On most days I find myself using at least 3 different Google accounts, and with that comes the hassle of logging in and out of each one separately. Normally what I end up doing is logging into one account on Chrome and one on Firefox but somehow, and this really annoys me (or it used to annoy me), I would begin editing a Google Document, forgetting that I was signed into a different account in Gmail, and then I would suddenly get the little pop-up “you are not signed into this account. No changes have been saved. Please log out and log into this account”… or something like that.
Thanks to newly released Multiple Account Sign-in, I think those days are over.
It’s pretty simple to set up – and you can learn how by watching the 2 minute screencast below:
Rapportive is an extremely useful plug-in for Gmail (Chrome, Firefox and Safari) that pushes the online Web activity of your contacts, right into your Gmail sidebar.
Every time you click on an email Rapport will replace the Google Ads in the right sidebar with your contacts photo, occupation and links to various social networks. Anything that has been made public on the Web can be added to the Rapport. You can also add notes about the person that are visible only to you.
After I first installed Rapport I figured I was going to have to wait and see how many of my contacts signed up for it before I would begin seeing their info in my sidebar – but that’s not the case. If it’s public on the Web then it’s fair game for Rapport. When I looked up my profile on Rapport I found my photo, occupation, a link to my Twitter account, my Google profile and my LinkedIn profile. If someone is using Rapport and I send them an email then they’re going to automatically have links to places on the Web that I want them to see. If I was trying to hide something then it wouldn’t be public in the first place. Of course, once you install Rapport you have the option of going in and updating your public Rapport profile where you can choose to add or remove anything you want. All in all I think it’s a great tool that I will continue to use.
To see Rapport in action, watch the screencast below:
When I logged into Gmail this morning I finally saw what I really wanted to see yesterday afternoon – “Buzz”. It was right where everyone said it would be, under my inbox tab.
After spending a few hours poking around and (unsuccessfully) searching for some help topics on exactly who can see what, I think I finally got the gist of Google Buzz. Oh, and just in case you’re wondering, I like it. I like it a lot.
To learn how to get started using Google Buzz, watch the screencast below:
You see, I’m getting ready for my Mom to come visit me in San Francisco this weekend and now, instead of copying and pasting numerous Google search results of places we should check out into an email, I can simply start composing my email to her and then do Google searches within that message. The search results can all be pasted right into the email, links and all.
You need to go into your lab settings first and enable Google search and make sure your rich text editor is enabled. That’s all there is to it!
To see how easy it is to use Google search in Gmail, watch the screencast below:
As some of you may know, I’ve got wedding planning on the brain. And it’s stressing me out. A lot. Thankfully there are a ton of online tools that are easing a bit of the stress. I honestly don’t know how anyone planned a big event, like a wedding, without the help of the Internet. I don’t even want to think about that! I can’t even think about that. This leads me to the event planning site MyPunchBowl. I knew that MyPunchBowl was a great site for planning parties and managing events, but I didn’t know that they had an entire section dedicated to weddings! (Thanks Paisano!)
MyPunchBowl Weddings gives you a quick and easy way to send out engagement announcements without the cost of expensive save the date cards. In fact, it’s completely free to use (although there is a premium account which gives you more customization and ad-free announcements).
I’m not quite ready to send out save the dates, but when I am I think this just may do the trick.
To see MyPunchBowl Weddings in action, check out the screencast below:
Scribbly is an application that runs on Adobe Air which allows you to quickly take notes and then email them to yourself with one click. Its feature set still leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s still a useful little tool and worth a look.
After you install it you just need to click on the icon located in your system tray and add your email address to the settings so Scribbly will know where to send your notes. You can jot down notes, copy and past links and even quickly add a time-stamp by clicking on the clock icon. That’s really about it. I do have my own requests for features, of course:
- The ability to add multiple email addresses so I can send my shopping list to my boyfriend fiance .
- A button so that I can clear the list – right now it seems that I have to delete items myself.
- More control over how Scribbly behaves. I’d like the option to have it go away after inactivity instead of having to hit the Esc key.
To see Scribbly in action, watch the screencast below:
If you’d like to send holiday cards to your clients but don’t have the time or the money to buy, customize, and mail out plain old greeting cards, then eCards for Business may be just what you (and the happy little trees!) have been looking for.
Pingg.com, an online invitation and party planning service, is behind eCards for business and they were nice enough to set us up with our own account to try out the new service.
In short, eCards for business allow you to create eCards that are branded with your company logo, which you can provide to your employees to send out to their clients. The eCards can be viewed on a Webpage with a custom URL, via email, text message, and/or you can opt to have pingg print out and mail the cards to your chosen recipients.
A really great feature of eCards for business is a customized Splash Page that pingg will create for you. You can add a logo, choose specific card designs that you want your employees to use, and add notes. After your Splash Page has been created you’ll just need to point your employees to the URL and they can simply click on a link to create eCards for their clients with your companies branding and specific designs. You can also encourage your employees to use your company eCards to send their family members holiday greetings. Your eCard Website is also completely ad-free. (In my screencast I don’t make this point clear – note that if you sign up for eCards for business, there is no additional charge for removing ads). You can find pricing information and learn more about how pingg will create your customized Splash Page here.
To learn more about eCards for business and see it in action, check out the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):
If you have not-so-techie parents, grandparents, or even (gasp!!) friends, then you may have heard these words before: “Whadda ya mean, attach it in an email? Where do I attach it? I don’t even know where it went on my computer! No, no, I’ll just print out the page and send it to you in the mail”.
This was the conversation that I heard my boyfriend having with his wonderful mother the other day. She wrote a letter to him using Word but didn’t know how to attach it in an email. He did get a letter in the mail a few days later and right then and there I decided that there must be some use for a video showing how to find that elusive document and attach it in an email.
My next idea for a “HELP!!” video is how to save an article you find online and send it in an email. I still get newspaper clippings in the mail. ‘Nuff said.
To learn how to save a Word document and attach it in an email, watch the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):
Futz.me gives you an easy way to send yourself reminders, links you want to revisit, and even images right from your address bar. You can have items sent to your email address or via text message. Anything you want to send to your email or phone can be sent by simply adding Futz.me/yourusernamehere before the URL or text in your address bar.
All this and you don’t even need to be signed into your Futz account in order to use it. A one time sign up and you’re good to go. When you sign up, you’ll select a username which is how Futz knows what account to send the items to. So theoretically, since you all know my username is molzy, you could send me links or notes without even knowing my email address. All you would have to do is type in Futz.me/molzy before whatever you want to send me and it will pop right into my inbox. (Of course, I don’t use the email address that I used for this screencast so please don’t send me anything ).
There are a lot of ways you can use Futz. There don’t seem to be any set rules – and that’s one of the reasons I like it so much.
To see Futz.me in action, watch the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):
Scr.im is a neat little tool that allows you to create an original URL that you can share on Twitter, Facebook, forums, and anywhere else that you don’t want to publish your real email address.
All you need to do is enter in your email address on the scr.im homepage and enter in a custom URL which will lead people to your real email address. If you don’t care about a custom URL then scr.im will create one for you. Whenever you need to share your email in a public forum, just enter in your scr.im URL. The link will bring people to another page where they need to pass a captcha (a not-so-annoying captcha) in order to see your real email address. If you’re a regular target of spambots because of posting your real email address on the Web, then you may want to give scr.im a look.
To see scr.im in action, watch the screencast below (best viewed in HD in full screen):
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