Gmail Changes

[abinidi]

Just thought I'd let you know about some changes I discovered today in Gmail.

 

First, Gmail is now allowing any user to sign up who has a text-enabled mobile phone. You enter your 9-digit phone number in the box, and Gmail sends you a confirmation code. You enter the confirmation code in the signup box, and viola--you can create a new Gmail account. This option is available on the Gmail signin page.

 

Second, Gmail is now allowing you to modify your 'from' address to any address you want (but it requires you to confirm that you own it first). So now you can use Gmail to send messages as if they are from your TCH domain. You can even set your TCH domain as your default address.

 

You can add as many addresses as you want, and then when you are on the Compose screen, you are able to use a drop-down to select which address you want as your "from" address.

 

So if you use the cPanel forwarders to send incoming messages to your Gmail account, and if you modfiy your Gmail "from" name to be your TCH account, you can use Gmail as your primary email client with your TCH domain.

 

Pretty cool, I think!

[TCH-Thomas]

Second, Gmail is now allowing you to modify your 'from' address to any address you want

I read about this (in your blog by the way).

However, I just can not find it in the swedish "version" of gmail.

[carbonize]

The probably haven't rolled it out to the swedish version yet. You could try switching to English, making the changes then switching back.

[TCH-Thomas]

True, but I thought the different versions was only "language packages", isn´t it?

[carbonize]

Who knows for sure.

[abinidi]

I don't speak Swedish, so I can't try it in Swedish, but I do speak Portuguese, and I switched my Gmail interface to Portuguese to check this out.

 

The option to create "from" addresses is NOT available in the Portuguese version of Gmail, but the addresses that I've created in the English version of the program are still available as drop-down items on my "Escrever Email" (Compose Message) screen.

 

So, it appears that they aren't simply "language packs" but are separate interfaces. And it seems that the Portuguese version hasn't been updated with the latest features yet. But carbonize is right: you can switch to English, add the new 'From' addresses, and then switch back to another language.

 

At least it works for Portuguese. No promises for other language "packs"...

Edited September 7, 2005 by abinidi

[abinidi]

For those of you who are interested, here are two screen shots of the Gmail account settings interface. The first is in English, the second is in Portuguse.

 

This shows that these are two separate applications, not just "language packs" installed on the same application.

 

(sensitive information has been blurred)

 

English version:

 

Portuguese version:

[Deverill]

Thanks for the note, Paul. I didn't notice the new stuff.

 

The down side is that I set it up and sent something to myself and it said (faked email addresses):

 

from someone@gmail.com on behalf of My Name [me@mytchdomain.com]

 

It's good but it seems to take away from the authenticity of the email since it's "on behalf of" and certainly makes it impossible to hide your main gmail address. (probably to curb spammers trying to use this)

 

Still a step in the right direction.

[carbonize]

Just sent myself a test email and it looked like it had come from my designated address. Only way I could tell it was from my Gmail acount was reading the headers.

[abinidi]

Thanks for the note, Paul.  I didn't notice the new stuff.

 

The down side is that I set it up and sent something to myself and it said (faked email addresses):

 

from someone@gmail.com on behalf of My Name [me@mytchdomain.com]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think carbonize is right -- it depends on the application that receives the email. But it does add an entry into the email header, I'm sure its for tracking purposes, called "Sender: MyGmailAddress@gmail.com"

 

That must be what your application is picking up and using. The test apps I used didn't pay attention to this entry unless you asked for full headers.

[Deverill]

If anyone's interested, I'm using Outlook 2002 SP3 at work. It's probably MicroSoft's latest attempt at stopping bad emails.

[carbonize]

All hail the mighty MS. Apparently IE7 reports the forum on my guestbook site ( http://lazarus.carbonize.co.uk/Phorum ) as a phishing site. Go figure.

[cajunman4life]

Probably because you spelled the URL with "Ph" instead of "f"... lol... "If it's spelled wrong, it's a spammer/phisher!"

[carbonize]

Pah I name all my directories using a capital letter and the name comes from the script I am using. MS really do have some stupid ideas for stopping nastiness.

[j2k4b]

Isn't that neat!

[borfast]

I bet Google has something related to cell phones in the works and this is one of their ways to get a lot of cell phone numbers as potential users for the upcoming service/product

 

By the way, Paul, you said you speak Portuguese; are you from Portugal or did you learn to speak Portuguese?

[abinidi]

Raul, I learned Portuguese while living in São Paulo, Brazil. I lived there from 97 to 99.

 

Some might argue, then, that I didn't really learn 'real Português' but I guess that is a matter of opinion! (For those of you who don't know, the dialectal differences between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are as different as European Spanish is from Mexican Spanish, or as European French is from Canadian French.)

Edited September 9, 2005 by abinidi

[TCH-Rob]

Paul,

 

I hear you. I know people from Spain and they are almost offended when I refer to the Spanish spoken in Arizona as Spanish. I also know from experience about the French. I had to learn Cajun in grade school, talk about different from French.

[carbonize]

Like English and American English.

[borfast]

Well, Brasillian Portuguese is very very different from European Portuguese but I don't think it's a reason for people to be offended.

 

I wouldn't/don't consider them the same language but not because I want to irritate Brasillian guys or don't like them (like many people do) or something like that. It's just that there are so many (big) differences that I don't think it makes sense saying it's just one language. They don't even sound the same. Brasillian Portuguese has evolved from European Portuguese into a language of its own, mostly due to the influence of the many different cultures of people from all over the world who live there (at least that's what I think ).

Edited September 10, 2005 by borfast