Google has upgraded its Gmail voice calling feature with a great on click to phone ability. Users will no longer have to type out each number manually, they can just simply click on the number and it will call.
Phone numbers in Gmail will appear as links.
It seems like the gap between Gmail voice calling and Skype is getting smaller and smaller. Since Skype has an IPO soon, will upgrades to Gmail voice calling really affect them?
It was not that long ago that Crenk reported some big announcements coming from Microsoft, including some
changes coming for Hotmail. A week ago those changes came to life when Hotmail users were introduced to a new look and feel for the long running email client. In an attempt to take on rivals Yahoo and Google the change was perhaps a long time coming, and many long time Hotmail users might appreciate the new additions and features.
The idea to remove some of the clutter and allow users to integrate social platforms and interact with other sites was vital, especially in an era when so many are looking for the one stop shop of utilities that will serve their needs. Some of the features added include:
These changes are big when you consider how long the service has remained stagnant while its competitors made big strides to attract users. Still Hotmail is still considered one of the most widely used email services with over 350 million active users.
While Hotmail has added these new additions is it really enough to sway people away from Gmail for example? Or will Hotmail still prevail due to its simplicity and lack of “bloat”, as it’s called, that Gmail users might experience.
What are your thoughts? A winner for Microsoft? I used to be a Hotmail user but went to Gmail because of the wide offerings available. Hotmail became boring and dull even in the UI experience. Perhaps now it’s got some life breathed into it. We’d like to hear your thoughts.
I’m a huge Gmail fan. Yes I’ve heard everyone talk about how much power Google has, and how dangerous it is to put things in the cloud, and the numerous complaints about privacy issues, but I’m a fan, plain and simple. I get what I need to get done, it’s all streamlined and integrates well with one another. I could probably fine ten apps that each one do one thing in the Google system, but why depend on so many? Keep it simple is what I say.
Recently I’ve been alerted of a way to make my Gmail productivity even more effective, and that’s with the use of Gtriage. While many of us are inundated with email after email, sometimes finding that hundreds have come into our inbox at any given time away from the computer, who wants to go through all of that?Gtriage does the work of training your inbox instantly, and over time it learns to grow with you and identify which emails are vital and which can be touched later. I won’t say it’s perfect, the key word is train, so while you have parameters to set in the beginning, it will grow with you based on how you feed it information.
Emails that it determines to be important will be labeled “IMPORTANT” and put into a singular folder that is accessible on the desktop or on your mobile. Because the application runs in the background, there’s no apps to install, no third party plugins, no anything, so desktop or mobile, everything just works. It’s a good way to never miss important messages, and if you’ve got the patience to allow it to learn your habits, can be very powerful. I’ve only been using this for a few days, but I’ll probably circle back in 30-60 days to see if it’s really learned who I am and what emails are important to me.
In the battle over email application supremacy, Thunderbird has been one of the most highly developed for web application next to Google’s Gmail. Consistently we’re treated to new releases, updates, and efforts to make the user experience more comfortable and seamless with other email providers as it works to be the catch all for all of our digital communication. Most recently Thunderbird introduced a bevy of plug-ins over the summer that increased the usability of the application, but also made it more fun. Millions of dedicated Thunderbird users keep this email client in constant development and whats being released this week is no exception.
If you have some kind of mobile addiction and feel the necessity to constantly check your email with your mobile; I’m pretty sure that you usually get uncomfortable trying to use the small screen on your phone. Well this is not a revolutionary invention, but it keeps reminding me that Google is trying to keep things simpler: “Smart Links” automatically shortens long links and converts them into named links.
This is what you usually when you are reading an email with a long link:
And Smart Links converting it like this:
Of course these links, at least for now, will only work with Google related sites: Google Maps, Google Sites web pages and YouTube videos (but they are expecting to make it available soon for Google Docs as well).
There’s an important disclaimer about the use of this feature: only works with plain text emails.
There’s a lot to find when surfing the net late at night, and thanks to RSS Feeds, a lot of the internet can come to you with some nice key words.
For those of you that want to sharpen your skills in searching, perhaps get more power out of Gmail, or even maximize your RSS efforts in Google Readers, this interactive guide is right up your alley.
This guide is not necessarily supported by Google, but they are aware of it, and having used some of these amazing “hacks” to get out of my google applications, it works and you’ll be happy to have used it.
Read the GOOGLE GUIDE!
Google keeps up with his strategy to amaze ourselves constantly. Google Voice is a very interesting project that will allow you to receive all of your calls and messages in one number, and apply special rules whenever you receive these phone calls or messages.
