Recently in Google Category

"I want my Google Calendar email reminders to a different email account than my Gmail address. There doesn't seem to be an option in Google Calendar for adding another email address."

Google Calendar reminders are designed to be sent to the Gmail address associated with the same Google account. Currently Google Calendar doesn't support adding additional email addresses. There is a workaround to get your calendar reminders to another address, but you need to add a filter to Gmail to make it work.

"How can I keep my Outlook contacts in sync with Gmail contacts?"

If you want to sync Outlook contacts with Gmail contacts, there are two ways you can do it. You can do it the hard way, where you export your contacts from Outlook and then import them into Gmail. Or you can sync Outlook contacts the easy way by using software to keep the two contact lists automatically up-to-date.

"I recently switched from Outlook Express to Gmail. Is there any way to sort my Gmail so that I can view unread messages only? It's confusing to see a mix a read and unread messages in my Gmail inbox."

Gmail offers many mail sorting options you can't get with a traditional email client, but sometimes that comes at the expense of things we are used to. You can filter by unread messages in your inbox, but it takes a little advanced search technique.

"Is it possible to redirect emails from Outlook 2003 to be received in Gmail or Hotmail?"

You can redirect email from any version of Outlook to Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or any other online service. In most cases, you can also respond with the from address you normally use in Outlook, making it appear as though you were responding from your desk. To make the redirect from Outlook to your favorite email service provider, you need to make a few configuration changes for it to work smoothly.

Thanks to a tip from Brandon, I just noticed that GrandCentral.com becomes Google.com/Voice very soon. I'm hoping this means it becomes open to the general public soon, because I'd love to have a unified phone solution in my life again. I waited too long to sign up for GrandCentral before Google closed it to new accounts, although I did put myself in the queue to get a number should they ever get around to reopening. Looks like they are reopening, under the new Google Voice brand.

Why do I want Google Voice? Several reasons:

"Is there a good online calendar with email reminders?"

I'm a huge fan of Google Calendar for all kinds of solutions. You can sync Google Calendar with Outlook. Google Calendar is easy to share publicly. Google Calendars will link event locations to a map, making it easy to find where you need to be, not just when you need to be there. And it will also send you an email reminder if you need it.

One of the biggest arguments I've heard against using Gmail is that desktop clients like Thunderbird and Outlook offer better keyboard shortcut support. To this I say NONSENSE! Gmail includes great keyboard shortcut functionality, you just have to turn it on. You will also have a small learning curve because the Gmail keyboard shortcuts are different than those found in Outlook and Thunderbird. The great thing is, if you turn Gmail shortcuts on once, they work from any computer.

The 5 Gmail Shortcuts I use most frequently are:

c - creates a new email message. Use Shift+c to open the new message in its own window.

/ - puts the cursor in the search box. Email search is probably something I do more than any other email fuction.

u - takes back to your inbox view from any message.

j - moves down the message list taking you to the next older message than the one you are currently on.

x - checks the box next to a message. Used in combination with
j you can quickly move through a list of messages and check them for archiving, labeling or any other action.

One of the things holding many people back in moving from a desktop email client like Outlook to a Web-based email solution like Gmail is offline access. The ability to search email messages when there's no Internet connection is critical for some people. Being able to use downtime like airline travel can be a great way to get caught up on replies to outstanding messages. Gmail just enable offline access to emails. Of course to use it, you'll need to do a little configuration on your computer first.