This Month's Five Most Interesting Bits of New Information

The last few weeks your Webconsuls' team has been busy and our blog has been quiet. I don't know about you, but it is amazing what you can learn in a month's time. Here are this month's five most interesting bits of information that I learned and I want to share with you:

1. Did you know that Gmail has a send limit? About a week ago we received a call from our client saying that she was sending out an email broadcast to her customers asking them to participate in a fundraiser for the victims of the earthquake/tsunami. All of a sudden she noticed that she could not send any email or receive any email. She called us and here is what I learned:

"In an effort to fight spam and prevent abuse, Google will temporarily disable your account if you send a message to more than 500 recipients or if you send a large number of undeliverable messages. If you use a POP or IMAP client (Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, e.g.), you may only send a message to 100 people at a time. Your account should be re-enabled within 24 hours." (Go here to learn more and keep in mind that many email services have a send limit, this is why some clients like to stay in contact with their clients by a newsletter service like or similar to Constant Contact.)

2. Twitter 2.0 seems to be just around the corner. Rather than have me rehash what someone else has discussed so eloquently, I will point you to the article. "Are We Ready for Twitter 2.0?"

3. Blogger does provide great on-line support. The other day I was on their site and I saw a section called "Recommended Articles and Discussion." One of the discussions was entitled "Too Many Good Bloggers are Giving Up" . Now, this caught my eye!!! So I clicked on it and enjoyed the conversation. If you have a blog and you have given up or you are thinking about giving up, I invite you to read the posts and join in the discussion. You might just refresh yourself enough to keep on BLOGGING!

4. During the past few weeks our team has been discussing the nature of our Webconsuls' blog. The questions raised are these: Should it be more technical? Or, do our readers want to learn more about the team as people and read anecdotal stories, as well? I will tell you that the team was split on this, but today I read an interesting article on an SEO/SMO newsletter. The article had to do with Social Networking pitfalls the 4th pitfall to avoid was this: "It's not about sell, sell, sell! If all you're doing when you visit the various sites and post your updates is pitch your latest program, product or service then it's no wonder you're not seeing results. Share information with your network, whether that's your own information or you're passing along information from clients and colleagues. The more you share, the greater your results will be. Whichever social networking arena you're active in (and it may be more than one) remember the "social" in social networking - it's to build relationships, make new contacts, and socialize. Inform your network, not sell to them." I think based on this guidance and our own practical experience from being part of Social Networking sites, new clients may come to you naturally.

5. Finally, as this Columbus Day Weekend gets underway, I know that our New England innkeeper, hotelier, restaurateur, livery, and entertainment clients will be busy beyond belief as the autumn brides and mountains blush and foliage season peaks; but won't they be surprised to learn that Tucson, AZ has its own foliage season! And yes, Mt Lemmon is 2869 ft taller than Mt. Washington!





This week's photos are from my days in New Hampshire. The one of the children is of Aaron and Dan enjoying a "Tom Sawyer" moment with children who were guests at the inn. Aaron and Dan were "teaching" them how to rake the autumn leaves and make Leaf People!

"Teach Us to Delight in the Simple Things"...Rudyard Kipling

Let me know what you think of Judy's "bytes"...see you next week.

Labels Are the New Folders in Gmail

Labels are the answer to Gmail's folder conundrum. Enabling the following lab functions in Gmail further expands the power of the label.

There are items on the Gmail POWER USER list of Gmail lab functions which I enabled in my own account to help manange email using labels. While the some of these items are self explanatory there are others that didn't jump out at me as something I needed. Here are two that can become great tools to managing your email if you choose to use them.

• Right-side Labels: With labels on the right-side you are able to view labels and email in boxes without scrolling.
• Hide Unread Counts: This allows me to see how many unread messages reside with a label. For example if I have used the tag @call or _Call and there are 3 unread messages it gives me a constant reminder of what needs to be done. Make sure you keep your emails marked as unread for an accurate count.

