How To Set Webmails As Default E-mail Clients Using Firefox 3.0?

Not everyone who works with computers connected to the internet uses an email client such as Outlook/Outlook Express or Lotus Mail in order to send personal mails, but most internet users now are very comfortable using webmails like Yahoo Mail or Gmail as their personal mail clients.

Webmails are very popular nowadays since they practically provide multitude of advantages over their non-web counterparts. Unlimited storage, built-in virus scanner, accessibility anywhere around the globe, are just among the notable features. Of course, the main advantage is they are completely FREE.

In the past, when you click on an e-mail link in your browser, it had to have an e-mail client to launch. That method does not work if you use a service such as Gmail or Yahoo Mail as your main account.

Recently launched Firefox 3.0 came just in time to the rescue.

Watch this video from CNET TV™ blog for some quick tips and come back here for the detailed written steps on how to do it.

Here goes the step-by-step process…

1. Go to Tools and Options in your Firefox 3.0 browser

2. Choose Applications

3. Type “mailto” in the search bar

4. In the drop-down menu, choose Yahoo Mail and press OK. If you don’t have Yahoo Mail but you have Gmail, instead, proceed to step 5

5. Open your Gmail in Firefox 3.0

6. Cut and paste the string code below in your browser bar and press enter
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")

7. Click the Add Application button located at the upper right hand corner of your Gmail interface. This will add Gmail as an application for mailto links.

8. Go back to steps 1-3. You will now see Gmail as one of the choices in the drop-down menu.

Now when you click an e-mail link or when you want to send interesting stuff via e-mail from your browser, it will ask you which Web mail program you would like to use as shown below.

Don’t forget to select Firefox 3.0 when prompted which browser to use for the chosen webmail client the first time you launch this application.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it proved useful.

Read More

Group Chatting in Gmail's GTalk?

Yes! Recently, Google has included a new feature to their Gmail webmail service. Gmail now wires in a "Group Chat" capability inside the email client via GTalk. The newly added goody lets you chat with many friends at once in a single window, a feature very much present and have been very useful in Yahoo group chatting long time ago. One thing unique in the application, though, is that anyone involved in the chat can invite any other member to the group chat. There is also no limit to the number of people you can chat with. Moreover, enhanced emoticons have also been added to make the chatting experience more bubbly and lively.

To initiate a group chat, click "Group chat" from the "Options" tab in the lower left corner of the chat interface when chatting. Enter the names of the people you want to add, and, bingo, you are in your very own chat room. All the familiar features such as chat archiving and taking the chat off the record still work as well.

According to gmailblog writer Sergey Solyanik, these features only work with the latest version of Gmail, which they are still rolling out to IE6, international and Google Apps users.

Although people always expect a lot of things from Google whenever they launch a new product, these new features seem to be “million miles” behind when compared to Yahoo’s YM and other popular chat applications. However, as they say, better late than never.

For a Gmail fanatic like me, I find this development rather totally disappointing. Primarily because I am looking for unique features or breakthrough applications in chatting which other contenders, like YM and MSN Messenger, have not yet implemented.

I don’t know. Maybe I was just craving for too much.

What do you think?

Do you like these new GTalk chatting features?

Did you find this post useful? If so, you might want to subscribe to my RSS feeds so that you will be automatically alerted once a new post comes around.

Happy weekend!

Read More

Are You Ready for Gmail v2.0?

Nearly 44 months ago since Gmail first surfaced online. I got my free account roughly 38 months ago, though. Throughout this period, this blockbuster webmail application has remained in beta-testing status. Recently, however (sometime late October or early November this year), I have been receiving feeds that, finally, Google is gearing to release Gmail v2.0, although I hardly recall if there was ever a launch for v1.0. Nevertheless, it is still something to look forward to for passionate Gmailers like myself.

So, what are the reported new features then?

I found a comprehensive review about this release from googlesystem blogsite. After reading this review, I went on to see if my account is already active with all the features that have been mentioned.

So far, I am convinced that it loads faster than the “previous version”, although I still find some slower performance each time I get to load the inbox interface. Once the interface is loaded, however, it simply works like a charm for the pre-fetched emails and other known new features.

The best new feature IMHO is the integration of IM networks (with option to select from Gtalk, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, & Jabber). I haven’t tried it, though, but since it is clearly visible in the new Contact Manager module, I guess it is going to be one of the new killer applications Gmail v2.0 would be very popular about.

What is my general impression?

Google has made important changes in its Newer version of Gmail, but its too early to provide general comment/s on its performance.

Now, are you ready to switch? Go ahead and load your mail interface and see for yourself if you are one of the privileged few who can start playing around with Gmail v2.0.

Tips:

1. You have the new version if you can see a link to an "older version" at the top of the page (as shown in the image below), which means you can enjoy the new features: mail pre-fetching, updated contact manager and other small updates.
   
2. If you don’t see the "magic word" in tip #1 try loading this link: https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2
   

What do you think?

If you find this post useful, kindly leave your comment/s and rate the entry.

Read More