For Part 3 on useful Gmail features I have found, here are a few features that I didn’t get to cover in Part 1 or Part 2 as well as some new useful features that have emerged since.

Gmail labs

The Gmail labs features for multiple Inbox views sounds like a useful feature but after trying it out my mail Gmail view looked cluttered; maybe this type of view is more useful on a wide screen monitor than on my single laptop screen and for multiple email accounts perhaps. Instead I tried out Quick Links. This lets you bookmark a particular view of your mail and save it as a quick link for later use.

I typed in is:unread into the Gmail search box and then clicked on Add Quick Link in the Quick Links box on the left column in my Gmail. This added a quick link so I can click on this in future and quickly and easily search for unread mail.

A list of Gmail search terms can be found here. The most useful ones I have used myself include is:unread, from:person, has:attachment and in:anywhere.

Chat

Another new handy feature is that Google chat now recognises YouTube links in chat messages and give you the option to play the clip right inside the chat window.

Contacts

One of the most annoying things about Gmail contacts I find if the duplication of contacts and addition of contacts I didn’t add myself. Cnet have a good article on the new Merge these contacts feature. This will let you specify the default email address, whether one is a work address etc and generally tidy up your contact list.