Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Ask Lifehacker: Set up a filtered response in Gmail?

filtered-response.png

Dear Lifehacker,

As you are one of the biggest Gmail fans around, I was wondering if you knew of any way to create a filter in Gmail such that emails from a specified sender (or from specified senders) could be given an automatic response. I know that Gmail has a "Vacation Responder" option, but that sends replies to everyone who sends an email, or at least sends a response to everyone in your Contacts, and that just won't work. Any ideas, oh mighty Lifehacker?

Sincerely, Filtered Frank

Dear Frank,

First of all, thanks so much for your excellent question! We live to come up with these little workarounds. Second: there is a workaround! However, you're going to have to roll up your sleeves and possibly break Gmail's Terms of Service and grab a second email account. Hit the jump for how.

The solution requires that you grab yourself a second Gmail account, which is considered a no-no apparently okay in Gmail's ToS. However, last time I checked, everyone and their cute fluffy pups has at least two Gmail addresses, so this doesn't seem like that daunting of a move. However, don't say we didn't warn you!

Got your second Gmail address? Good, let's get started. From here on out, I'll refer to you main Gmail account as Gmail 1 and your second as Gmail 2 (could it get more complicated?).

  1. Set up a filter in Gmail 1 that forwards messages to Gmail 2 that you want to send the auto-response to.
  2. vacation-responder.pngHead over to Gmail 2 and go to the Accounts settings tab. You need to add your Gmail 1 address to your Gmail 2 account so that Gmail 2 can send messages as Gmail 1. Then set Gmail 1 as your default account in Gmail 2. This way all messages you send from Gmail 2 will still look like they're coming from Gmail 1.
  3. Set up a Vacation responder in Gmail 2. Done!

Now when you receive a message from the sender you want to always auto-respond to, Gmail 1 will forward the message to Gmail 2, which will automatically send out your pre-defined response as though it's coming straight from Gmail 1. As an added layer of security, I'd add the original sender's email address to your Gmail 2 contacts and check "Only send a response to people in my Contacts" in the vacation responder. Since Gmail 2 is only for automated responses, that means it should be the only email(s) in your Contacts, and you will never send off an auto-response accidentally.

A bit convoluted, yes, but it should do exactly what you're looking for Frank.

Hack on! Lifehacker — Adam Pash

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Everything You See Is Fake

by

A video demonstrating the power of video editing.

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Orgoo - The Web Email/IM Replacement

Los Angeles-based Orgoo is a new webmail service that is going to be a popular application for some users. Not only does it emulate Outlook-style desktop mail applications extremely well, it also integrates instant messaging from all of the major IM providers directly into the interface. If you are looking for a service-independent webmail/IM service, you’ll want to check this out.

If you’ve been around long enough to remember Oddpost, which launched in 2002, you’ll see similarities with Orgoo. Like Oddpost, Orgoo is an Ajax webmail service that lets users access their favorite email accounts via POP or IMAP access. Evolution of the Oddpost service stopped, however, in 2004 when it was acquired by Yahoo. Much of the Oddpost engine has now been integrated into Yahoo mail.

The key difference between Orgoo and the major Internet webmail services (Gmail, Yahoo, Live Hotmail, AOL) is that it also integrates instant messaging from all major providers.

The Orgoo interface has both email and instant messaging on the main dashboard (click on image for large view). Sign into AIM, Live Messenger, Gtalk, ICQ, Yahoo) and chat with your contacts (similar to meebo/ebuddy). You can optionally archive all IM conversations and the drop them into the same folders you use for email - a very handy way of keeping information organized. Since IM archives are saved the same way as emails, users can also forward IM conversations as emails.

Both Gmail and Yahoo offer IM integration within their webmail applications, but neither allow users to log into other third party services. Gmail allows Gtalk only, and Yahoo allows Yahoo IM only. Orgoo is service-independent and so users who have email in one place and IM in another (or use multiple services for both) will find this to be a much more useful application.

