Gmail Adds RSS, Attachment Viewing

By the Betanews Staff | Published December 8, 2005, 5:13 PM

Google has upgraded its Gmail service with a few new features, including a built in RSS reader and address shortcuts. RSS feeds appear as "Clips" on the top of the Gmail screen and users can choose from random popular feeds or input their own. Yahoo added a similar feature to its private Mail Beta last week.

Shortcuts, which display next to messages, take addresses and tracking numbers that appear in an e-mail and automatically link to maps and package information. Attachment support has also been improved. Users can choose to view Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or PDF documents as HTML files directly within Gmail without loading a separate software application.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

we have always had the rss reader... have we not?? and im pretty sure i have been able to add feeds for as long as i remember...? weird...

Score: 0

|

This is really weird. Am I the only one that's had the web clips since July (maybe earlier)?

The only new thing that I see about them is you can add your own RSS feeds instead of relying on Gmail's default selection.

The attachment viewing is pretty sweet though.

Score: 0

|

No "Web Clips" displayed as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps is this feature reserved at this time for U.S.residents? (I'm in France).

Score: 0

|

Score: 0

|

I like this addition. News, quotes, riddles, and Slashdot articles all on my Gmail page.

Score: 0

|

Had no problem with mine...works great! problem is I don't have gmail open all the time to read the feeds. Gmail is awesome!

Score: 0

|

I have the feature on top the of mail list.

Problem is, it doesn't work.

Score: 0

|

I jusy had those new functions for a moment.
And now, they are all gone.

Score: 0

|

Funny thing is, web clips shows up on my newer account (less than 2 months old), while my main account, older account, doesnt show it.

Wierd.

Score: 0

|

Very discreet! Doesn't even bug me, and took me a minute or two to spot it!

Look just above the Delete/Archive/Report Spam buttons.

Score: 0

|

i've had "web clips" for my gmail account for months, but haven't seen it on anyone else's until last week when it showed up on a co-worker's account. looks like a slow limited release done by random selection. it'll show up as a tab in the settings page and on top of your inbox.

Score: 0

|

i too have had the web clips feature for awhile now and find it quite useful. i just assumed it was something everyone else had and never noticed if my friends had it or not.

Score: 0

|

I had the attachment viewing features for quite a while and not the webclips until today.. Google works in mysterious ways.

Score: 0

|

important information was forgot to be mentioned that Their "What's New" page has changed once again and outlines a few extra features that aren't yet available. But soon will be :)

Score: 0

|

Score: 0

|

I haven't "Clips" tab in Settings page.

Score: 0

|

All good stuff but what i want to know is whether gmail will utilize AJAX in the future.
Not that i would use hotmail as my primary web address again but their new Kahuna build of hotmail looks quite impressive.

Anyone got any info on this?

Score: 0

|

i have gmail...and i don't see it yet!!!!

Score: 0

|

i give up. where is this feature?

Score: 0

|

I noticed that this features only work if you use your US English on the settings page, didn't work with UK, however can't figure out why.

Score: 0

|

PDC 2009: What have we learned this week?

There was the freebie that no one will forget, the heebie-jeebies courtesy of Scott Guthrie, and a teensy bit clearer picture of how this cloud thingie should work.

Live report: Will Google Chrome OS change Linux?

The mysteries of just what Chrome OS is, and how much of an operating system it truly is, may be resolved today.

PDC 2009: Microsoft cares about Web browser performance

The effort to give users of the world's dominant Web browser the impression of quality, is a personal one for the man who leads that battle.

Nokia re-affirms its commitment to Symbian, sort of

Maemo won't necessarily be replacing Symbian in the Nokia N-Series, but that's definitely a place where it will be found.

E-book readers will be in short supply this holiday season

E-readers are hot this year, and a lot of compelling new products have been released, but are there enough electrophoretic displays to go around?

Sony looks to finally open a single storefront for downloads

Sony has had many different download portals for movies, music, e-books, and games, and now it's looking to make a single shop for all of it.

Tuning out the tablet: Time to give the endless speculation a rest

Wide Angle Zoom: Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying....won't put an iTablet on the market.

Five improvements for IT managers in 2010

If businesses are to improve their efficiency for next year, they need to stop and reassess the basic tenets of their job.

AOL's spinoff from Time Warner to shed 2,500 jobs

As AOL moves toward become an independent company again, it will cut nearly a third of its workforce.

Gartner: SMS-based money transfer will be bigger than mobile browsing, search

Gartner issues its predictions for the 10 things our phones will be doing in 2012.

Don't forget to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 beta 3 today

Mozilla has released the latest beta its Firefox 3.6 browser software, just over one week after beta 2.