How to get maximum out of your Gmail Account using Firefox Greasemonkey scripts

If you work on the web you in all probability own a Gmail account. Also, you may be using Gmail for managing your important communication -official or personal. Many of us own multiple google accounts and we know how irritating it is to log out of one and then log in to other and then switch back. Also you want to take notes at times but don't get it in Gmail. Moreover you may want to sort mails in a hierarchical folder structure but can't do this using default Gmail Labels. You can do all this and more.How?? Read on. . .

If you are using Firefox as your primary browser (if you are not then I will recommend a switch!!) you can increase your productivity immensely using these five Greasemonkey scripts.Greasemonkey is a Firefox Add-on to use java scripts to enhance the usability of your browser.These scripts allow you to

• Add Notes to your mails
• See the attachment type in Inbox without opening mail
• Switch seamlessly between multiple Google accounts
• See your Google Calender events and notifications in Gmail
• Sort your mails in a hierarchical folder like structure

Lets take a close look at these five scripts.

1. Add Notes to your mails

Add an annotation application to your Gmail account and take notes while going through your communication.You need to log in once using your gmail account and from then on as soon as you open a mail a create note link appears in the Notes client which can be used for notes making.

All notes can also be browsed together making it an excellent to-do application as well.

Thanks to Script Author: Johntray

Install this script here

2. See the attachment type in Inbox without opening mail

Its a nice little utility that lets you see what kind of attachment is there in your mail i.e. whether it's a documnet , pdf image or zip fille. This can save a lot of time on slow connections and help you decide which mails to see first in time of haste.

Thanks to Script Author: DMaster

Install this script here

3. Switch seamlessly between multiple Google accounts

Switching between multiple Google accounts has been a major irritant for me and this script has saved me a lot of hassle.

A nice dropbox appears in your Gmail interface in place of signout button that lets you choose which account to log into.Accounts have to be added once and then you can switch quickly between different accounts.

Thanks to Script Author: Jerett

Install this script here

4. See your Google Calender events and notifications in Gmail

If you are an active Google calendar user and rely on this service to remind you of important dates and events,then this script will help you see all those important events in Gmail itself.

This will help you to communicate effectively and quickly and also to plan your appointments in accordance with the scheduled events.This Calendar opens up in a right pane and shows your current tasks/events.

Thanks to Script Author: Jeff Killingsworth

Install this script here

5. Sort your mails in a hierarchical folder like structure

Again a very handy script.You may want to arrange your mails in an explorer like folder structure to help you organize them better.This script does exactly that for you.Just install it and all that you need to do is add new labels as "Family/Dad" or "Family/Mom";this will create a folder "Family" folder has two subfolders "Dad" and "Mom" as shown in figure below.

You can SORT and GROUP mails as per your wish and click on the little "+" sign on a folder to view subfolders. Impressive indeed!!

Thanks to Script Author: Arend

Install this script here

Install these scripts and you can make the most of your Google account.If you use other scripts which help you in using Gmail more effectively, please consider sharing it in comments.

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5 Visual Search Engines you may not have heard about !!

All of us are pretty familiar with the simple austere look of Google and Yahoo search engines.Microsoft Bing is more colorful but result pages remain sober. Now take a look at the below mentioned five search engines to find how differently they present information.They are all Visual Search Engines as they present information in a visually appealing picture rich fashion. It may be in the form of maps or in form of a sliding picture show or a 3D graphical view.These search engines also show us the way in which we may be searching information in future.

Note: All these search engines require Java and Flash supported browsers and all are quite heavy,so a fast internet connection is recommended to view them.

1. Redz

Redz presents you with a sliding thumbshot gallery where you can scroll through the results with main result thumbshot shown on top with description underneath.

2. Search-Cube

Search-cube offers you a 3D cube with images of webpages pasted on all sides.Cube can be flipped and page description is shown in a side panel on mouse hover.Cool animation makes it an interesting exercise.

3. Ujiko

Ujiko is a device shaped search engine where middle screen shows you the webpage image with descriptions in the side bars.All functions are presented as buttons and there is a lot of that machine-guy feel using this engine.Try it to see the fun yourself!!

4. Middlespot

Middlespot shows you results arranged in a grid where you can choose results in the grid and it shows up in a larger thumbnail.You can do a lot of tweaking to change your experience.

5. Tianamo

Tianamo is a 3D graphic renderer search which is in beta phase. Its resource intensive and shows you a neat 3D graph with peaks representing the importance of webpages. See it to get a hang of it.It's really geeky!!

All these Visual Search Engines give you results in a new way but right now you will find them just amusing.Also, though some of them are powered by Google search, effectiveness of results is one thing that these engines have to pay real attention to. Meanwhile, enjoy the information in an aesthetic way to sooth your senses in this age of info overload.

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Jazz up your Firefox with Personas

Bored with your Firefox's jaded look??

Try Personas in Firefox to dress up your browser for that sizzling look to make your browsing stylish and energetic.Firefox Personas is a Mozilla Labs experiment and Personas are actually web arts available as skins in Firefox.Just install Personas Addon and keep experiencing freshness by changing skins from Personas gallery.


A long list of various categories is available like Abstract, Film, Seasons, Music etc. You can see how your browser will look with new skin by just hovering your mouse pointer over the desired Personas image. When you are happy with what you see, just choose your style and hit the "wear this" button to spice up your Firefox experience.

You can share Personas with your friends.My favorite three Personas are Burning Guitar [Music], Abstract Black [Abstract] and Yosemite [Scenery].

Whats more!! You can create your own personalized Personas on getpersonas.com and publish them under creative commons license. You can also choose to keep them private.For creating Personas you need to provide Header and Footer images in at least 2500x200 pixels size.Choose your colors and submit it. Please do remember to use only your own copyrighted material to avoid legal issues.You can see and edit your created Personas under Gallery>My section on getpersonas.com.

Personas can be a great way to build your brand online or to earn name as a web art designer.So go ahead and make the Firefox look the way you always wanted it to look.

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Baregrep – Free desktop search utility for Windows Vista/Xp and Other Windows versions

If you use windows Vista you must have faced the annoyance of using Windows Vista’s search.Its claimed to be fast by Microsoft but we all know all about it .It's simply irritating to see that green bar shining intermittently without showing that important as hell, file, you know exists!!!!! Windows XP search is also inadequate though less annoying as compared to Vista. After a long struggle with Vista’s inbuilt search I decided to look for alternatives.My search took me to myriad forums and blogs where people were venting their frustration with Windows Vista search.Some users even demanded XP search function in Vista which obviously has no takers at Microsoft. But extensive search brought me to a great free utility named Baregrep by Baremetalsoft.com which serves amazingly well to answer most of my desktop search needs on windows based machines.

Its tiny (No installer.Click to use) but powerful.It has a clean interface and simple to understand GUI based navigation.Most importantly..ITS FAST. It searches as you type and has support for Wildcard (*.doc,*.c etc) and regular expressions or Regex (literal like “India” or(\S+\.pdf)).

It supports a lot of numeric and alpha-numeric quantifiers to make your search a breeze.You can also search text within the files and perform subfolders search. It searches Hidden folders by default.Baregrep search utility has both free and pro versions.The only difference is you see a startup splash screen in free version (which is for a few seconds and is lot more tolerable than that shining green bar :D).Give Baregrep a try and I am sure you will never have to grope in the dark for your own files on your own system.You can download the free desktop search version here.

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