FTI: Gmail As Task Management
Adding a task management list is definitely one of the most requested feature of Google Mail.
Up till now, users have had to resort to workarounds like emailing themselves with “+notes” attached to the end of their user name, setting filters and labels, or using third party applications like Remember the Milk for task management integration. Thus, the introduction of a “Tasks” in Gmail Labs is a much awaited news for many.
However, its worth a note that the new lab feature is far from a full featured task management service, YET. As quoted from the Official Gmail Blog its a
“lightweight way to keep track of what you need to do, right from within Gmail.”
Therefore, it would probably be more suitable for people with simpler task management needs. I am sure that, by the time its fully released from labs, it would be featuring more functions like sync options or integration with Google Calendar. With that said, I must add that Tasks in Gmail is still in development and has no guaranteed release. However, I am quite sure that this feature has a high chance of reaching release status due to its popularity. For now, if there is any feature you think may improve the service, users can suggest it at Gmail’s Task listing in Google Groups.
One of the features of this new lab feature is the conversion of email to tasks: select one or more messages and go to “More Actions” and then “Add to Tasks” (Or turn on keyboard shortcuts and use + t). The interface feels a lot like Gmail’s Chat feature, allowing you to “pop-in” or “pop-out” when needed.
Check out the Official Gmail Blog for screen-shots, or try it out by enabling “Tasks” in the “Labs” tab of the “Settings” page in Gmail.
[via Official Gmail Blog]
FTI: Google Reader interface update
Google Reader Minimalist Interface
The change in interface at Google Reader came as a shock unlike the WordPress upgrade. Unlike the hype that has been built around the new wordpress interface among developers, the Google Reader interface change was somewhat a quite affair.
The new look, like WordPress 2.7, focuses on a much more cleaner and minimalistic look, and in doing so, ” make Reader act and feel more speedy and responsive”. The navigation is now customizable, taking on igoogle’s widget like behavior, allowing the user to minimize it to take up less space. Moreover, navigation is also now separated into three “widget like sections: “All items”, Friends’ shared items” and “Subscriptions”.
For those of us who subscribe to news feeds and thus have unread counts which can rocket to 1000+ just after a day, it is now possible to turn off the unread count. This is really great as I am sure it would cause less stress not to know the number of unread entries… As for me, I think that disabling unread count would prevent me from going into a fit every time I come back to my computer and Google Reader after a few days’ (and sometimes up to 10 days) hiatus from civilization and internet..
Another change which is none-interface related is the creation of RSS “bundles” which users can subscribe to. According to the Google Reader blog:
“…. Feed bundles are small sets of feeds related to a topic that you can subscribe to all at once. Historically, these were done “by hand” by the Reader team, but this just wasn’t working out. So we’ve written a program to make “bundles” for us – no more manual editing of bundles, and a much richer and interesting set of subscriptions for you to choose from….”
However, I really wonder how the program does the selection. Maybe it selects based on the number of subscriptions are maybe the PR of the feed? It’s really hard to guess.
Anyway, though the interface change definitely made the Reader easier to read, one point I felt that they should have done is to put the “Refresh” button from the subscription list back to its original prominent place rather than the current location which is in the Subscriptions options menu.
However, as with the WordPress upgrade,I am sure this layout may not go down to well with some people. I wonder if Google Reader will suffer a backlash similar to what iGoogle experience when Google implemented the canvas interface for iGoogle…
Overall, in my personl view, I think that both Google Reader and WordPress Teams have taken a step in the right direction in this update.
FTI: WordPress and Google Reader updates their interface
In a blink of an eye on Thursday Night, two major services which I used, underwent interface changes. The two services are: WordPress.com and Google Reader.
I took about a day (Friday) to re-orientate (for wordpress) and try out the newly designed services.
In the following 2 posts on this blog, I will be giving my personal opinion on the two updates.
FTI: Google Mail (Gmail) has themes!
Google Mail a.k.a. Gmail has been improved under the hood far too many times to count. However, one feature often neglected is the color scheme of gmail which cannot be changed. Long time users of Gmail has created plugins in browsers like firefox to enable the theme-ing of gmail.