One thing I really like about Orgoo is their attention to detail. There are a number of examples of this. Users can choose from a number of visual templates and can upload avatars for emails/IM. Any address in an email or IM turns into a link that shows the address in Google Maps via a popup. They allow users to create on the fly chat rooms. And they are allowing users to record quick audio or video files and send them via email. See screen shots below for the maps and video screen shots.

Orgoo will offer users 3 GB of storage for free. The service is currently in private alpha testing with a handful of USC students only but will be expanding in the coming weeks to a larger group.

The two founders, Sean Rad (20) and Shahzad Tiwana (34) are students at USC and brought in a seasoned veteran, Michael Kantor, as CEO. The company has raised a small round of angel financing and has just 11 employees (three in California, eight in Pakistan).

There are a number of competitors out there. In addition to the webmail services mentioned above, a number of services have great service-neutral webmail services (see our coverage of Goowy). Foldera, a public company, is also a direct competitor but is yet to launch (Disclosure: I am currently on the board of directors of Foldera).

Orgoo has created a lot with a very small team and next to no financing to date. Their biggest challenge going forward won’t be getting users, but proving that their service is scalable. One of the most common complaints about webmail is speed - even Gmail and Yahoo, with unlimited resources, have a hard time keeping their services humming. If Orgoo can keep the service flying, they could become very popular very fast.

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Monday, May 14, 2007

Why English is Tricky for Foreigners

"may i have a coke" means something entirely different than "may i have some coke" -- one will get you arrested and the other implies you're from the South...

Map of words used for "carbonated beverage" in USA, by county

"Using the World Wide Web to gather and process data from across English-speaking North America, I intend to plot the regional variations in the use of the terms 'Pop' and 'Soda' to describe carbonated soft drinks."

Link, via this post on Gadling. (Thanks, marilyn terrell)

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Amazon.com acquires dpreview.com

We're proud and excited to announce that Dpreview has been acquired by the worlds leading online retailer, Amazon.com. Started as hobby site in 1998, dpreview.com has grown to be the number one destination for anyone interested in digital cameras and digital photography. Each month dpreview.com has seven million unique visitors (over 22 million sessions) who read over 120 million pages. "We've worked very hard over the last eight years to deliver consistently high quality content to our readers", founder Phil Askey said. "It will be fantastic to be able to expand and build on that without compromising our quality or independence. With the support and resources of Amazon we can achieve this."

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Only-Dreemin, Fine Art Thieves

stealing IS a crime, right?, originally uploaded by _rebekka.
Well mark this down as another fine art gallery that thought that they could rip someone's photos off just because they put their photos on Flickr. Rebekka Guðleifsdóttira (or more simply _rebekka as she is more popularly known on flickr) is one of flickr's most popular photographers and a friend of mine. In addition to doing interesting and provocative self portraiture work she also does some amazing Icelandic landscapes. But that's not why she's getting some attention this morning. She's getting attention this morning because she's posted the above composite to her flickrstream and written a post about how she's been ripped off by Only-Dreemin, a London based print-selling company. They also have an eBay store here. Rebekka says that this store basically ripped her photos, sold them for thousands of dollars and now won't compensate her for what they stole from her. In my case, a friend of mine came across their store on ebay and recognized one of my prints. (this was way back in january i think) I looked into the matter and discovered 7 more of my photos being sold there. In the case of pictures 1, 2, 6 and 7, the image had been divided up into 3 vertical panels. ( Something i would never DREAM of doing myself. ) Furthermore, the images had been given new and exciting titles, like "Seraque II" and "Attica", "Dawn expander II" and " Joga" (barf). I spent a good many days researching, going back thru their customer feedback, and was able to track back the sales of at LEAST 60 prints made from my images. These prints sold for a total sum of 2450 british pounds (around 4840 US$ ) What makes this worse is that Rebekka is an art student and single mom living in Iceland and hardly has the money to pursue this company through the legal channels. She has tried and hired an attorney but is now left stuck with an attorney bill after this company still won't pay her for her work that they stole. At least a letter from the attorney was able to get her images (which are all right's reserved) off of Only-Dreemin's website. This isn't right. Stealing is not right. To take someone's photographs and then print them up and steal them sucks. It's a violation. A while back someone tipped me off that a guy out of Israel was selling prints of my work as the "exclusive" provider of Thomas Hauk (he misspelled my last name) prints on the internet. I emailed the guy and he took the photos down. You wonder for all the people that are getting caught ripping photos off of Flickr, how many are not getting caught. Only-Dreemin deserves to learn the lesson that stealing is not right. I'm sorry this happened to you Rebekka and hope that this company in the end makes things right with you financially and publicly apologizes for the way that they operate their business.

