Many Gmail Users Can't Find Their Messages

Imagine loading Gmail and noticing that all your mail have been deleted. This is a real trouble for many Gmail users who thought that they lost all of their messages. Here's one of the many reports from Gmail's forum:

Yes, whatever the mistake is on Google's end (and it clearly is that, not a hack, unless it's some kind of inside hack) it's basically reset my account so it's like a brand-new Gmail account My friends are intact, but nothing else--the folders have reset to defaulting, my signature line is blank, the "theme" is changed back to the default and--of course--every single email from the last 7 years has misplaced completely.

The Google Apps position page mentions that "this issue affects less than 0.08% of the Google Mail userbase" and "Google engineers are operational to restore full access". The users that are affected "will be provisionally unable to sign in".

This is a really significant problem for Google and one of the biggest Gmail issues ever since Google's email check was released, back in 2004.

Update: A Google engineer says that the "accounts that are precious are currently fully disabled. We're in the process of altering this to be a Gmail only disable so you should regain access to other Google services soon. This will also mean email to these accounts stops lively and gets queued up for later delivery instead."

New Google Profile Search

Google has a new particular search engine for probing Google Profiles. It has a better boundary than the regular Google Profiles search feature, it's included with Google Search and it shows extra links from people's profiles.

This attribute is not yet enabled in the interface, but you can look for Google Profiles by adding up &tbs=prfl:1 to a Google Search URL. Here's an pattern.

Google could use the data from user profiles to offer advanced search features like restricting profiles to people who lived in Chicago, attended Long Island University and are involved in sports.

Android Gingerbread for Nexus One

Two months after Android Gingerbread was free, Nexus One users can finally update their phones to the newest Android version. "Gingerbread (Android 2.3.3) update now rolling out to Nexus S and Nexus One. Be patient, may take a few weeks for OTA to complete," informs Google. Ry Guy explains that Google "sends out OTA updates (...) incrementally to make sure that everything is going smoothly".

The good news is that Nexus One is the second Android phone efficient to Gingerbread and it's likely that the feedback from Nexus S users helped Google fix the most significant bugs. Unfortunately, Google is wedged between releasing the Android version for tablets, continuing to get better Gingerbread, developing new Android apps and services, civilizing the Android Market, so the delays are inevitable.

Open Gmail's PDF Attachments in Google Docs Viewer

A recent Gmail update distorted the "View" links for PDF attachments, but only if you use Google Chrome. Instead of gap PDF files using Google Docs Viewer, Gmail now uses the PDF plugin incorporated in Google Chrome. Unfortunately, this makes it more hard to save PDF files to Google Docs.

Here's a simple ploy that lets you open a PDF attachment in Google Docs Viewer. Click "View" next to the addition and edit the URL: replace "view=att" with "view=gvatt" in the address bar. Another alternative is to right-click "View", copy the URL, paste in the address bar and replace "view=att" with "view=gvatt".

Obviously, you can also stop the built-in PDF plugin. Just type about:plugins in the address bar and click "Disable" next to "Chrome PDF Viewer".

7 Chrome Annoyances and How to attach Them

Google Chrome was free more than two years ago and it's the browser of choice for many people. Despite having won hearts for its speed and grace, Google Chrome does have some slight flaws that you might want to fix. Here are some of them:

1. No confirmation when closing multiple tabs

Google Chrome does't show a caution when you close a window with multiple tabs. If you by chance close Chrome windows, you can install Chrome Toolbox. The next time you close many tabs, you'll at least get a caution.

2. Basic history page

Google Chrome's history page is pretty basic and you can't limit the list to a certain time interval.

The History 2 extension comes to the release by allowing you to sort web pages based on the day/week you visited them. History 2 allows you to delete numerous items from your history page at the click of a button – something that's not probable by default.

3. Missing image properties

There's no way to quickly examine an image when you're in Chrome. Luckily, you can install Image Properties Context Menu, an addition that lets you right-click on an image and find in order about the image size, location, dimensions and more.

4. No support for feeds

Chrome simply doesn't distinguish RSS feeds and all you get is a page with gibberish text. If you install the RSS Subscription addition developed by Google, you can quickly subscribe to any feed using Google Reader, iGoogle, Bloglines or My Yahoo.

5. You can't send a web page by email

While other popular browsers allow you to rapidly send any web page you're viewing by email, such an alternative is nowhere to be found in Google Chrome.

Worry not, because you can make a simple Javascript bookmarklet to open your default email program with the current URL. If Gmail is what you use, you can otherwise install the Send from Gmail extension to send the web page to Gmail.

6. No session manger

Closing Google Chrome and reopening it does not reinstate previously opened tabs. In order to do that, go to the Options dialog and enable Reopen tabs that were open last.

If you want higher session saving options like the ability to create multiple sessions, try the Session Buddy addon for Google Chrome.

7. You can't switch to a tab from the Omnibox

Firefox 4 lets you switch to any open tab by typing applicable words into the address bar. If you'd like to see a similar feature in Chrome, install the Switch To Tab extension.

The next time you contain too many open tabs, just type sw followed by some words from the page. Hitting Enter switches to the tab that's listed as the first match.

Have you ever wanted to switch from Chrome to another browser because of a missing feature? Did you mange to find a workaround or an addition that adds the missing feature?

More File Formats inside Google Docs Viewer

Google Docs Viewer additional support for a lot of new file formats. You can now use it to open Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations from Office 2007 and Office 2010, Apple Pages files, PostScript documents, Microsoft XPS documents, TrueType fonts, graphics as of Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk AutoCad and SVG files.

"Not only does this round out support for the main Microsoft Office file types (we now support DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS and XLSX), but it also adds quick presentation capabilities for many of the most popular and highly-requested document and image types," informs Google.

Google Docs Viewer is included with Gmail and Google Docs, so you can now open many Gmail attachments and Google Docs files without installing additional software.

Gmail Opens PDF Attachments Using Chrome's Viewer

If you use Google Chrome and you haven't disabled the built-in PDF plugin, you can now open PDF attachments from Gmail using your browser's viewer. Just click "View" next to the attachment and you'll notice that the PDF file opens faster and it looks much better.

If you disable the plug-in or you use a dissimilar browser, Gmail continues to open PDF attachments with the Google Docs Viewer. Maybe Gmail ought to also detect Adobe Reader's plugin and use it instead of the online PDF viewer.

Google Apps blog informs that this feature will be obtainable in Google Apps next week. You can get it faster by enabling "pre-release features" in the Administrator Control Panel.