These features enabled in Gmail can be applied to various organizational systems. The following video from FunWithButter.com explains how to use labels with the popular GTD method (Getting Things Done).

How to Merge Your Gmail Duplicate Contacts

Merge your duplicate gmail contacts with this new feature found in Gmail's Contact Manager.

1. Sign into your gmail account. Select Contacts.

2. To eradicate all the duplicates in your contact list select All Contacts.

3. Select your duplicate listings.

4. Select Merge these 2 contacts.

5. Check your entry for edits.

6. Press Save.

Merging your contacts this way is not only a convenient way to keep your database clean and organized it will prevent you from losing a contact on Google Talk. Prior to this feature I had tried to manually merge contacts together and inadvertently dropped an important Google Talk contact (sorry Dennis). Had I had this simple but necessary feature that would not have happened.

Be sure to sync and backup your phone prior to merging contacts to insure you have a current backup.

Great addition Google. Thank You.

Tasks from Google Labs

How does Google know?

Google is always adding and developing the services it offers for free. Sometimes I joke they are reading my emails. One day I may mention, "Gee, I would like folders for that ..." and a couple weeks later, or a couple days in some cases my feature appears. Call it selective attention, hundredth monkey effect or just the natural development of software.

As I made my transition from using Outlook to only Gmail and Gmail for your domain I bemoaned the loss of adding a task and attaching the referenced email. Loved that. Needed that.

The latest addition to Google Labs is Tasks. Now located below your "Contacts" link on the left margin. This from Google:

We put your tasks in the same kind of window as chats, so they're visible while you're scanning your inbox, reading mail, or searching (and in Settings, too!). Just pop your list out into a new window to use Tasks outside of Gmail.

To enable Tasks, go to Settings, click the Labs tab (or just click here if you're signed in). Select "Enable" next to "Tasks" and then click "Save Changes" at the bottom. Then, after Gmail refreshes, on the left under the "Contacts" link, you'll see a "Tasks" link. Just click it to get started.

Tasks will allow you to create a 'to do' list right within Gmail.

Tasks can be generated straight from an email.

1. Open your email, decide you need to add this task, from the "More Actions" drop down menu now you may select "Add to Tasks". The email will be added to your Task list with the subject line listed in your queue of things to do.
2. If you have your shortcuts enabled in Labs you can do this with Control + t, also:

Tasks can be prioritized.
Tasks allows you to break down a project into manageable steps.
The Task window can pop-out and become a whole new window.

So while Google is possibly listening (and when aren't they) here is my wish list for Tasks:

1. An iPhone application to see and use my Tasks list on the go
2. Ability to combine Tasks lists from other gmail accounts into one master list
3. Add due dates for Tasks to Google Calendar

What do you want Tasks to do next?

Gmail Goggles, Protecting You From Yourself

If you have ever found yourself under the influence of your choice poison, which led your writing and sending a poorly thought out email, consider the new email tool Gmail Goggles. This email setting in Gmail makes you answer 4 math questions before you are able to send any email, between the hours you set for self restriction. The ultimate hope being you can't do math intoxicated and therefore are unable to compose any email until the following day when cooler heads prevail.

So how do you enable Google Goggles? When logged into your Gmail account, access the "labs" option in the Settings page. Once you have enabled the goggles feature, you can then access the parameters of the tool in the 'general settings' page within that same Settings tab.

The parameters available to this tool are comical- you have a 1 to 5 meter you set for yourself on how difficult the math is for the questions that need be answered correctly before any mail can be sent. Additionally, there is a basic scheduling feature that allows you to set when the goggles apply to your email, and furthermore when you feel you may be inebriated enough to need 3rd party intervention.

But of course, if you can still do middle school to early high-school math when intoxicated, this won't do much for you in being an obstacle.

We here at Webconsuls have been using a tool we think is better than Gmail Goggles-- we call it self control; like Gmail Goggles, it's free of charge. But I still like this tool because math is fun.