definitely needs to get better with selection of items, IMHO. > I own my domains, and usually the mail servers Uh, given this, you don’t seem to necessarily be the target audience for Gmail or other Webmail services, LordRich :D. However, I can bet that Google DOES have a much stronger infrastructure than what you or your providers offer. If you had to bet on backups / stability / etc., I’m guessing you would have to admit Google’s got the leg up. > I’m still to see anything outstanding offered by gmail yet. - Rapid speed of general UI - Massive space (1 gig) - Unique and helpful threading for starters - Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 at 14:59 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Fred [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	As of 4/28, I’m getting silent failures with plus-style addressing. works, myname+foo@gmail.com doesn’t get delivered but doesn’t produce an error message either. - Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 at 0:54 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member Adam San Francisco [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	This is really strange! I just sent mail to myname+testing@gmail.com, and the message arrived in a few seconds. But your report of plus-problems is the 2nd I’ve heard of, so I’m going to edit my blog entry above to urge caution. Anyway, thanks for writing, Fred! - Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 at 1:01 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from dan22 [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	LordRich, you really have no idea how good it is. And I disagree with Adam, I think many people, including me, who have domains will still use gmail. It’s that good. - Posted on Wednesday, April 28, 2004 at 23:21 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Sri [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	I sent a mail from my yahoo account to mygmailaccountname+ and when the mail is opened in gmail, it shows up as to “mygmailaccountname+telugum”. So looks there’s a limit on the # of characters that appear there. - Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2004 at 19:51 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member Adam San Francisco [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Yes, there’s a limit to the number of characters of an e-mail address displayed in the main screens, but: - you can see the full address when clicking on MORE OPTIONS in the Conversation screens - the Gmail filter still operates on the full text of the entire e-mail address - Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2004 at 20:40 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Shiv Nandan Singh [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	The so vivid description of the lucrative features of gmail only makes me more desperate to get an account on gmail. Could anyone having one at gmail please oblige me by inviting me at gmail. My email account is : s n s i n g h _ 0 2 @ i i i t a . a c . i n ( Remove the spaces. They are there to prevent the spammers) - Posted on Monday, May 3, 2004 at 5:03 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Eric [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Interesting note about gmail: it is very, very fast. I think faster than Outlook or Eudora or Bloomba* on a desktop. Will that remain true when I have 1/2 a gig of e-mail and when they have 10,000,000 users? Do you ever remember a slow query at Google.com? I suspect Google has built much secret speed into their infrastructure at the byte level. Eric * I may have 100,000 or more e-mails in my Bloomba client, so the comparison is unfair at this point. - Posted on Monday, May 3, 2004 at 12:22 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Teresa [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	how can i get a gmail account? - Posted on Monday, May 3, 2004 at 15:02 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member Adam San Francisco [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Unfortunately, there aren’t many surefire ways to get an account now, since the service is still a ‘beta test.’ You can try logging into your blogger.com or Google Answers accounts if you have one, but other than that, I’m not aware of any ethical ways of procuring an account. :( Sorry I’m not able to help! If I had lots of invites to give out, you can bet I’d be sharing them with my faithful BLADAM readers - Posted on Monday, May 3, 2004 at 15:09 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Bill [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	If you really want a GMail account now and can’t wait, you can always get one on eBay. Here is a link to check if your name is still available before you bid on eBay: http://www.fscom.net/gmail - Posted on Saturday, May 8, 2004 at 18:03 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from onlineno1 [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	I want take a gmail account - Posted on Sunday, May 9, 2004 at 2:23 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from elissa [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	I have a gmail account but have been unable to get into it yesterday afternoon and all day today. My brother has had the same problem...although all other family members can easily get in… Anyone else having this problem? It’s driving me insane… - Posted on Friday, May 14, 2004 at 12:16 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from elissa [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	OK, it’s working now (5.14.04, 10:30pm), after a day and a half of not working...I don’t know what the problem was… - Posted on Saturday, May 15, 2004 at 9:40 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Pooja [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	This is neat. I like the skip dot email id [mine is ] and use only names [skip @gmail.com] in the to list. - Posted on Monday, May 17, 2004 at 0:18 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from ManishKumar [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	i