New in Gmail Labs: Use Gmail Offline

From now onwards you can use Gmail in offline mode, its fine if you have lost the internet connection and still want to use Gmail. Google has started to roll out this experimental feature in Gmail Labs : Offline

Thing you can do offline:

1. Send messages.
2. Read messages.
3. Messages can be labeled.
4. Messages can be starred.
5. Search mails.

To use this feature you have to download Gears It will download a local cache of you mail which is synchronized with Gmail’s servers as long as you are connected to the internet. Once you get disconnected from internet, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the Gmail server.

If you are sending any messages in offline mode then that message is will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.

This feature is still in experimental mode so many of us would not find this feature in our Gmail Labs. Offline Gmail will be available to everyone who uses Gmail in US or UK in next couple of days.

To try this new features these are the steps:

1. Enable Offline from your Gmail Labs page. (if you dont have it then first install Gears).

2. From your inbox, click the Offline link("Offline^0.1" link in the upper right-hand side corner of your account, next to your username.) .

3. You'll see a prompt from Gears to start downloading your messages onto your computer.

4. Your messages will be downloaded to your computer.

Note: Offline Gmail works only on:

1. Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 7.0+
2. Mozilla Firefox versions 2.0+
3. Safari 3+
4. And if you're using Google Chrome, you don't need to download or install Google Gears, as it's already installed on your browser.

Known offline issues:

1. Sending messages with attachments
2. Access to the Contact Manager
3. Complete search results. Try your search again when you’re back online for more results.
4. Access to conversations in Spam and Trash
5. Custom synchronization
6. Some Gmail Labs features

This feature has been used by Gmail internally at Google for quite a while. If you have any questions regarding this new feature feel free to ask me or else you can join the Gmail Group Labs Help offline.

via: Gmail Blog

credit: Andy Palay, Gmail engineer

Happy Birthday Orkut - Orkut turns 5

Today when I opened Orkut the first thing which caught my eyes was the new doodle of Orkut, when I moved my mouse courser on to the doodle it said “Orkut turns 5”.

I would like to wish Orkut a very Happy Birthday and congratulate Google also. Personally want to thank Google to give us a wonderful social network site where we all lost old friends could connect to each other and gave us the opportunity to make new friends as well.

The day I joined Orkut, I just fell in loved it. It helped me to get in touch with my old days school friends and gave me a change to express myself here at Orkut Sharing.

I just want to add that “Long Live Orkut” and wish all orkutters with a happy orkutting life.

Coming soon: Orkut Sharing’s 1st Birthday…

Watch Videos in Gmail Chat Window

Google team has come up with a very interesting and cool new feature in Gmail chat: YouTube and Google Video previews. Now you don’t have to flip between the tabs to chat and see video. With this new feature integrated in Gmail chat you can chat as well watch the video at the same time. Whenever you receive or send a link to a video in the Gmail chat message, you will see a preview of the video inside your chat window.

You just have to click on the preview of the video inside your chat window and then a small screen will come up and you would be able to watch the video on the same page. Now with this new feature integrate in Gmail chat, don't forget to reply to your friends

via: Official Release

credit: Jessan Hutchison-Quillian

New Update in Gmail Lab: Send & Archive

After a the new years holiday Gmail came up with a small but great update in its Lab. If you have not noticed then in Gmail Labs tab you can see a new feature “Send & Archive”.

What is it all about?

The name explains everything about it. Many of the Gmail users like to archive there mails after they reply to a message. Before they had to click “Send” and then it was followed by “Archive”. So now its only one button which does it all for you, it sends your reply as well as archives them for you with one click.

How to Enable this new feature?

You just have to select Enable this feature in the Gmail Labs tab and click Save Changes button.

Path:

Settings –> Labs tab –> Send & Archive

credit: Pal Takacsi

via: Gmail Blog

Update To New Google Favicon in Firefox Search Bar

You all know about the resent change of Google favicon, but Firefox users may have noticed that still the search box has the classic Google favicon. This search box comes integrated with the Firefox browser.

If any one of you are eager to update it to the new Google favicon then you have to make a small and a quick update as follows:

1. You have to download this update version of the Google Search plug-in.
2. On Windows Machine:
   
   Search the folder "Serachplugins" located in the Firefox folder in Program Files.
   
   Example:
   C:\Program files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins
   
   
3. On Linx Machine:
   
   This might be the part
   /usr/lib/firefox-addons/searchplugins
   
   
   NOTE: Do keep a copy before changing the original google.xml file which came with the Firefox installation. So that you can change back to the old Google favicon in the search box if you want too.
   
4. And then replace the file google.xml with the new downloaded google.xml file.
5. Save the file and then restart Firefox.
6. How cool does that look…

If you want to change back to old Google favicon in the address bar then have a look at this post:
Google Favicon Has been Changed Once Again

Via: Mozilla Links

Google Favicon Has been Changed Once Again

If you all have not noticed, then Google has once again changed its favicon. This is the second time Google changed its favicon. Till now Google had two more favicon. The new favicon has all the colors from the Google's logo and Chrome . Check out the snap-shots.

This was last changed in May 2008. There were lot of favicon suggested to Google but the lucky one was Andre Resende a computer science undergraduate student at the University of Campinas in Brazil.

by Andre Resende

Google picked Andre’s favicon and modified it little bit but the concept was not changed. Google felt that the placement of a white 'g' on a color-blocked background was highly recognizable and attractive, which seem to capture the essence of Google.

Google’s new favicon

In case you dont like the new favicon and want to switch to old favicon then you can use below script by !user to change it.

Installation Instructions:-

This script is not compatible with Internet Explorer since it uses Greasemonkey, a Firefox Add-on. If you want to enjoy this and countless other hacks and scripts then Switch to Firefox

See the following steps:-

1) Download Firefox if you don’t have it.
2) From your Firefox page itself Install Greasemonkey. After you install Greasemonkey successfully then you will see its icon on bottom right-hand side of your firefox page. Click Here to Install Greasemonkey
3) Now Install the Script to change the favicon.

source: Google blog

credit: Andre Resende

Happy New Year 2009 to all Orkuters from Orkut Sharing

On this New Year occasion I would like to wish all orkuters, readers and subscribers a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year. May all your dreams come true and all your hard work convert into great achievements.

There is a saying

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”
By- Bill Vaughan

It’s always better to take the best out of your past and move towards the future, rather then taking the whole old things and getting your bag full and heaver which would slow you down in future. As I always say to my friends Take the Best and Throw the Rest and move on.

(image credit - Orkut)