Category Archives: E-Mail & Instant Messaging

Google Toolbox

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This article in PCWorld introduces 20  tools (or tricks) for searching Google in privacy, and using Youtube, Gmail, Google Drive. See Ultimate Google toolbox: 20 tips, tricks, and hacks

  • Startpage from Ixquick is mentioned as a way to search privately at Google – yes – but know that it’s not a Google interface.
  • Of interest are tips about YouTube – there is a Chrome extension that will hide the ads!
  • There’s an email game you can play with GMail — “It’s basically an alternative interface for Gmail that shows you only one message at a time and challenges you to reply in a timely fashion.”
  • Do a lot more with Google Drive – including send a fax.
  • Play a game with Google Maps – but you have to get the hang of the cursor.
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Gmail vs Outlook – new battle

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Yes – Google targets ads to GMail users based on the content of their emails.  Most GMail users must realize that and have decided to accept it.  But maybe Microsoft will lead the battle to change things.

Danny Sullivan describes the situation in Microsoft Attacks Gmail Over Privacy In Latest “Scroogled” Campaign (Feb 6).

Of course, Microsoft would like GMail users to become Outlook users – where users can pay $20 to turn off the ads. Microsoft at its Scroogled site is also running a petition against Google.

Google does offer ways to opt out of the ads – as Danny explains – but they aren’t easy.

All very negative – but GMail users might check into ways to turn off those ads.

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Tidbits of the Day

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As the Internet World turns.

Microsoft is moving all Messenger(instant messaging) users to Skype. Makes sense since Microsoft owns both and they do largely the same thing in providing  chat in text, audio, and video forms.  Microsoft to kill the Messenger on March 15 (CNet, Jan 9)

Linked In has 200 million users from 200 countries and territories who collectively work in 19 languages.  The LinkedIn Blog post,  200 Million Members! , has an infographic for the numbers and relates some of the success stories of its members.

Bulletin to all scrabble players, the most frequently used letters are ETAOIN SRHLDCU.  Peter Norvig at Google analyzed Google Books Ngrams data on  the number of times each word is mentioned in books Google has digitized to figure out word counts, word lengths, frequent use.  Norvig presents all the data in his article, English Letter Frequency Counts: Mayzner Revisited or ETAOIN SRHLDCU.

How do you think Google and Facebook make money?  Survey shows that Americans are Confused – (Marketing Land, Jan 9)  Harris Interactive ran a study for The Search Agency to find out what people know.  I’m not surprised that  only 54% of Facebook users said they thought  they knew. I’m disappointed that the study didn’t probe to find out in what ways users think Facebook makes money. People knew more about search engines – with 75% pointing to advertising.  But results also suggest high distrust – “more than one-third of American online adults believe that search engines sell users’ personal data to marketers; 29% believe that companies pay annual dues for use; and 20% believe that users pay for premium search features.” (from press release)

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Outlook, Hotmail, and the Cloud

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This is old news from August 2012 but Hotmail or Live (remember Live?) or MSN  users will notice the changes in 2013. Microsoft has closed Hotmail, the webmail service it opened in 1996, and upgraded user accounts to Outlook.com.   Fortunately, hotmail users keep their email address and the conversion is painless. This is part of Microsoft’s move to the cloud, something which most MS Office users will want to get used to this year, and redesign of products to work well on mobile devices and encompass all communications functions.

Panel of choices in Outlook.com

Panel of choices in Outlook.com

There may be a learning curve – “In the Outlook.com inbox, your personal email comes alive with photos of your friends, recent status updates and Tweets that your friend has shared with you, the ability to chat and video call – all powered by an always up-to-date contact list that is connected to your social networks. And, of course, you are in control of your experience – what you share, the networks you connect to, and your personal information.  ”

A posting in the Office Outlook Blog, Introducing Outlook.com – Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes (July 31, 2012),  describes the changes and how to avail yourself of this service – assuming you are willing to tear yourself away from Google’s competing  communications world.of Gmail and Google Drive.

Note also that there are many Office blogs with loads of tips on using Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and announcements about new webinars.

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Email in the Cloud

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PETRAEUS AND THE CLOUD, John Seabrook, New Yorker (Nov 14)

Investigators have much easier access to email in the cloud – GMail specifically – than email on your hard drive. General Petraeus found this out the hard way.

In the United States — “In the eyes of the law, e-mail on your hard drive gets the same level of protection as documents in your personal filing cabinet—the government needs a search warrant to access it. But e-mail stored in the cloud is equivalent to documents in a public warehouse: the government can obtain them with a simple subpoena; no court procedure is required.”

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