After only a few weeks of Wave usage, my inbox is been teeming with activity, full of waves from strangers who have added me and 17 other strangers to items I don’t particularly care about. Rather than shoot for inbox zero in Wave and spend the time archiving everything in sight, I’m going with the flow–with the help of a few saved searches. Besides the previously-mentioned with:public search, three other saved searches are making drilling down to my most important waves much easier.
onlyto:me is:unread: This search shows waves that are directed only to me (no one else) and are unread. It provides a much more streamlined view of incoming waves that I’m more likely to want/need to respond to because they’re only to me.creator:me -is:note: These are waves I have created and added other people to, which most likely means they’re waves I’m waiting for responses on. This view is very similar to an email sent box.is:note: I’ve taken to using Wave as a personal notebook, and jotting waves that no one else is a participant on. This is probably an outside use case of Wave–its purpose is collaboration–but this handyis:noteoperator does easily return “notes to self” waves.
To save a search, enter the query, and then press the “Save search” button on the bottom righthand side of the results panel. As you can see in the screenshot, I also like adding a little color to my saved searches. To do the same, click the drop-down button next to a saved search and choose “Set color.” What Wave searches have you saved?
13 Comments
Will
I hadn’t thought of using Wave for a personal notebook. Seems like a good idea, since it lets you keep your correspondence and ideas in one place, but I think I’ll stick to Evernote 🙂
The unread operator is going to be real handy, though. I’m still getting used to this new sort of inbox.
Jarrod Willard
I was bummed out when Google shelved Google Notebook, but really Google Wave probably has just about all the functionality Notebook has, and then some. Can’t wait to start Waving!
ahmadtarek
When I first saw wave, the first thing comes to me is a personal notebook. It looks like EverNote desktop client :).
Thank you for the tip.
Luigi Montanez
I assume this means I have to create a “notes” folder? I can make the folder, but then how do I move Waves into the folder? I’m baffled…
earth2marsh.com/
Agreed, these searches are worth saving…
But annoyingly, the only searches I can “save” must either “Archive” or “Mark as read”. To be really useful, we need to be able to add results to a folder. Besides, “searches” is a misnomer—it’s more of a filter function than a saved search. Or am I missing something?
Luigi Montanez
Weird, a couple minutes later and “is:note” now works as expected without the need for tagging or folders.
But still, what in the world is the “Folders” feature for if I can’t put anything in it?
John Gorp
Luigi, I was confused about the “is:note” search too, but found the answer in the Google Wave help files:
is:note Finds all waves in which you are the only participant.
Here’s the link a Google Wave help page with all search terms:
http://www.google.com/support/wave/bin/answer.py?answer=162900
Miguel Wickert- Pineiro
Gina,
Yes, this is helpful stuff. Thanks for sharing and if you learn about anything else, I’m already looking forward to reading it! 🙂
Thaylin
@Luigi Montanez:
To be able to use “Folders”, first create the folder, then MAXIMIZE the centre pane, this will show the “Move To” button across the top. You will notice, if you change the width of the panes, it covers up things like the “Trash” as well.
antimatter15.com/
Is with:public working anymore? for me it’s only showing the waves I already have in my inbox.
Luigi Montanez
Thanks Thaylin and John Gorp for the help.
anandchakru
Hello ppl, any body send me a wave invite (anandchakru.forum@gmail.com) pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzz
supercopter
Thanks for this very usefull post !
I’m very interested in the “is:note” search.
Unfortunatly, I can’t make it work : I use two different google account (one for me, one for work) and two Wave accounts…
So, hen i use Wave as a personnal notebook, I always add my other account to be able to access this note from my two account.
Is there a way to make a search for waves that no one else is a participant on, except a specific second account ???
Thanks in advance for your help.