want e-mail account on Gmail if i go by ebay.com it will require any money or what reagrds Manishkumar National Institute of Design - Posted on Monday, May 17, 2004 at 12:43 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from A pretty nice guy [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	I know it is probably rude to beg, please forgive me! But if anyone has a spare gmail invite they’d be willing to give away, please email me at Thanks very much! - Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2004 at 7:00 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from jackfusion [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	How do I do a alphabetical search in gmail meanning all the subjects that start with the letter “a”? - Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 13:53 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from deepesh india [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	hi i want gmail account can u help me - Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 3:27 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from ShrutiS [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Is there an easy way to escape out of a compose message within a conversation? - Posted on Friday, May 19, 2006 at 10:16 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member Adam San Francisco [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	Shruti, Not quite sure what you mean by “escape,” but you can use TAB to move out of the compose field, and you can click on DISCARD to end your composing. - Posted on Friday, May 19, 2006 at 10:51 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from Mike Gard [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	I have just started using gmail. I thought when i submitted all my old e-mail account names, that i would be able to read them from gmail, but that deos not seem to be the case, why not?? - Posted on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 at 10:48 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from navanitha india [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	how do i discard my gmail account - Posted on Saturday, December 16, 2006 at 23:58 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member amaltas India [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	I tried new Yahoo mail interface today, the interface is good, just like a desktop application. all the services chat, calender etc. integrated in one interface. The only issue is its slow. - Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 at 1:24 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from member James Australia [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	G Mail is having speed but not much more efficient than yahoo or hotmail. It’s just look like a white board, design need to changed. Well i will have to use G Mail because to use other Google services. For mailing usage i prefer now hotmail. - Posted on Friday, February 22, 2008 at 2:08 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from nitin [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	when i send mail and copy to others mail addresses in Bcc , others are able to view mail ids which are marked in bcc also. how can we prevent all the users marked in bcc category not to view all mail addresses - Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008 at 6:17 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Comment from marie marieorhenry@gmail.com [ BLADAM Profile \| URL ]	About every other week gmail asks me to sign in as if I never used gmail before and when I do i still can’t get in. How can I contact google gmail by phone? This is frustrating!!!! - Posted on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 at 14:19 [ Permalink to this comment ]
Trackback from svartling.hopto.org	GMail Snippets GMail With GMail, you can send and receive messages up to 10 megabytes (MB) in size. When you add an attachment, the size of a file may increase because transport encodings (the information that a - Posted on Thursday, December 12, 2004 at 10:12 [ Read the rest ]
Trackback from ukazu \|\| motley	Gmail Tips, Tricks I found a few Gmail tips on the web (I'd love to credit my source, but the birds ate all my breadcrumbs). Two good ones: a.b@gmail.com is the same as ab@gmail.com. That rocks. Also, ab+extra@gmail.com gets delivered to ab@gmail.com. That... - Posted on Monday, September 9, 2004 at 1:09 [ Read the rest ]
Trackback from Faraway, So Close	Gmail Yo Now that I've gotten in on the gmail beta, (my address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com) I'm finding all sorts of cool tips/tricks/geeky stuff you can do with it. (What is gmail? It's google's new email service. Like hotmail only instead of 2MB... - Posted on Sunday, August 8, 2004 at 0:08 [ Read the rest ]
Trackback from Ed's Blog	Gmail If you're using gmail, then you're probably wishing (by now, at least!) that you could use Outlook or a decent... - Posted on Friday, July 7, 2004 at 12:07 [ Read the rest ]
Trackback from Aimless Words	BLADAM GMail Tips A weblog entry listing several good GMail tips. Link: BLADAM... - Posted on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 at 22:07 [ Read the rest ]
Trackback from Vinny's Blog	Gmail Filter - Posted on Friday, June 6, 2004 at 9:06 [ Read the rest ]
Trackback from Faraway, So Close	Gmail Yo Now that I've gotten in on the gmail beta, (my address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com) I'm finding all sorts of cool tips/tricks/geeky stuff you can do with it. (What is gmail? It's google's new email service. Like hotmail only instead of 2MB... - Posted on Monday, May 5, 2004 at 12:05 [ Read the rest ]
Trackback from EGO	GMAIL: A PRIVACY ISSUE? As an active Blogger user, I recently got an invitation to test Google's e-mail service called GMail. I have signed up for the service and it will interesting to see how the ads will match the content of the email messages. ... If you want to learn m... - Posted on Sunday, April 4, 2004 at 17:04 [ Read the rest ]

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