WebMail

If you are like me, you have a number of Webmail accounts. I have two Gmail accounts, an old Hotmail account I use for filling out Web forms, and a Yahoo Mail account for fantasy baseball purposes. Thankfully, I can keep an eye on all of these accounts with a single Firefox extension.

WebMail Notifier is a simple Firefox extension that alerts you when new e-mails arrive from a variety of Webmail clients, including Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and even ol' AOL. After installing WebMail Notifier, you'll see that a small envelope icon gets added to your Firefox toolbar. It's gray when no new messages await (or before you add any accounts). When you have unread e-mails, the envelope turns yellow and displays the number of unread messages to the right. And by default, a subtle audio alert plays when new messages arrive.… Read more

Google's not exactly hurting when it comes to the number of people using its Gmail Web e-mail service, though in a new marketing move it's trying to grow that pot to catch up to Yahoo and Microsoft.

The company today rolled out a cheeky new "email intervention" program, offering existing Gmail users with a way to nudge their friends to switch over from their existing provider.

"You've probably already improved the lives of your friends and family members by helping them switch to Gmail, but what about that one friend who still hasn't … Read more

Web mail services like Hotmail and Gmail are powerful and convenient, but one issue that can stress out heavy users is keeping track of attachments. You may be bumping up against storage limitations, shutting down an old address, or reorganizing files to a single offline location, but it can be a daunting grind without some way to download files in bulk. Windows users can use a free customizable program that makes it simple. Here's how to use it:

A McAfee survey of more than 1,000 business executives across 17 countries has found that Web 2.0 technologies can increase employee productivity and generate revenue. But half of the business executives expressed fears over the security risks that come from social media, blogging, Web mail, and content-sharing tools.

Released Monday, the "Web 2.0: A Complex Balancing Act" (PDF) report was commissioned by security software maker McAfee and authored by faculty at Purdue University to study the benefits and risks of Web 2.0 technologies in the business world.

The study showed that three out of … Read more

Yahoo has rejiggered its Web e-mail service to better fit within the confines of the iPad's plus-size Web browser.

Users who visit Yahoo's Web mail service from their iPad will now get a version of the site that's been designed to fit in with the iPad's user interface aesthetic. This includes portrait and landscape support and scrolling up and down one's message list and messages themselves with acceleration.

As far as extra bells and whistles over the native iPad e-mail client, there aren't many. You cannot, for instance, attach a signature, photo, or video … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed to us by our readers. This week, we have questions about multiple files being deleted when using Secure Empty Trash, application integration between OS X and virtual machines, using Spotlight to search system files, and using Web mail (Gmail specifically) as a default e-mail client.… Read more

Apple is in the middle of testing a new version of the MobileMe webmail application, which a number of users have signed up to try. To keep users up to date with the latest fixes and known issues in the development of the new interface, Apple has a knowledgebase article they are keeping updated with news about past and current builds of the Web application.… Read more

There may be times when Internet access seems to crawl, even when you are connected through a broadband connection and do not have other people on your network using bandwidth. While there are several reasons for this, one could be that your ISP-supplied DNS servers may be underperforming.… Read more

WebMail Notifier for Firefox is a basic add-on that checks e-mail for a variety of different types of e-mail accounts. There's nothing particularly exciting about it, but it works just fine if you need a simple e-mail alert that's well integrated with Firefox.

The program appears as a small envelope icon within Firefox's status bar. It's quite inconspicuous, which is nice. When there are unread messages the envelope turns from gray to yellow, and the number of messages appears to the right. An optional pop-up window shows a brief preview of newly received messages. We liked … Read more