In the fall of 2007 I was thrilled when Google enabled IMAP for Gmail, but I also thought they were crazy. Who would use the web interface (and see ads) if they could get synced mail in a rich desktop client? Turns out that if you make your webapp better than anything on the desktop, people will use it. Less than two years later, I’m using Gmail’s web client exclusively, mostly thanks to Gmail Labs. For the July issue of Macworld, I ran down my favorite Gmail power tools, in and out of the web interface. Google moves so fast with this stuff that between the time I turned in this copy and it got published, two more new Labs features were released that have made their way into my heart: Sender Timezone and Inbox Preview. Love it when good software is a moving target.
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11 Comments
micjoh
I just don’t understand why they don’t allow searches for part of the subject!?!
So if you don’t know exactly you won’t find it. That’s really bad. Even the simplest mailer or simplest webmail service can do that but not the search gurus mail. That’s quite extraordinary, don’t you think so?
Gina Trapani
But you CAN search for part of the subject. Am I misunderstanding what you mean by that?
micjoh
Maybe I have missed something but if for example you have a mail with the subject “smarterware tips”. Say I was unsure of what the subject said. I know it was something with smart… then I can’t find it. Or am I missing something?
joelena
Perhaps micjoh is referring to the lack of wildcard (or partial-word) searches. That was the main reason I never used Google Desktop. It doesn’t make much sense to not support wildcards – it’s not like the asterisk and hash sign are reserved for anything.
Paul Dmytrewycz
I think I get what micjoh is getting at, and he/she is correct. For example, I have emails with the word SausageFest (my annual cookout) in the subject, but searches for “saus” or even “saus*” return 0 results.
Gina Trapani
Huh! You’re right. A search for subject:than or subject:than* doesn’t turn up messages with “thank you” in the subject. That IS a big oversight, isn’t it!
Russell McLean
Interestingly though Google Desktop does work like that. Searching for exce will find Excel. The same is true for filenames that are not Programs.
drmelho
Love the Google apps!
ejf071189
I’ve actually always been annoyed at gmail’s search without really investigating exactly what it did/didn’t do, and I’m guessing this has been the main culprit. That’s why, even though I use the web interface exclusively, I try not to get my archives get too expansive in case I need to do some hunting.
Giannicolus Jones
I don’t know why everyone keeps saying Subject. There’s no wildcard search anywhere in gmail – subject or body.
And yes, it’s annoying.
Nicolas Hogan
I’m particularly frustrated that gmail doesn’t support wildcards for attachments.
I receive files that are timestamped in the filename so unless I search for file_12-12-2009_1210.doc I have no way of finding it.
As always a pleasure to read your work Gina.