I’ve been a fan of Gmail for some time. I love its powerful spam filter which seems so much more effective than anything else I have come across, and the seemingly endless capacity to store my mail and make it available for search is really useful for me when running a small business and needing to keep in contact with a large customer base. Despite my contentment, two recent developments have enhanced my Gmail experience.
Better Gmail
Better Gmail is a handy Google Chrome Extension that, once installed, enables the user to perform a variety of tweeks. You install it by:
- Opening Google Chrome
- Click on the Spanner Icon (top right corner)
- Select Extensions
- Click Get More Extensions
- Search for Better Gmail and click to install it.
- Once installed
- Click on the Spanner Icon (top right corner)
- Select Extensions
- Click on Better Gmail Options and select your options
For example, you can remove adds, fix page width, move print button, hide chat, hide footer, and handle mailto links with Gmail, as well as select a range of other options. Two that I like the most are the ability to switch on a Mouse Over facility that highlights the email selected, and the ability to show attachment type icons.
Why not give it a try. If you don’t like it you can easily switch the extension off, or uninstall it.
Etacts
Etacts promises a much more significant change in the way you use Gmail. It transforms your Gmail account into a contact management hub.
You sign up for Etacts with your Gmail account and authorize Etacts to interact with your Gmail. Once that is done it imports your Gmail Contacts and Email information (headers not content) into its database and then allows you performs some useful tasks and mine information in various ways. I’m still learning to exploit its potential, but here are just some of the things that I can now do:
- When I compose a new email, I can set a reminder telling me to act if I haven’t have a reply to the email within a time frame that I set. It helps me see who hasn’t responded to my emails and helps me find messages from important contacts that I haven’t responded to.
- When reading an email I can now easily, from within Gmail, look up the sender’s page on Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, as well as reading any recent Tweets by them from Twitter. I can also make private notes next to the email.
- I can easily set a reminder to contact someone at a frequency determined by me.
- I can easily see data on the number of emails sent from a particular person and when the last contact was. It helps me automatically discover who I haven’t talked to in a while, and keep track of clients, coworkers, family, and friends.
- If I have an AT&T account, Etacts also allows me to track phone conversations.
- I can also send individualized messages to multiple contacts.
Having said what Etacts can do, I need to point out that, at the time of writing, it isn’t without problems. Many of the above things can easily be done from within the Gmail program once you have downloaded and installed the browser plugin from Etacts. However some features can only be used by logging in to the Etacts’ site. Since Etacts was given a major publicity boost by being featured on Mashable, the number of subscribers using the free service has soared, and the site is suffering from capacity issues, meaning that it can be slow at times. It can take some time to initially import all your contact and email information. However, the browser plugin features do not appear to have been adversely affected. The company are working to overcome these initial capacity teething problems.
I suppose I have a simple mind. I use gmail for e-mail and that is all I really need it for. I can understand why you want to use this etacts feature. If I wanted to send multipe messages I would simply copy and paste and use my adress book. Why would you need a reminder? You could see whether that person has replied or not. (well in my case anyway)
I can see if you have zillions of contacts then that feature would be useful.
Personally for me, I don’t feel I need or would use any of this.
I can see no point for me in the better gmail either. I don’t care what my page looks like just as long as the message gets there.
I like simple things me and I think it is cool to play, and if you want this great, but for me, I send an e-mail and I am happy. Done!
I can”t remember how to edit on this but in my first sentence I meant to say can’t not can understand. Thanks:-)
[...] time ago I wrote about a couple of applications that were enhancing my Gmail experience, and since then, I have discovered three more that are helping me manage my inbox. I [...]