The GMail search engine..

We all know that Google has become synonymous with search engine. Indeed an entire verb has evolved and now, "googling it" is practically the doorway to information. But recently I have used GMail as an effective search engine - for my friends. Those of you on my Gtalk would've seen the now-familar, "Someone, where are you?" status message under my name. Call it bizarre, but I have had responses to these statuses. Either the "missed" people or closed friends have responded, either enquiring welfare or giving me location information, both of which was deeply appreciated. See? Mission accomplished. Thanks, GMail.

On a different note, I have been trying to wean myself this past week from addictive GMailing. And I daresay that the first step to succeeding is to remain logged off from chat throughout the day. First step? Check. Next Step? Only check email at random intervals. Am working on that... After all, mountains can't be scaled in one day by foot.

When my GMail crashed...

You never know how much you depend on something till you lose it. My GMail Inbox for example... I knew I was pretty addicted to being on GChat and so did so many of you considering the amount of time I am seen online... But I didn't know how much I needed it till today. This morning, for some reason I couldn't access my Inbox and it drove me crazy. It wasn't enough that I could log on to GTalk or Meebo. It was more that there were 9 unread messages and I was enraged that I couldn't access my mailbox. So much so that I had my password reset and sent to my secondary email ID (which had shut down by the way), reactivated that account, then received the password reset mail and then reset my password and still to my chagrin, could not get on GMail. And then, while I filled their lengthy account recovery form, miraculously I was able to log on to Orkut and Blogger (both of which had failed in the morning) and soon my own sweet Inbox.

If this is true of something as "trivial" as an email Inbox, it makes you wonder if you sometimes take the people in your life for granted, doesn't it? Sometimes it is entirely true that you don't value the people constantly in your life for their worth. Only when you stand to lose them does their true value surface and if you are smart, you can salvage it and if you're not, you lose them forever. It's just the way that people often are sweet and kind to perfect strangers whereas they choose to show their true temperamant to the ones they love the most and vice versa. I am not saying you needn't be kind to strangers... of course you should be. But what I am saying is that while being brusque with the loved ones is a luxury, it shouldn't settle into comfort for they are the ones that cherish you and last in your life.

Who knew a GMail Inbox issue could trigger such a thought process? I didn't. As always, I have read into the small things and come up with a life-size analogy. Forgive me.

I heart Google

I bet more than half of you out there have tried the new Gmail themes... Talk about brightening our email experience. Well yeah, Yahoo and the rest did have customization of the inbox... But that was like just making it look purple or blue to suit the colour of choice. But Google has taken the customization to a whole new level. The picture above is just one of the many new themes that GMail is offering. Amongst others, there is a theme that provides weather, one that changes according to your location n what not. Sure it's all just for timepass, but passing time hasn't been this fun ever. Oh and has anyone tried their new video chat? It totally rocks... Talk about an all-in-one window. Cheers to Google!