Filed under: Business, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Commercial, Freeware

This post’s subtitle could be “Why Gmail rocks”. If you’re already a Gmail user, you probably already comprehend Gmail’s very special way of grouping messages from the same conversation together and presenting them in one unified view. If that’s the case, this article is probably not of much interest to you. But if you’ve never tried Gmail, and have never understood why your friends keep saying it’s the ideal thing since sliced bread, hopefully we have the ability to help you out (and provide some alternatives if Gmail isn’t an option for you).

Grouping threads

Virtually all email clients have a view that presents a list of messages. The traditional way to handle this (and the way virtually all email clients and webmail interfaces do it) is to treat each individual message separately. The onus is on the user to keep various conversations (threads, in email parlance) straight in their head. This works fine when you receive only 20 or 30 emails in a day, but when you get up above 60 or 70, this model starts to fall apart. It completely fails when you get up into hundreds of messages per day or more.

The unique feature that Gmail brings to the table is the capability to intelligently group messages from a common email thread together, so that in your list of messages you’ll only see one entry per thread. Right off the bat this will take an inbox with 70 actual messages in it, and make it appear as if there are only 20 or 30, since you’re only seeing one row per thread.

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Filed under: Business, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Web services, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Commercial, Freeware

This post’s subtitle could be “Why Gmail rocks”. If you’re already a Gmail user, you probably already comprehend Gmail’s one-of-a-kind way of grouping messages from the same conversation together and presenting them in one unified view. If that’s the case, this article is probably not of much interest to you. But if you’ve never tried Gmail, and have never understood why your friends keep saying it’s the best thing since sliced bread, hopefully we can help you out (and provide some alternatives if Gmail isn’t an option for you).

Grouping threads

Virtually all email clients have a view that presents a list of messages. The traditional way to handle this (and the way virtually all email clients and webmail interfaces do it) is to treat each individual message separately. The onus is on the user to keep various conversations (threads, in email parlance) straight in their head. This works fine when you receive only 20 or 30 emails in a day, but when you get up above 60 or 70, this model starts to fall apart. It totally fails when you get up into hundreds of messages per day or more.

The one-of-a-kind feature that Gmail brings to the table is the capability to intelligently group messages from a common email thread together, so that in your list of messages you will only see one entry per thread. Right off the bat this will take an inbox with 70 actual messages in it, and make it appear as if there are only 20 or 30, since you’re only seeing one row per thread.

Continue reading Email user interface advancement - Emailers Anonymous

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Filed under: Macintosh, Productivity, Freeware

Time Out is an app for Mac OS X (similar to Workrave) that’s geared towards reminding you to take breaks from your computer, which can ultimately prevent repetitive-strain injury (RSI). Time Out is free and includes two types of breaks: normal and micro. Normal breaks are less frequent, but longer in duration, and micro breaks are more frequent but only last for about 10 seconds.

When it’s time for a break, the screen will slowly fade into the Time Out screen with a progress bar showing you the remaining time of the current break. You also have the option to postpone the break for 5 or 10 minutes, or to skip it completely.

The program is highly customizable. You can set break length, frequency, and even the color and fade length Time Out will use when it’s time for a break. Scripts, Adium status, and iTunes pause/play can even be triggered during breaks (so, for instance, your music can be stopped during a break, then resumed when the break is over).

[Via i use this]

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising, News Corp’B’ (NWS)

It seems each day I get a pitch for a new-fangled social networking site. For example, I saw one that is for people who like food. Oh, and there was one for people who are over 70 (I’m not kidding).

Hey, with the huge success of MySpace and Facebook, I have the ability to see why entrepreneurs are jumping on the bandwagon. But are things getting out of control? And more importantly, is there really much money to crank out of social networks?

From what I have the ability to tell, it looks like the space has been a bust. For example, on the recent quarterly conference call for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), there were some comments that indicated the disappointment with the monetization of social networks.

The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] has a piece on this today. What are the issues?

First, social networking is a fairly recent thing, so it’s tough to get a handle on things.

Another issue is privacy. After all, people put lots of personal information on social networks. Might that information be misused? Interestingly enough, Facebook has had to deal with a few of these snafus.

Then there is the inherent branding problem. With user-generated content, there might be some nasty surprises. In other words, do you want to jeopardize your brand if there’s risqu

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