Blogging from Gmail, and why I'm loving Gmail

If I could live in Gmail, I think I would. I decided to try it out again last week after rejecting it in favor of Apple Mail perhaps 18 months ago. Well, I wish I hadn't rejected it. At the time, I couldn't get used to the idea of the mail not living on my computer. But I'm over that now. Apple Mail was, on my computer, extremely sluggish, and the search invariably didn't work. I think this may be because, with space constraints, the mailboxes had compressed (?) and required rebuilding. But one doesn't know they need rebuilding unless one opens one up and can't read a message. And the search apparently doesn't work unless the mailbox is rebuilt.

But all that is behind me now. I'm very happy with Gmail. And I've been moving old Apple Mail into Gmail so that it will be searchable. I've also been moving some old text files over, for the same reason. It's dawning on me that Gmail could easily be used as a personal database: for birthdays, phone numbers, anything you want to be able to find in your browser quickly. Also as a daily journal for whatever you might want to keep track of: write yourself email, save it as a draft during the day. Then archive it at the end of the day. Next day, reply to that entry and do the same thing.

Right. Anyway, I've also realized that one can blog from within Gmail by configuring mobile blogging settings with one's blog. This here is my first attempt. (Will it accept *formatted* *text*, I wonder? Let's see....)

Gmail:

1. Daily journal
2. Blogging
3. Database

I've also tried to set up Twittering through Gtalk, but I haven't been successful yet

Comments

[Tom]

There are some cool things you can do with Firefox and gmail.

There is an add-on called gspace that makes gmail look just like another drive on your PC. You can simply drag and drop files to it.

Gmail Manager sits in your status bar and tells you whenever new mail arrives. You can use it to track multiple gmail accounts.

[Maxine]

I've loved gmail ever since I opened an account--all that space, good spam catcher, the ads are discreet and even on occasion useful.
The attachment system is good-- any attachment is automatically converted into various formats so you can just download the one you want.
The search is great. Can't say about the "chat" and "talk" as I have them switched off.
I've also played around a bit with Calendar, which if our family were better organised would be a good way for us all to coordinate, which parent is on "early home duty", which child needs a lift when, etc. But we haven't got into using it, despite a few dry runs.
I also really like Google Reader now -- are you still using that? They keep adding new features to it, they've just added a "notes" function that I haven't checked out yet.

[Debra Hamel]

Yes, I get so much less mail now that more spam is caught! It's great. Ads don't bother me in the slightest.

Chat is handy. I'm using it a lot for work purposes. It's handy to have it right there, and to have the chats saved along with everything else. This is great.

I tried out calendar, but so far an online calendar hasn't really worked for me somehow. As for Google Reader, I don't dislike it, but I made the switch a while ago to NetNewsWire, which I prefer. There are certain things it does that are quite convenient for the way I use an RSS reader. That said, I looked back to GR the other day thinking it would be nice to have that online again too.

If you know of any cool stuff that can be done with Gmail, do pass it along!