Email newsletter subscriptions can pile up, and the start of a New Year is as good a time as any to finally unsubscribe from email you don’t want to receive. Here’s a Gmail tip for finding most subscriptions in your mailbox, so you can either go through one by one, or set filters to organize them by labels. Simply search for the word “unsubscribe.” This isn’t foolproof, but it will catch most of subscriptions in your inbox.
Amit Agarwal is a professional blogger, and despite what he knows about choosing secure
passwords, his Gmail account was hacked. Going through the recovery process to regain control of his Google accounts, he learned some interesting things. In this article he offers advice on what you should do now to make it easier to recover if you find yourself in a similar pickle. For example, write down the date you opened your Gmail account, and the names of any custom labels you created. To read all his tips, continue here.
In a recent announcement, Facebook has made the default privacy setting for status updates visible to “everyone.” What this means is everyone on the Internet, not everyone of your friends. The reason behind the change is Facebook’s desire to increase it’s visibility in search engines and to compete more directly with Twitter (where public updates are also the default setting.) It’s not hard to keep your old settings, but there is a lot of confusion about their interface and what the term “Old Settings” really means. Learn more at ReadWriteWeb.com .
Spending less time dealing with email is a worthy goal. At Taming Email Leo Notenboom espouses an unusual tactic. In order to reduce the amount of email you receive, send less email. In other words, stop before you hit send, and ask yourself a few questions such as is email the right tool for the task at hand, and are you sending to the right people. Learn more at his One Simple Trick to Getting Less Email article.
A screencast is a video of a computer screen, and can be a useful tool for demonstrating software, teaching or training. I’ve used Camtasia for years, but it is expensive. I’ve also heard great things about Jing, which is available in both a free and a pro version. To learn more, Lifehacker Jason Fitzpatrick lists Five Best Screencasting Tools in his article of the same title.
When using a public wi-fi network in an Internet café or coffee house, it is up to you to secure your transmissions against prying eyes. Only using https secure connections is one way of stopping those around you from seeing your transmissions. For more cyber café security tips, read Ask Leo, and PC Magazine.
Google Image Search is perhaps the best know image search engine. But MakeUseOf reveals five others worth knowing about, including Cyclo.ps, a meta-search engine that lets you search up to eight stock photo sites at once, including Flickr, Shutterstock, and Photos.com.
Although it is still only available with an invite from an existing user, Google Voice recently opened up their free voice mail service for use with your existing phone number. With Google voice mail, you get voice mail messages with attached audio files delivered to your email inbox along with a transcription of most messages, so you can read what your voice mail says. Watch a video of these features at Google Voice .
Since not all Windows applications notify you when a free update is available, there are third-party applications that will scan all your software, and let you know when updates are available. LifeHacker polled readers to come up with a list of the five most recommended software update tools. Learn more at Five Best Software Update Tools.
What resources can be used to identify safe websites? Leo Notenboom of Ask-Leo.com says, “One of the best things you can do as you surf the web is simply be skeptical.” He also explores McAfee’s Site Advisor, and Web Of Trust in his article What’s a Safe Web Site?.