Up till now, I’ve been using Stylish plugin for Firefox and Cascading Style Sheets to theme my gmail. One problem with this is that it is only available on my personal computer, and the styles aren’t resistant to Gmail Code changes.
Following in the direction taken by Google;s Personalized Homepage, Google has implemented themes on Gmail also.
According to the Gmail Blog, the developers
“wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we’re launching today, there’s a shiny theme with chrome styling, another one that turns your inbox into a retro notepad, nature themes that change scenery over time…”
“…We’ve also done a minor facelift to Gmail’s default look to make it crisper and cleaner — you might notice a few colors and pixels shifted around here and there.”
It is definitely a step in the right direction for the gmail theme to provide customization options for users. At least now, the theme changes aren’t limited to your own personal computer.
Maybe Gmail can now go a step further and allow users to upload a theme? However, I guess that will be a security issue.
Gmail Theme Settings
To apply the new themes, go to the Themes tab in the Settings page..
To read more about the themes, head over to Gmail’s Help Center.
Anyway, my current favourites for now are “Graffiti” and “Desk”. What are yours?
I.N: Microsoft and Google.. updates on services.
Google and Microsoft has been pushing constantly into the domains of one another. Microsoft has been playing the catch up game with Google’s online services while Google is trying to use its online services to encroach into Microsoft’s desktop territory. It is an unspoken competition for users.
I.N. this week
FTI: Graph my Reader
For users of Google Reader, there are times where your Reader subscription would grow to unmanageable amounts. When Google launched the trends page last year, it helped readers see users see how data is consumed and which subscribed feed is read most often, and thus help in users in reducing feed amount.
However, even with the pruning, I am sure there are times when you notice that you are visiting Google Reader more often because you don’t know when feeds will be coming in. In order to solve this problem, Google Reader has added statistics on when the posts are coming in.
Furthermore, it is now possible to view a particular subscription’s trends on the subscription page itself. The “show details” link, can be found near the top right hand corner of the page. It will be a good way to view your own reading habits for the individual feed as well as the posting pattern and cycle of the website.
Hopefully, this will help me further trim my feeds subscription and better manage my reading patterns…
Google Reader Individual Stats Screenshot
[via Google Reader Blog]
FTI: Google Reader, Mail and Calendar integration
For users like me who depend a lot on this three Google services, finding all in one page saves a lot of “Ctrl-Tabs” or mouse work.
One solution is to create an igoogle page at http://www.google.com/ig and link the three services in your main tab. Since Reader just got integrated as an igoogle widget, this may be a good solution.
The second solution requires the use of Firefox with the greasemonkey extension. With the extension, it is also possible to integrate all three services in one page without the use of igoogle.
Depending on which services you use, either two or 3 scripts are needed.. The links are as follows:
- GCal/GReader- Header Removal in IFrames [Userscripts.org]
- Gmail – Google Reader Seamless Integration [Userscripts.org] Refer to edits below
- Gmail – Google Calendar Seamless Integration [Userscripts.org] Refer to edits below
The first script is recommended if you want to install the two other scripts. A screenshot of the result (from Lifehacker) is shown below:
Integrated GReader, GCal, Gmail screenshot (via Lifehacker)
Alternatively, if you just want your Google Calendar agendas instead of the full calendar in beside your inbox, the Greasemonkey script, GmailAgenda [Userscripts.org] is also worth a try… A screenshot of the config is shown below…
Google Calendar Agenda and Gmail Integrated
However, I would suggest not to use the GmailAgenda script in a shared Firefox browser as some data is saved in Firefox’s about:config page.
As for me, I prefer using the Gmail and GmailAgenda combination while keeping my Google Reader separate. Although I need to switch a few tabs this way, I find it much neater…
EDIT:
The developer has updated his script. Now it is able to collapse your inbox for easy calendar and feed browsing, and work with Google Apps accounts. Furthermore, he has combined the reader and calendar script as well as add support for Picasa, Google Notebook, Groups, Sites, News, Maps and Finance.
