Web Clips in Gmail. Yay.

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So now you can get RSS in your Gmail account. I’m not dancing a gig but I’m not horrified at the lack of features either. It’s been available to some users for as early back as this spring, and is apparently available to all users now, but don’t quote me.

If you have this magical, mystical feature, here’s how to use it:

“Here’s how to set up Gmail Clips:

1. Log in to your Gmail account.
2. Click ‘Settings’ at the top of any Gmail page, and then click ‘Web Clips.’ (Youâ€™ll be directed to a list of clips that are currently displayed in your account.)
3. Click ‘Add more clips >>.’ A new window will open.
4. Click ‘Add’ next to the clips you’d like to view.
* To add an RSS or Atom feed, open the ‘Custom Clips’ tab. Enter the feed URL in the appropriate field, and click ‘Add.’
5. Close the new window once you’ve selected your clips.”

Read more from Google :Gmail: Help Center.

Here’s what’s great about it:

I have Gmail open all day long. I monitor several of my site’s email accounts from there, though my really important ones still go to the email address of each individual site, or are at least copied there. It’s nice for me to have a place to add a feed without having to open a separate application, or to audition them before they go into my Live Bookmarks or Feed Demon…

Here are the things that make me go hm:

With the possible influx of new email users, now that Gmail is open to everyone, this would be a neat thing to have it if was implemented the same way it was on the personalized Google homepage, ie, the ability to add a feed by keyword or resource name *and* feed URL. We’ve got to get to a place with RSS where we don’t have to educate every single person who wants to use it on what it is.

As business owners, sure, we should have to learn the ins and outs of RSS on at least a basic level because we’re nearing that “adopt or die” part of the growth curve. However, new tools that make us educate the user are a step backwards, not a step forward.

Okay, that rant is over. Here are some links to more of this discussion.

A May 2nd post from Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Watch’s blog, who got the feature early. Has screenshots.

Lockergnome post by Rok Hrastnik with more suggestions on what Google could do with RSS. Also regarding the earlier version.

Again, I see no official word, on Google’s Blog or elsewhere, stating that this is definitely available to all users. So if you get Gmail and don’t see it, please don’t pelt tomatoes at me. I’m just the messenger…

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August 30, 2005 | Filed Under Uncategorized

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