Gmail Through Time
As most of you know, Gmail has been the bellwether for webmail clients for almost 15 years. Gmail began as a invitation-only beta product in 2004 with the public release of Gmail in 2007, but still in beta mode. Today according to Tech Crunch there are more than 1 billion active monthly Gmail users. During that time the Gmail web app interface has gone through changes but none as significant and useful as the latest iteration. Introduced back in April the new version has practical features that will help you become more productive and experience less frustration while interacting and organizing email with Gmail.
Clickable Attachments 
With the previous version of Gmail, you had to open the message and then view the attachment. The update’s new feature, Clickable Attachments, shows attachments as a card within the message in your inbox or other folder. This feature saves tremendous time when interacting with attachments.
Confidential Mode
This is perhaps the most amazing feature of the new version. Confidential mode allows you to specify when sent emails will be destroyed as well as destroying the email manually. Also, the confidential mode allows you to enable two-factor authentication requiring the receiver to enter a passcode from a mobile device. Finally, the confidential mode allows you to prevent the email from being forwarded, copied, printed or downloaded.
Hover Activated Features
Hover activated features are a great time saver. With the old Gmail, you had to select each email with a checkbox, then select actions for the group. The new Gmail gives you these features by hovering over the email from the view you’re in. You can archive, delete, mark as read as well as maybe the coolest hover activated feature, the snooze button. With the snooze feature, you can make the email disappear from your inbox, only to return there at a preset time.
4 Tips to Juice your Productivity with email organizing in Gmail
Use the Smart Unsubscribe feature
In promotional emails that you receive, if they contain an unsubscribe link, you will have the option to unsubscribe but clicking on a link next to the sender’s address. With Google’s statistical record on keeping spam out of users inboxes, this should be valuable in keeping unwanted junk out of your inbox. Konrad Krawczyk at Digital Trends has a fantastic post on this topic here: http://bit.ly/2LreOr6
Setup and Utilize Labels
Labels are the Gmail equivalent of folders on other email apps. Labels are a great way to organize email you need to take action on, along with email that needs to be stored permanently. A neat feature of Labels is their ability to be nested under other labels. The winning feature of labels over folders in other email apps is the ability to have multiple labels on an email message. When working with Clients organizing their email, I recommend 10 or fewer main labels with more specific labels under. Take a look at this support article from Google for more help on Labels: http://bit.ly/2Liqdtx
Utilize Google Tasks
With the new version of Gmail comes an updated version of the Google Tasks app. While the functionality is very similar to the previous version, it now has dedicated apps for mobile devices and the pairing works very well. Also, you can easily send an email to the app. If you’re a minimalist, take a look at the tasks app. It’s worth a spin. Zapier which is a utility that I use every 15 minutes has a great post about the new version of Google Tasks. It’s located here: http://bit.ly/2LiynlF
Integrate the Google Apps Sidebar into your Workflow
Gmail now includes a apps sidebar that gives you quick easy access to Google Calendar, Google Keep, Google Tasks as well as other compatible apps that can be added from the Web Store. The Apps Sidebar keeps frequently used tools at your fingertips raising your productivity potential.
With the new version of Gmail, you can juice your productivity. It makes handling email much simpler and straightforward. There are many more features of the new Gmail than I went into here. I’ll leave you with this great post on Digg about configuring the new app for your Gmail account; https://di.gg/2JCSzK1
Also, remember one of the best ways to juice your productivity with email is to have it open only when you are using it. When you’re not, close it along with any reminders that may be configured and close it on your mobile devices. You’ll be glad you did!
Comment and let me know how you are liking the new Gmail