Google+: big companies can cause big problems

Monday, July 25th, 2011

In its first three weeks of availability, Google+ reportedly attracted 20 million users. That’s a pretty impressive launch – especially since it’s been accompanied by what can only be described as a negative marketing campaign. Even as millions of users have poured onto the service, Google has insisted on calling it a “limited field trial”. At this rate, by the time they officially make it available to the public, everyone will already be on it.

Everyone, that is, except for Mr Matthew Brock of Swiss Cottage. I have it on good authority that the gentleman in question, an old friend of mine, is giving Google+ a miss. (more…)

Hotmail security upgrade: too little, too late

Monday, September 27th, 2010

Hotmail’s slipshod security was the main reason I jumped ship from Microsoft’s webmail service way back in 2005. Dealing with an inbox stuffed full of unfiltered spam, phishing attacks and other malicious messages was about as much fun as picking hair out of the plughole. In Wormwood Scrubs.

I kept my account open because various website registrations were still linked to that account, but I’ve seen nothing to tempt me back into regular use. Quite the opposite in fact. In the past few months alone, both a colleague at work and my girlfriend have had their Hotmail accounts hijacked and used to send malicious links to everyone in their address book.  Microsoft insists this problem is industry-wide, but I’ve never seen a Gmail account hacked in such a manner.

Microsoft knows this is a serious problem: today it’s announced a series of “upgrades” to Hotmail’s security… that don’t go anywhere near far enough, in my opinion.

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Google Apps Premier: long-term review

Thursday, April 1st, 2010

Towards the end of 2009, I decided that something needed to be done about email provision for my companies. Like most people, I have a number of email addresses and had been using a combination of Mozilla Thunderbird and the excellent CloudMark spam filtering service for a couple of years.

However, this system wasn’t working for two main reasons. Firstly,  it would take a good ten minutes after Windows loaded before I could read my emails as Thunderbird/CloudMark downloaded them and filtered out all the spam. (more…)

How to switch off Google Buzz

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Google Buzz has hardly taken the world by storm. Twitter, blogs and tech sites are swelling with complaints over its privacy and, in particular, its irritating habit of clogging up previously spam-free  Gmail inboxes with its constant alerts.

I’m going to battle on for a few more days before I deliver my verdict on Buzz. But several people have already emailed/Tweeted us to ask how to turn Buzz off.

The answer is simple but relatively well hidden.  Drop down to the foot of the Gmail page and you’ll find a tiny link marked “turn off Buzz”.

If you need any further instruction, you really shouldn’t be using the computer without adult supervision.

Gmail 2010 = Lotus Notes 1995?

Friday, January 15th, 2010

The hissy fit between Google and the People’s Republic of China has been in the news – including the “quality papers” a good deal lately. So, I went to see what’s new at Google for mail users, and spent a while looking around the extended features offered in its Labs, where you can find the stuff Google thinks is going to be cool, neat, and realy useful for those of us who have failed to compress the whole of our existence down to the 140 character limit of Twitter.

It was the sudden flip to using HTTPS which really put me in mind of the comparisons with other email products. HTTPS, Google says, is the answer to concerns over the security of people’s emails, and it had long intended to turn the feature on were it not for the inherent processing overhead to that type of network traffic.

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The 10 best GMail Labs upgrades

Friday, July 10th, 2009

GMail already knocks rival webmail services into a cocked hat with its speed, storage capacity and breadth of features. However, there are plenty more power tools lurking in the ever fertile GMail Labs, which can help you tailor the service to your own needs.

To access GMail Labs, click on the little green science beaker icon next to your email address at the top of the GMail window.

1. Quick Links

Quick Links is an excellent tool for power users. It allows you to create one-click shortcuts to specific searches – so you could, for example, have easy access to any emails mentioning your company or a particular person. To create a Quick Link, type your search term into the GMail search bar and then click Add Quick Link from the Quick Links box in the left-hand panel (which only appears after you’ve enabled the Quick Links feature).

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GMail goes back to beta

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Google may have brought GMail out of beta yesterday to allay the fears of business users, but it seems some GMail users are equally spooked out by the disappearance of that little beta tag after five long years.

Google, as ever, has the answer. A new GMail Labs feature called Back to Beta that “soothes the soul by putting the familiar beta sticker back on the Google Mail logo”.

Nice work.

(Thanks to PC Pro forum member MattLevy for the tip off)

Switching from Hotmail to Gmail

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Last week I decided to take the plunge and switch from Hotmail to Gmail. I’ve been flirting with the idea for a while, tempted by the never-ending upgrades and conversation-view email layout. The thing that had always held me back was that I’ve been a Hotmail user for over ten years. There were a lot of emails in that account that I didn’t want to lose, so I procrastinated. Which was daft, because switching is incredibly easy and you don’t have to lose a thing. It goes a bit like this.

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New Gmail “outage” sets Twitter alight

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

Twitter is once again ablaze with rumours of a fresh Gmail outage. This one doesn’t appear to be as severe as last month’s two-and-a-half-hour blackout and most of the Twitterverse (sorry) is reporting that the service is back on its feet again.

The graph taken from Twitscoop below shows how quickly word spreads when Google’s mail service takes a nap:

With Twitter, it seems you can’t sneeze without someone reporting it. 

The perils of cloud computing (part II)

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Following hot on the heels of Jon Honeyball’s warning about the dangers of cloud computing, comes another all too real example from no lesser source than the Google press office, commenting on this morning’s Gmail outage:

“I’d send you this statement by email, but I can’t”.