My recent Gmail Labs post just had me thinking about something that always happens to me: Somebody emails or IMs me a link to something, and then I can’t find it later when I need it.  When this happens it is helpful that Gmail not only has a copy of every email I receive, but also archives all the chat sessions I have through GChat/AIM.  While it is helpful that all these conversations are archived, it isn’t necessarily a solution to this problem.  What happens to me in this situation is that I often spend a lot of time searching for the specific conversation (and the point in that conversation) where the link I’m looking for is found.

I think a fairly easy tweak on the conversation archiving idea could provide a much quicker and easier solution to this problem.  What I would like to see is a Gmail Labs feature, that simply allows me to put a small “Received Links” box in either the left or right column of my Gmail inbox (similar to the boxes that exist for labels or Gchat).  What could live in this box is just a list of all the links that I’ve been sent by contacts (not necessarily web services or mailing lists).  To prevent it from becoming too overwhelming it could even be limited by a certain time frame or number of links (for example: all the links received from contacts in the past week, or the 10 most recent links received from my contacts).  That way it could be a short list of quick access to those links your friends have sent you that you “need to check out” but “haven’t gotten around to yet.

Other possibilities for this feature might be that the user would be allowed to specify certain contacts to allow their links to show up in this quick access list, or perhaps there could be an option to flag links as they are received in an email or chat to be stored in this list for access later.

So a list of links could end up looking something like this:

http://www.apple.com/newipod

http://www.harmonix.com/beatlesrockband

http://www.webmd.com/areyousick

http://www.soccernet.com/breakingnews

http://www.youtube.com/funnyvideo

http://www.sailinganarchy.com/fastboat

If we’re looking for a certain link, often we’re probably linking for the link that *that person* sent me, so attaching names might make it a little easier to find what we’re looking for quickly.

Pope – http://www.apple.com/newipod

Fitzy – http://www.harmonix.com/beatlesrockband

Tara – http://www.webmd.com/areyousick

Marc – http://www.soccernet.com/breakingnews

Doody – http://www.youtube.com/funnyvideo

Jack – http://www.sailinganarchy.com/fastboat

I mentioned keeping this list of links in a small box in one of the side columns of Gmail so keeping the URLs short (and contact names as well) will help us fit the list of URLs in a side column.  But more importantly than keeping the URLs short we want to keep key information necessary to identify them as the specific link we’re searching for so we can try dropping the “http://www.” that prepends most links, which will look like this:

Pope – apple.com/newipod

Fitzy – harmonix.com/beatlesrockband

Tara – webmd.com/areyousick

Marc – soccernet.com/breakingnews

Eddie – youtube.com/funnyvideo

Jack – sailinganarchy.com/fastboat

The URLs will still probably be too long to fit in a narrow column a lot of the time, but even if they get truncated we can still see pretty relevant information:

Pope – apple.com/newipod

Fitzy – harmonix.com/beatle…

Tara – webmd.com/areyousi…

Marc – soccernet.com/break…

Eddie – youtube.com/funny…

Jack – sailinganarchy.com/…

I think for the basic list idea this works pretty well.  There’s a lot of fine-tuning that can be done to take advantage of the dates links were sent, etc. but I think overall this would do a good job of putting links you’ve received but “haven’t gotten around to” at your fingertips.  I think enough users remember enough about the URL (the main site name, e.g.: apple.com) to successfully find the link that pops into their head quickly.

This is clearly just a rough outline of a possible feature and needs to be revisited, but I’d love to hear and comments/criticisms/suggestions, do you think this is even useful?

I’ve been toying around with my Gmail account recently, doing what I can to make it function just the way I want it to.  I’ve explored a few Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts, but surely the easiest way to add new features to Gmail is simply by activating experimental features released by Gmail Labs.  All you have to do to activate Gmail Labs features is click on the Labs tab of the Gmail settings page.  There are features for all kinds of little tweaks, from adding a Snake game to Mail Goggles (designed to prevent you from sending ill-advised emails).  So far I have the following six Gmail Labs features activated:

• Offline – Offline Gmail is the response to one of the most common critiques of webmail services, users are unable to access (view, search) they’re message while they are offline.  Offline just allows you cache a copy of your email messages on your local computer so you can email as you please while you’re offline and sync everything once you get connected again.  This feature is even more useful outside the United States where you may not be able to access the internet (or at least a stable connection) very often.
• Tasks – I added this in the hope that it would help me manage my to do lists, but as it turns out I don’t use it that much.  I may force myself into a trial period and see if it becomes useful for me.
• Ride-side Chat – This feature just moves the Google Chat window on Gmail to the right side of the page, making it easier to see your GChat and AIM buddy list.  This simple tweak just makes IMing in Gmail easier, but I have found a downside.  While I’ve been in Ecuador much of the time I’m only able to access the internet on older computers that have lower resolution screens than I am used to in the US.  This means when GChat is on the right side of the screen, often times it doesn’t fit in the maximized browser window.  As a result to see the buddy list I have to scroll to the right, which is fairly uncommon in browser windows and as a result very difficult and time consuming.  The lesson here is, if you have a low resolution screen moving the Gchat buddy list to the right will probably make your life more difficult.
• Forgotten Attachment Detector – This just seems like a good idea.  Though I have yet to forget to add an attachment and be saved by this feature, the one time I do this feature will have already paid off.
• Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat – This is another simple idea, if somebody signs off of GChat your message just gets sent to them on their phone as a text message.  The downside to this is that to use it effectively you have to store all your contacts phone numbers in your Gmail contact list.  Giving Google that much information about other people creeps me out a bit so I don’t actually use this that often.
• Undo Send — This feature has a pay-off similar to the forgotten attachment detector:  I haven’t had to use it yet, but the one time I do, it will probably make me very happy.

There are also some features to allow for previews of web images and videos inline which could be pretty nice.  I’ll probably try them out when I get back to the US and have an internet connection that can actually handle loading image and video files.

If you use Gmail, which Labs features do you have activated?  Any suggestions on other ways to improve the email experience?