Gmail Adds Features

tommertron writes "Gmail rolled out a host of new features today. Big improvement in the contacts list, with the ability to search it and organize messages according to contact. Also, you can now forward all incoming gmail to any email account, but, according to Google, this feature is only 'free for now.' Does this mean gmail will start charging for some features? Meanwhile, Internet News is reporting that on Monday, some gmail accounts contained an Atom link for reading your email summaries in a news reader. Also meanwhile, my decrepit Hotmail account still hasn't given me that promised 250 megabytes ..."

Oh...

[tommertron]

Forgot to mention that they updated the gmail notifier. New icon, and a little better. Updated automatically though, without my permission...

Re:Free now, pay later?

[the_denman]

they are still beta testing those features as they say here [google.com]

We're testing a new feature that lets you forward new incoming messages to any email account you want. It's free during the test and you can set it up in seconds. Even set up filters to forward only some of your messages. It's your mail. Get it the way you want it.

Re:Still can't open message in a new window

[StevenHenderson]

I still don't understand why I can't middle click on a message to open it in a new window...

Open the message, then click the "New Window" icon. An extra step, yes, but pretty easy.

Re:Duh!

[tolan-b]

It's not the targetted advertising that gets to me so much as my searches and my emails being logged against the same unique cookie id in a country where the government wants to be able to get at all my records without even the ISP (google) legally being able to appeal to a judge...

Re:Oh...

[Bricklets]

Gmail Notifier for my system did not update automatically. Rather, an error message (-1 code) popped up saying it couldn't check my mail. I installed the new version myself. Personally, I'd be a bit scared if it did update itself considering I don't *recall* having that setup.

Oh, and I hate the new blue icon. I thought the red icon from before stood out more. Personal preference I suppose.

Subaddresses

[sploo22]

One feature that's been there since the beginning, but apparently isn't mentioned anywhere on the site, is unlimited sub-addressing. Say I sign up for [e-mail]; I automatically receive mail addressed to [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], or whatever I make up. Then I can filter or forward messages based on these criteria. Why isn't this nice feature getting any press?

Re:Time To Test

[rduke15]

Won't work. They use a "Delivered-To:" header, like Postfix (and most current mailers?).

Donate it to FireFox! [Re:gmail invites]

[Bubblehead]

If you don't know what to do with your invites, donate them to FireFox! [wlkr.net] (Well, it's currently suspended, but stay tuned!)

WHAT, the Contacts section actually works?

[Deecrypt]

I've only had a gmail account for a month and everytime I've clicked on conatacts, nothing happens. Now they're telling me improvements have been made to the contacts section. Am I the only one whose Contacts section does not work?

Deecrypt confused, plays Tekken Tag, becomes happy again

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[lpret]

Download 7.54 and it works fine. Go now.

That gives us hope that we'll get IMAP

[theskeptic]

My friend runs this IMAP [logenv.org] and with the wording "It's free during the test", its given hope that google will implement IMAP(as a pay service) when it launches.

Brin talked about Imap for gmail in april but after that it seems there has not been talk about it at google. The most important features are in this order- IMAP, folders and retrieval of mail from other accounts to gmail.

There are other feature requests which you can check here [grytoyr.net]

Re:The one feature that I would really like...

[allism]

I sent them this question about two months ago. Here is the reply I received:

Hello Alice,

Thank you for your message.

Once you have a Gmail account, it is valid. This means that even after Gmail becomes more widely available, you will be able to keep your account, and your username will remain unchanged. Hopefully, this eases your concern.

We hope you enjoy Google's approach to email.

Sincerely,

The Gmail Team

Re:Time To Test

[rduke15]

Still won't work, for the same reason.

The way "Delivered-To:" works:

Mailer is about to deliver mail to some_mailbox:

- searches for a "Delivered-To: some_mailbox" header.

- if not found: adds it and delivers the mail

- if found: drops the mail, probably also writing something in the logs.

Since any forwarding is done after delivery, it won't work.

Will have to find something else to test their bandwidth. If you come up with something that may really work, maybe you could send them a job application? They give Gmail invites to all applicants...

Re:ATOM feed

[Delta-9]

You can use this image if you want. I made this screenshot yesterday.

Here is the image [img80.exs.cx]

Re:Whither standards?