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Glimpse

Buy things that celebs wear

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Contextual In-Video Advertising: ScanScout

scanscout.pngVideo advertising is a final frontier in the monetization of Web 2.0. Adbrite was first to market with Adbrite In-Video. Last week Google started testing in-video text ads on YouTube.

Cambridge, MA based ScanScout joins the fray. Founded 2 years ago, ScanScout launched recently and has followed up with an announcement of $7million Series A funding in a round led by General Catalyst Partners.

At first look, ScanScout's video advertising product looks identical to what Google is testing with YouTube. Text ads are overlaid on the video and open video-on-video advertisements or external sites.

We don't know a lot about the tech behind Google's offering. I noted in my post covering the subject last week that the sample YouTube advertisements lacked context. ScanScout on the other hand has no question mark on the issue.

ScanScout technology scans each video and determines content, with ads delivered contextually to match each scene. Think of it as an Adsense for video because it's exactly how it works, but on scenes as opposed to pages.

I'm yet to be convinced that text based overlays are the future of online video advertising. ScanScout argues that pre-roll and post-roll are regarded as dead by many because they "leverage an old paradigm that essentially ignores the consumer", and yet this optional form of advertising can easily be ignored itself.

If in-video text advertising is indeed the future of online video advertising, contextual delivery is essential and ScanScout provides a product that delivers exactly that.

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Shhhh! A Secret Google Search URL That Removes Adsense Ads

Google makes most of their money from AdSense ads.

While it is technically possible to block Google ads on web pages through Firefox extensions or by modifying the hosts file, these hiding methods are mostly implemented by tech-savvy users and may not have that big an effect on Google's revenue.

However, here's a secret trick - if you append the parameter "output=googleabout" to Google Web Search URL, the search results page will not carry any AdSense ads that are otherwise seen on the top and right sections of the page.

Here's a direct URL to search Google minus ads:

google.com/search?output=googleabout

Not sure why this parameter is in place but this could have an impact on their bottom line since it allows users to search Google sans advertisements without installing any geeky hacks. Thanks Vedrashko.

The following lines, when added to the Windows HOSTS file, will block Google from serving ads on your computer and won't track your visits on sites that use Google Analytics.

# [Google Inc]
127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com #[Google AdWords]
127.0.0.1 adservices.google.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com #[urchinTracker]
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com #[Google Analytics]
127.0.0.1 imageads.googleadservices.com #[Ewido.TrackingCookie.Googleadservices]
127.0.0.1 imageads1.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads2.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads3.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads4.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads5.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads6.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads7.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads8.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 imageads9.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 partner.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 apps5.oingo.com #[Microsoft.Typo-Patrol]
127.0.0.1 www.appliedsemantics.com
127.0.0.1 service.urchin.com #[Urchin Tracking Module]


Related: How IE or FireFox Makes Money from Google

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Google v. Yahoo: Who Cares The Most About The Environment?

SouthPark dedicated an entire episode to the smugness of hybrid car drivers and San Francisco residents in general. The episode is funny because its largely true - Silicon Valley is well known for having a left-leaning, environment-loving population that sometimes feels superior to the rest of the country. They cheered when Al Gore won an Oscar for his movie about global warming, and they are cheering again as some of the largest Internet companies in the valley are jumping very publicly on the "green" bandwagon.

Google and Yahoo in particular seem to be in a race to prove who's the greenest.

