Amit Verma » email

Online friends list in Orkut

Amit Verma — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:48:31 +0000

Orkut is well integrated with gmail chat. Now you may also notice “Online friends” tab in the left-bottom corner of orkut.

Orkut: Online friends tab

Click on the tab to expend and see the online gmail contacts.

Orkut: Online friends list

Tip : Stop Gmail to sign into chat automatically

Amit Verma — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:02:12 +0000

Gmail automatically sign into chat when you logon to Gmail.

To avoid this sign out chat before you sign out the Gmail. It won’t automatically sign into chat next time you open Gmail.

Stop Gmail to sign into chat automatically

Gmail Labs : Undo send

Amit Verma — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:56:28 +0000

Gmail adds a new labs feature to undo send mail. This feature can retrieve the sent message.

Gmail Labs : Undo Send

Gmail will hold the message for 5 seconds after hitting send button. This feature is quite useful when you press send button accidently before finishing your message or forget to attach file. You don’t have write a “Oops” message because you can undo now. But remember that the message can be retrieve only with in 5 seconds.

It will also make your email to deliver in more then 5 seconds.

Gmail Labs : Undo Send

Don’t forget to enable the “Undo Send” feature from Gmail Labs. It is turned off by default.

Improved attachment features in Gmail

Amit Verma — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:31:12 +0000

Gmail now shows progress bar when attaching files to messages. It shows progress bar next to each attached file. It also gives the feature to attach multiple files at once.

Attachment Progress bar in Gmail

Advance attachment features required Flash.

If these new features are not working for you then check settings on General tab of the Settings page. The features can also be set to the basics from this page.

Gmail attachment setting

You can be a victim of phishing by blindly following a link in an email

Amit Verma — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:48:19 +0000

If you receive an email from a unknown source especially from a bank or financial institution and asks you to click on a link then you should check the actual destination page of the link.

Normally spam filter filters such mails but it is always better to check if the email delivered in Inbox. The actual destination of the hyperlink can be checked by looking at the HTML code.

What is Phishing?

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

What makes a hyperlink?

Following code is used to form a hyperlink in which [destination page] is the actual linked URL.

[Link text]

What should check?

The link “ABC Bank Login page” should take you to the bank’s login page. But it may take you to the login page but on a phishing site where your bank login details can be exposed.

http://phishingsite.com/login“>ABC Bank login

In this example, the link is saying “ABC Bank login” but in fact the linked URL is “http://phishingsite.com/login” page.

But it may also look like

http://www.abcbank.com@167.101.107.111“>ABC Bank

Here the linked URL is http://www.abcbank.com@167.101.107.111 which looks like a correct URL but it is not. This URL will take you to the IP “167.101.107.111″.

It may also look like

http://www.abcbank.com.security.phishing.com“>ABC Bank

Which is again looks ok but it will take you to the “phishing.com”. In this URL, “www.abcbank.com.security” part is the sub-domain of “phishing.com”.

and

http://www.abcbank.com@%31%36%37%2E
%31%30%31%2E%31%30%37%2E%31%31%31“>ABC Bank

This is a encoded URL. The actual URL is http://www.abcbank.com@167.101.107.111 which goes to http://167.101.107.111.

So until you are very sure of the linked URL better not to use it.

How to check?

If you are accessing your mail in a web browser then the most easiest way to check the destination URL is, take you mouse pointer on the link and the URL will come in the Status bar.

How to prevent?

It is always safer to enter the URL in the browser instead of following the link.

More…

If you know more about email phishing please add it below.

Access Google Calendar and Doc from Gmail : New in Gmail Labs

Amit Verma — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:19:19 +0000

Google made Google Calendar and Doc accessible from Gmail. To show the Google Calendar and the Doc widget in Gmail, enable Google Calendar and Google Docs gadgets from Gmail Labs.

Google Calander Gadget : Gmail Labs

Google Doc Widget : Gmail Labs

By default the widget will display in the bottom of left column. If you will use Google Calendar widget as a reminder window then the chances are high of missing events as the widget will not be visible untill you scroll the page.

There is one more gadget available in gmail labs which can enable you to re-order Navbar. The name of that gadget is Navbar drag and drop. After enabling this gadget you can drag and drop Google Calendar widget (or any other) above the chat widget so that you can see the upcoming events.

Navbar drag and drop gadget : Gmail Labs

Canned responses : New in Gmail Labs

Amit Verma — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:37:41 +0000

Now you can save email preset with the latest gmail labs feature Canned Responses. Using this feature you can save messages and reuse them.

canned responses

Use following steps to create a new Canned responses after enabling Canned responses from Gmail Labs.

Go to Compose Mail
Compose the message you want to save as preset
Click on Canned responses link below the Subject text box
Select New canned responses… option and write the name for the message to save

To reuse saved message, go to compose mail and select the saved message from Canned responses link below the subject text box.

Gmail will also let you use Canned Responses with filters. You can create filters on basis of a combination of keywords, sender, recipients, and more in your incoming messages. Gmail can send auto response with the saved messages for you on the basis of the filter.

Gmail filter options to use Canned responses