Google has announced plans to get Google Talk and AIM talking, but with a little elbow grease you can do that and more today.

Now that Google has opened up their Google Talk servers for federation with other Jabber servers, you can use Google Talk to connect to your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo or ICQ.

Here’s how, step-by-step with screenshots.

Via | Bigblueball.com

When it first launched in 2004, Google’s Gmail was missing a key feature available in competing e-mail services and clients: a prominent delete button. Although Gmail offered deleting through a dropdown, Google felt users should never have to delete messages thanks to expanded storage. But the company has finally given in.

“Now there’s an easy-to-find delete button for those messages you really don’t want. For everything else, there’s Archive,” Google wrote on the About Gmail page Archive, which Google previously encouraged instead of delete, simply removes a message from the inbox and leaves it in “All Mail.”

Via | Betanews.com

Looking for a Gmail Invite? You have found the right spot.

This blog is dedicated to Gmail and Gmail Invites and the whole “buzz” around them!

http://www.livejournal.com/community/gmail_invites/

Let’s say you need to sign up for a mailing list that interests you, but you’re afraid spammers might get your address. We’ll call the list “exoticflowers”.

Sign up with the list using the address “johndoe+exoticflowers@gmail.com”. Email to that address will still come to your “johndoe@gmail.com” address even though the “To:” will include that “+exoticflowers” in it.

Then set up Gmail filters to shuttle that +exoticflowers email past the inbox to a specific label.

Via | Lifehacker.com | Kevingunn.org

This is a fairly simple and useful trick to score yourself a gigabyte’s worth of free online file storage. If you already have a Gmail account, you can use it as a central file server that is accessible from anywhere you can access Gmail. If you don’t have a Gmail account… read on. We’re going to install a shell extension that will allow you to mount your Gmail account as a virtual drive on your desktop, so you can perform basic file manipulation operations without having to go through the web-based interface. Drag and drop, batch copy, create folders and delete files as you normally would in Windows Explorer, and be able to access your virtual drive from virtually anywhere.

There are some limitations and caveats associated with this how-to: Gmail doesn’t support files larger than 10MB, so you won’t be able to store large movie files or anything, but you wouldn’t be doing that anyway ‘cuz it’s illegal, right? Also, the Gmail drive shell extension only functions under Windows XP, but you’ll be able to access and download any of your files via any operating system and browser combination supported by Gmail.

Be advised that this trick is completely unsupported by the Google folk and so may cease functioning at any time — particularly following upgrades to the Gmail service. As far as we know this isn’t illegal (we actually read the EULA for you — that’s love, people), but we can’t guarantee Google won’t go all RIAA on us and crack down on this app, either, so use at your own risk.

Read full article: http://www.sheerboredom.net

Gmail+Growl, a notification utility for Gmail that works with Growl, has been updated.In the new version, clicking the notification will open up the message in a web browser. You can choose which browser it should use.

Growl is a utility that provides notifications, or on-screen messages, when events occur in other apps. It can also provide pop-up notification (à la MailAppetizer) for Mail.app (and a growing number of other apps).

Gmail+Growl is freeware and is available from the developer’s web site.

Via | Timgaden.com

GMail has been a great tool I’ve used to help keep track of alot of my work e-mails, marketing articles, details on promotional products etc. and have them indexed by a powerful search algorithm - and access them anywhere thanks to Google

Forwarding useful resources, articles, links to my GMail account has proven to be an effective archive/record keeping tool for me.If you haven’t been lucky enough to receive an invite to the GMail service (I’m saying lucky - but i’m sure you know someone by now who has GMail and is willing to invite you) you can now receive invites directly from the mothership itself.

A text link at the bottom of the search engines home page reads:Advanced spam filter, instant search, 2.6GB. Get Google Mail.Visit google.com.au to get your invite. Simply click the link at the bottom of the page, and enter your mobile phone number, and Google will SMS your invitation code.

Cool Bananas!

P.S. I can see alot of people signing up friends for a joke.. just to see Google as the SMS sender on their mobile phone displays ;)..

Via |  Azgoogle.blogspot.com