[ar32h]

First off, Firefox also includes Atom support.
Secondly, Atom [atomenabled.org] is more than a syndication format. Atom also includes a counterpart of the Blogger API for authoring. Thus you only have to deal with one standards group for both authoring and distribution.
Thirdly, Atom is a open standard with an open development and review system, unlike RSS.
Lastly, the RSS which? 0.9x, 1.0, 2.0, they are all quite different.

Re:EXEs in attachments

[Anonymous Coward]

Why use crusty old ZIP files ... use WinRAR instead. Better compression and the filters can't scan inside the file to find those nasty .EXEs they're trying so hard to protect you from.

Re:Subaddresses

[morkeld]

It's a handy feature but it's not just Google, see this FAQ http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/addressing/

Note, from the FAQ, "Recent releases of sendmail come with this working already."

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[mtnharo]

You need to have Opera ID itself as Opera. GMail uses ActiveX to display itself in IE, probably to avoid lots of complications from odd Javascript problems with IE. Since Opera is IDing as IE, GMail is assuming it has ActiveX support, which it does not.

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[The Cydonian]

Go here [opera.com]. Or download Opera 7.61 [opera.com]

Re:EXEs in attachments

[alexkorban]

Actually, I've just checked and it allows to send executables in a zip file. However, it doesn't allow to attach executables.

Re:don't be greedy

[dragonman97]

I second that. In fact, I sent them a similar message via their suggestion form. I explained that I would pay for the ability to have my old email (in mbox format) imported with the correct dates.

Have you tried using mutt to bounce the messages to Gmail? Such messages should retain the date attributes, as well as sender, destination, and other such goodies, assuming Gmail doesn't mangle this stuff (and I don't believe it does).

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[Anonymous Coward]

Firefox crashes about three times a day for me.

What are the TalkBack IDs? You did send TalkBack reports, didn't you? Testing the program and finding such bugs is the whole purpose that mozilla.org provides these binaries and... *checks*
Oh no... we're targetting end users nowadays. *sighs forlornly* Which means we have to put up with no end of bitching, somehow provide support, and manage to create something decent even if nobody bothers to help with it anymore. Never mind. You're right. Firefox sucks.

Re:Lynx compatible

[pkhuong]

IT's CSS+Javascript+Tables. CSS might be supported by links, tables are, but not JS. So to support links/lynx, they'd have to completely change the architecture. Doubtful. In other words, they CAN support text-only browsers, it's only that those browsers have other limitations than only not having pictures.

Re:Subaddresses

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, the filtering still is very limited. You can only filter on subject, to, from or full text. It ignores all other content in the mail header.

For example: I have multiple email accounts outside of gmail. For my roadrunner account, I set it up to forward to [e-mail] - but since it is a forward, to gmail, the 'to:' is still [e-mail]. Even though there's a 'received by' header in the message (when I do a 'show original' in gmail) there is no way to have the filters look for this. They ignore all the headers except for couple they've 'blessed'.

This limits Gmail's usefulness for servicing already existing email accounts (through forwarding) using 'plus notation'

Otherwise, 'plus notation' works great for tracking mails, with the exception that a lot of sites that require you to enter your email address don't believe that + is a valid character for an address. (read the RFCs people!)

Re:Subaddresses

[illuin]

No problem. Just filter out everything that goes straight to [e-mail] or to any subaddress you've never used. Of course, you'd never give anyone a non-subaddressed email. A spammer would have to guess a valid subaddress in order for your mail you.

How to make your own Gmail Atom feed

[Anonymous Coward]

There's been a lot of discussion on the Atom feed at InsideGoogle [blogspot.com], including a link to make your own Gmail Atom feed if your account doesn't have a link yet. Also, some stuff here [blogspot.com] and here [blogspot.com]

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[dabraun]

No, it does NOT use ActiveX - it just uses the full HTML support IE provices (dynamic HTML) - same sort of thing that makes OWA (Outlook Web Access) possible ... (probably the most impressive web email that exists - granted you need an exchange server so it's hardly fair to compare it to free mail systems)

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[Digital11]

What is with you people and thinking that Gmail is using ActiveX with IE??? IT DOES NOT USE ACTIVEX. ActiveX is a component (usually a dll) that is downloaded and hosted in the browser. Think of ActiveX in IE the same way you think about a JAVA app hosted in a browser (only ActiveX isn't an interpreted/bytecode language, nor a language at all for that matter). Would you look at Gmail and think that it uses Java? NO.

