Blogs on Gmail and Google Accounts

Over the next three blog posts, I shall write about three of the features which are now part of the Advanced tab in new Gmail. The Auto-advance, Custom keyboard shortcuts, Right-side chat and Unread message icon features are pretty much self-explanatory, so I shall write about Canned Responses, Preview Pane and Multiple Inboxes. Believe it or not, there is no article on Canned Responses in the Gmail Help Centre. Probably because it has always been a lab feature in the past and now included under the Advanced tab under Gmail settings in new Gmail. So, today we take a look at this very popular feature in Gmail and the different ways we can use it. To start using Canned Responses in Gmail, it needs to be enabled from the Advanced tab under Gmail settings in new Gmail (or Labs tab under Gmail settings in classic Gmail). As always, be sure to click on the Save Changes button on the bottom of the page. Once enabled, click on the Compose button to open the compose window and in ther...

The Gmail Help Forum often provides me with ideas for my blog. Recently a user asked, "How do I delete my purchase history that Gmail skimmed from my email"? After answering him, I thought of writing this blog as a more descriptive guide. The first thing to remember is that while the ads are shown in Gmail, Gmail doesn't show the ad. Gmail is a part of the Google Display Network across which chosen ads are displayed. The ads are displayed based on the targeting options chosen by the advertisers and matched with the non-personal data obtained by Google from the users' online behaviour. To help you better understand this, here is a screenshot of the targeting options available for the advertisers: and here is what is known about me from the non-personal data obtained by Google from the online behaviour through my test account. You can look at similar data for your own account by visiting the  Ad personalisation settings  link.   As you can see, there are...

We see lots of questions on this topic in the Gmail Help Forum and in my opinion, this is one of the topics which requires some detailed explanation because there could be different reasons behind this. Your labels could be collapsed. We have previously discussed how the new Gmail comes with "collapsible" left panel label options. So, the first option is to check if that is why you are unable to view your labels. Here are the comparative screenshots of how the left panel looks when collapsed and expanded.   If this is the case, simply clicking on the 3-bar option, as is indicated by the arrow in the second screenshot will allow the left-panel to remain expanded for your easy navigation. You need to scroll the Labels section or drag-down/hide the Hangouts Chat section. By default, the Hangouts Chat list is placed on the bottom-left corner of the screen, sharing the same panel with labels. You have three options to resolve this. (a) Use the scrollbar indicat...