Not convinced yet? There is more:
Here are some videos about the Google Voice usability and features.
Even though we dont have any confirmation about the release of this new feature, get ready because I am sure it is going to change the way you communicate.
Do you use several Gmail/Google Apps accounts? I only have two that I use constantly, but it is always hard to keep an eye on both. Gmail Manager is another great Firefox Add-on that can get your browsing and mailing experience a lot easier and nicer. You will get mail notifications and even check the new mails using only the lower left corner of your Mozilla browser.
Here’s how it looks:
For every new mail you also have a preview that you can check by only hover your mouse over the Gmail Manager area.
The installation procedure it is the same used for any Firefox Add-on, and the configuration panel it’s quite simple as well. You can have different options for each account configured: Notifications, toolbar and check for new messages frequency.
Instead of having different tabs with your accounts, or even different browsers to be able to log in with separate Gmail accounts, this is a great option for you to optimize your time. Give it a try.
In less than a year, Zemanta has made a name for itself in the blogosphere. By becoming the premier add-on to the FireFox browser, bloggers now had access to an amazing set of tools to provide further depth to their posts. With hundreds of thousands of downloads, it seemed like a surefire winner, and there was little doubt that Zemanta has room to expand, but where and when?
Zemanta late last year supported another FireFox add-on called ScribeFire, a simple blogging tool that opened up in your browser without having to log into any other site or leave the page you are on. This allowed for amazingly quick posting to the blog of your choice, but also provided the same depth that you had available to you from within most popular blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad.
Recently it was announced that Zemanta has made another move towards mass market exposure, it has integrated with Gmail and Yahoo Mail, offering users of those mail clients the ability to attached related articles, pictures, and keywords to their emails that the recipients might need to fully understand the topic. I personally can’t imagine a better mass exposure opportunity than attaching yourself to two of the largest mail clients on the internet today.
Zemanta is a key tool that I recommend all bloggers install, but now with mail enhancements, I’m happy to see them growing. I’ve always been a big supporter of their efforts as it’s nice to see innovative ways to breathe life into a long standing medium like blogging.
It’s apparent that Zemanta will continue to offer what it always has; by offering photo suggestions, article suggestions, and keyword suggestions, as you type, updating every 300 words, there is bound to be another leap into further integration.
Perhaps a jump into an office platform for document and presentation creation, like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. Only time will tell!
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Social networking is turning into a bit of a bramble patch. Whilst making loads of new contacts and keeping in touch with old ones, we’ve somehow lost the part of the networking that is the social – the sharing of information. Be it photos, music or words of wisdom, it’s not quite as easy to let those who’d like to, know.
A solution, however, is afoot. Zentact, brought to us by among others, Eric Marcoullier of MyBlogLog fame, aims to collate your contacts into one place and allow you to share bits and pieces as you browse.
After signing up and adding in a few personal details, you can simply import your contacts from Hotmail, LinkedIn, Gmail and Outlook via a CSV address book and after a few seconds, they are on your system.
Next, and I highly recommend this, download the Firefox extension, all will be revealed shortly.
Now, the genius part. Each contact is taggable with their likes and dislikes and when a web page which has tags that match your contacts, if you installed the extension, a smart little box will flash up in the top right hand corner of your screen with the list of contacts who’s interests are relevant to the site. You can then send them a link and be merrily on your way. Remember, social.
Now the one down side to this is that if you have hundreds of contacts, it takes ages to go through them all tagging away. I’d recommend doing it bit by bit, adding tags as you go – this will take longer but does two things:
It lets you see who you will really be sharing with – there’s no point in having 300 contacts if you only ever talk to six of them regularly anyway, which means you can quickly identify those defunct e-mail addresses you’ve not used in years or people who don’t share common interests.
Secondly, it makes the whole process a lot smoother – you may like a tag binge, but frankly I’d rather be spending my time actually looking at what I came to see rather than typing in long lists of keywords, especially ones that are tricky to spell.
Now, it will take a while for you and Zentact to get to know each other, but the more contacts you tag and the more sites sites you send, the better Zentact becomes at recommending what is suitable for whom. This is a great service and especially suitable for anyone who is on a lot of social networks but can’t quite keep up with what is going on with who. Now you can build your relationships easily and stay in touch better.
We are lucky enough to have a handful of guest invites so you can try the private beta version of this site and tell all your friends about, which you can get by clicking here. Incidentally, you can tell your friends about it via Zentact and you can then invite them to join in this most social of networks.
