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Every Gmail account comes with more online storage than you're ever likely to use (7GB and growing), or at least that's the case if all you're doing is using it for email. Rather than let it go to waste, why not use it as an online storage or backup for your local files? Here's how.
Download and install Gmail Drive from here. Gmail Drive is a Windows shell extension that creates a virtual file system based around your Gmail account. Once installed, Gmail Drive will appear as a regular hard drive under My Computer. Double-click the drive and enter in your Gmail username and password, and then just drag and drop files to upload them to your Gmail account. Of course, you'll need an Internet connection for this to work, since this is a cloud-based storage solution
When you log into your account, the uploaded files will appear as emails with file attachments.
Troubleshooting: Gmail Drive works best in 32-bit Windows. You can try your luck at getting it to work in a 64-bit version of Windows, but it likely will not work.
Gmail owes much of its flexibility to Gmail Labs. These add-ons are essentially beta services that, for one reason or another, haven't been implemented yet as a permanent feature. But don't let the experimental status fool you - there are a lot of good Labs features that both run stable and improve the overall Gmail experience. Here's a list of our favorite five, in addition to the ones we've already covered previously in this writeup (like Canned Responses).
Allows you to reorganize and reorder the items in your navbar simply by dragging and dropping. Very handy.
Uh oh, did you just fire off an email without the promised attachment you said was included? That won't happen with this Labs featured enabled. Should you mention an attachment but forget to include it, a pop-up will appear giving you an instant do-over.
Buttons or pull-down menus? If you frequently perform a particular action, the button wins out every time. And if you find yourself marking emails as read on a consistent basis, this just might become your favorite add-on.
Use these two Labs features together (the latter requires the former) to send and receive SMS messages in chat, which is a lot easier to do when you're sitting at a PC with a full-sized keyboard than it is to dig out your smartphone and mash your thumbs.
Probably the best Labs feature ever, Undo Send gives you a moment to reflect on that angry email you just sent your boss, and should a cooler head prevail, unsend the message and maybe even save your job!
Have a favorite Labs feature that didn't make the list? Be sure to post it in the comments section below!
Comments are closed on this article
schwit
December 24, 2009 at 8:51am
"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." This is a quote from the CEO of Google. This is an incredibly scary philosophy, especially coming from the head of a company whose profits are based upon datamining your emails and searches and who knows what else they do with the data.
reutnes
December 24, 2009 at 7:13pm
Something you need to realize is that EVERYTHING you do on the internet is tracked. Yahoo does it, AOL does it, Google does it, Microsoft/Hotmail does it, the government does it. Name any company connected to the internet. I'll wait. ________________ they do it too.
Now Google CEO says that if you have something you don't want other people to know, then you shouldn't put it online. This is not just true to google! It's true for FREAKIN EVERYBODY. It DOES NOT take a Google CEO to tell you this! If you ever took a computer course, they probably told you. If you ever had somebody repair your computer, they probably told you. Your favorite tech blog probably has a post about it.
So why is it so different when Google CEO says it? Why is everybody freaking out? This isn't news, people! It's been happening every day since the internet was invented.
I don't have anything to hide. I don't care if Google or Yahoo or whoever else knows that I play a trumpet, enjoy video games and visit 4 different tech sites. I really don't. What are they gonna do with that? It's not like they'll figure out that I run a meth lab in my garage based on that information. (I really don't). If I have some superbad secret that I don't want a search provider to know about, then chances are I work with the mob and that it will never get punched in online in the first place.
DBsantos77
December 24, 2009 at 8:21pm
But what about pr0n? XD sorry I had to ask. :D
-Santos
Teh Rig:
AMD Phenom II X4 720 (Unlocked to 965 Black Ed. @ 3.6 Ghz 1.47v.)
CPU-Validation - http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=904672
HIS HD5850 @ 1 Ghz/1.2 Ghz!!! 1.25v
G
V-mateika
December 23, 2009 at 11:27pm
The point is (for me), that Yahoo is the most poorly secure email client. The major email clients all have similar features nowadays but Gmail remains king for very good security.
reutnes
December 23, 2009 at 8:47pm
The thing I like most about Gmail is that I can put in the name/password of any of my other email accounts anywhere else and it will retrieve them for me. My school hands out email addresses to students, but it really is sub-par compared to Gmail, plus the teachers can read all your stuff. I also have an old yahoo address, and some people just refuse to accept that yes, I really did switch email addresses. Gmail makes life easier by getting emails from both of those accounts and putting them all in one handy place. I can also send mail FROM those addresses using my Gmail account, if I should wish to.
hades_2100
December 23, 2009 at 10:46pm
Yahoo has this. So does my school account. So does Outlook... What's your point?
Digital-Storm
December 23, 2009 at 11:45pm
Last I saw, Yahoo doesn't let you send an email with another account name. Such as sending an email from gmail from your yahoo email address.
hades_2100
December 25, 2009 at 3:35pm
??? Beside the FROM field I have a drop-down list of 5 email addresses to send FROM.
