Google Buzz! The New Facebook?

//Yeps … another quick post on Google, hope the next post will not be on Google, lol!!  Well… Well …Who is not on Facebook? Apparently most of us have a Facebook profile. Hmm … now Google is joining a race that has started years ago, with its new Google Buzz, a new social component (built in G Mail). What is Google Buzz?

Watch the video below to have a better idea!

I found it cool, but most of my friends on Facebook have a Hotmail or Yahoo account. I don’t know why most girls have a Yahoo account, lol. And Google buzz required a Gmail address; I don’t think that Facebook devotees are going to switch to Gmail just for this. Hope it will not end up like Google Profiles; clean, simple and good looking but no one use them!

There’s no guarantee that Google is going to be successful with this new service but who knows!! I am still waiting for the “Buzz” to appear on my Gmail profile :(. I will try to update(Update: G.Buzz is not that interesting :() this post later on. Stay tuned and Happy Buzzing 😉

Try Google Buzz

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Access Hotmail From Within Gmail

//Hooray … Hotmail POP3 is available (free at last) to all users. Now I no longer have to suffer their horrible webmail service and their ugly interface with loads of advertising. Yeah, I can finally pull out Hotmail into my Gmail account. I bet a lot of you are doing the same thing too!! For those of you (like me) that used their Hotmail account as a garbage collection(spam, chain mail, random registration, etc.), you can set up a few filters and a few labels to manage all the mail that comes from Hotmail. 😀

Tip: You can use TemporaryInbox as a temporary mail for registration purposes. Btw, don’t forget that you could also access Hotmail on your web-enabled mobile phone from mobile.live.com. 

                  

Hotmail POP3 Settings:

POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)   
POP SSL required? Yes
User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25 or 587)   
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes

 

Note: You will need the information above to set up Hotmail in email program on your PC or mobile device.

Guide: How to access Hotmail from within Gmail?

Step 1: 

Open your Gmail account > Settings > Accounts > Choose “Add a mail account you own“.

 

Step 2:

Enter the settings as shown below, (of course, use your own username).

Step 3:

Follow the instructions on screen to continue, a verification code will be sent to you Hotmail account.

 

Step 4:

Confirm the verification and you are done. 😉

 

Voila, your Gmail account is now ready to receive mail from Hotmail. You can set up your own filters and labels. It works great.  Gmail rocks, Enjoy 😀

What is POP3?

Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) is an Internet standard protocol used by local e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a remote server over a TCP/IP connectionWhat is POP3? It is a protocol that allows almost any e-mail software program that you’ve installed on your mobile phone or PC(if supported by your device and e-mail program) to get messages from your e-mail inbox on the web and deliver them in the designated program. ~ From Wikipedia

Gmail experimental features

// For those of you who have not yet try the experimental features in Gmail. Features like Quick Link, Superstars, Pictures in Chat, Signature Tweaks, Muzzle, Old Snakey(Game), Email Addict and more.

To activate these features:

1. Open your Gmail

2. Go to Setting , then to Lab Tab

3. From there you can enable/disable experimental features

To deactivate the labs option temporarily (in case of problems), go to http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0.

Use Gmail as external hard drive

// Use Gmail for backup? Yes, it is possible using this small extension, Get ready to start:

Step 1: Download this Windows drive shell extension for windows users. I used it on windows XP pro and it works fine.

Step 2: Install the extension by running the setup application.

Step 3: A Gmail space appears in My Computers/Windows Explorer as an external drive as shown in the picture below.

Step 4: Now double click on the external drive (GMail Drive) and a login screen will pop up, enter your user name and password.

The extension is loading and enumerating the folder.

Step 5: And now you can drag and drop your file to the drive, you can use it as a normal external drive. It sends an email to your GMail account with the file as an attachment. Enjoy ; )

The downside:

These GMail storage solutions are very useful and until the much-rumored but slow-to-surface GDrive comes along and makes solutions trivial, the provide a nice way to access the same batch of files anywhere you are. However, there is a potential and significant downside. In the midst of my research with these tools, I ended up receiving the following dreaded “Unusual Usage” screen.

I know that a lot of people use these tools regularly and have never seen any major problems, I used both GMail Drive and GMailFS(Linux) extensively in a very short period of time so chances are the same thing won’t happen to you. Hope one day, Google will remove the Unusual Usage Lock. Use wisely and at your own risk.

Share your tips and experiences in the comments.

Note: Linux users can check out GmailFS and Mac users can try gDisk.