Here's a little hint for you:
Gmail uses Dynamic HTML aka DHTML aka JavaScript interacting with the DOM. Thats all. No components.

This post is not just directed at parent, it is also a reply to the multiple idiots in the current thread who stated that Gmail uses ActiveX, and I got tired of reading it.

Auto update is there...

[Otto]

I just looked at mine, and the version claims to be 1.0.21.0. No -1 error, no obvious automatic update, nothing.

So I just now right-clicked it, selected exit, and then restarted it. Voila. Blue icon, version claims to be 1.0.23.0.

It's clear that it *does* have an automatic update function, and no, it does not have an option anywhere to turn that off.

Off topic, but I like sharing free gmail accounts.

[jshriverWVU]

Doubt anyone here *doesnt* already have a gmail account. But if anyone here hasn't, email explaining your situation, and I'll give you an invite. I've been storing them up for months. [e-mail] Sincerely, Joshua Shriver

If you don't like reality, skip this post.

[Awptimus Prime]

Does this mean gmail will start charging for some features?

Ok. I blame the american school systems for people who think businesses are there to give them everything for free.

First off, can we all just agree that Google is now a business with shareholder money? The guys who own the stock are a bit more concerned with generating a short term gain than giving several million geeks free *@gmail.com addresses with many features.

Do you really see Google sustaining itself on banner ads and advertising partners alone? I know you would like to see that happen, but if you were coherent in 1999 you would find this is not the case in most publically held companies.

I will be sure to link back to all my ill-modded posts about Google being a business to generate cash once it becomes another Hotmail or MSN in a couple of months/years.

Just speaking from the gut.

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[0x461FAB0BD7D2]

Care to explain this [google.com] then?

Re:OT: Wow!

[Coryoth]

Okay, I just spent a while browsing the source, and really, it doesn't look that hard. Laying out the controls with XUL looks largely straightforward, and everything made perfect sense to me, and I know no XUL at all. The rest of the functionality is provided via javascript, and that's where a little more work went in, but it really doesn't look like anything more than one would expect for an app of that complexity.

All up, my general impression (having only skimmed through the source) is that it looks to be no more difficult to develop such an app than with anything else one might use instead.

I am very impressed. Many kudos to the mozilla people for making such things possible.

Jedidiah.

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[Isofarro]

What is with you people and thinking that Gmail is using ActiveX with IE??? IT DOES NOT USE ACTIVEX.

The GMail interface uses HTML, with Javascript doing the DOM manipulation (as you correctly state). It also uses XmlHttpRequest [jibbering.com] to get content (such as the full email) from the server via Javascript - that's why you see your email on screen without the page reloading.

Internet Explorer's implementation of XmlHttpRequest is done using an Active X component.

Gmail works with the new version of Safari mainly because that version also now supports XmlHttpRequest. Opera 7.6x is starting to support XmlHttpRequest too - its buggy at the moment.

Re:Subaddresses

[qute]

It's not getting any press because it's useless.

Everytime I've tried I get the message: "Your email address contains illegal charectors".
Of course this is the fault of , but it does mean I cannot use this feature.

At home I use the "." as seperator. Even stupid admin checking an email-address, knows that "." is a legal charector :-)

Using http://www.spamgourmet.com/ is also a wonderfull thing :-)

Re:don't be greedy

[luferbu]

I explained that I would pay for the ability to have my old email (in mbox format) imported with the correct dates.

Have you tried GML [marklyon.org] (Gmail Loader)? It works pretty nice, I could import around 250Mb of old emails and then filter them into labels.

Forwarding is actually quite flexible!

[jbarr]

The forwarding feature is also more extended than I expected. In the "Settings", click on the "Forward" tab and you can enable a "Global" forwarding where EVERY received message gets forwarded to another email address. You can also further configure what to do with the received message. But did you know that "Filters" now have a Forwarding option? You can optionally have a Filter forward a message to any email address based on the filtering criteria. This gives you a lot more flexibility

Re:Does it work properly/completely with Opera yet

[tekunokurato]

You're utterly wrong, because IE's implementation of the required request protocol is done USING ACTIVEX. So you do, in fact, need activex activated in order to use gmail if your browser is IDing as IE.

hotmail account

[SkinnyJoe]

I opened my hotmail account in 1997 or 1998 and this week I noticed that I have the 250 MB storage limit on it now.