Google

Google is investing a lot of money in solar technology, saying that they will partially power their huge data centers with solar power. They are also installing 1.6 megawatts of solar photovoltaic panels at their headquarters in Mountain View. The panels will cover the roofs of the buildings, and Google says it is "the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S."

There are frequent references to the benefits of being carbon neutral on the Google blog as well, and last year Google launched the " Summer of Green" website to help people travel in an environmentally friendly way.

Last week CEO Eric Schmidt said the solar energy policy is not only the right thing to do, but that it will save the company money as well. While it is certainly true that Google's energy costs will decline, the savings will come nowhere near to offsetting the cost and maintenance of the panels themselves. Google is doing this because they think it's right, and because they will get positive press out of it.

Yahoo


Not to be outdone, Yahoo has gone green in a big way, too. Earlier this year, co-founder David Filo pledged that Yahoo would go carbon neutral, basically by purchasing carbon offsets for their massive electricity usage.

Today Yahoo will go one step further, and they are bringing in actor Matt Dillon to help them. They (Yahoo and Dillon) are announcing the "Greenest City in America" challenge, and will search for the most environmentally friendly city in America. The winner gets a whole fleet of hybrid taxis (or the cash equivalent). Another fleet of taxis goes immediately to New York City.

Yahoo will also urge people to become more environmentally friendly via two handy websites -Be a Better Planet and Yahoo Green.

So who's the greenest? No idea. But more hybrid cars and solar panels are popping up around around silicon valley, giving the SouthPark guys plenty of material for a follow up episode or two.

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Swedish Game Site Power Challenge Raises $8 Million From Benchmark Capital

Benchmark Capital put $8 million to work with Swedish game site Power Challenge, the company will announce today. Power Challenge is a rich Internet application - a game that runs in java and plays very much like a video game. Users build and customize their teams and play against others for points and status. The quality of game play is high and is designed to push the boundaries between traditional PC gaming and online gaming.

Power Challenge, along with its sister site Manager Zone (acquired earlier this year), says it is adding 4,000 new players daily. They’ll use the cash from the financing to fund the development of new games titles, which are currently limited to soccer and hockey. The games are currently playable only on Windows PCs.

The company was founded in 2004.

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Friday, May 11, 2007

Infinity Watch Concept : MP3, Video, Curves-A-Plenty

infinitywatch1.jpg When you design a gadget that tries to do everything under the sun, it invariably both sucks and blows. At the very least, this 3D render of the Infinity doesn't hurt our eyes. To the contrary, it soothes them. The wristwatch has a display on the front that you can use to show off digital photos and video clips. That, and it plays MP3s. Since it's still just an artist's rendering, we'll likely never see it in the local Wal-Merde anytime soon. 'tis a shame, since they're so many quality wristwatch review sites out there. – Nicholas Deleon

Swatch Infinity, Mp3/Video/Photo Player Watch [Yanko Design]

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Pixsy multi-repository image search

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Ringtone/Mobile Game Retailer Playphone Does Big Round

playphone.png
PlayPhone strikes us as another startup whose core strength is not technology but deal making. The company has done deals on the content side to bring in famous name brands and then gone out to do the distribution deals.

PlayPhone.com drives traffic to its own destination site and powers mobile destinations for SEGA, ABC, Bandai, Lycos and RealNetworks. Regarding a recent Bandai deal, PlayPhone and Bandai expect to sell 100K units of their pre-paid Tamagotchi phone within 12 months of its July launch in the US.

PlayPhone has secured $18.75M in Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners and joined by existing investors, Cardinal Venture Partners and Menlo Ventures. The startups says the funding will allow PlayPhone to expand into additional international markets this year.

playphone grab.png

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B and C List VCs Sucking Wind

nytimes grab.png The New York Times today provides more reportage on the woes of the venture capital sector. Unless you are a top 40 venture firm, you are in a world of hurt.

“It’s been almost a decade,” said Eric Doppstadt, director of private equity for the Ford Foundation, which invests in venture capital firms. “I find it shocking that an asset class that has provided so little payback continues to attract so much capital.”

Read - Some Unrest Is Bubbling Beneath the Top Tier (NY Times)

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