A new feature in Gmail Labs just launched, giving users the ability to simultaneously view multiple panes in Gmail without having to open another browser window. For users that frequently label their messages and have saved searches, this is a huge upgrade that will make Gmail even more efficient.
Since launching, Gmail users looking to view search results or a subset of their labeled messages saw their results take up their entire browser window. Now, you’ll be able to do multiple things at once.
To enable the feature, first activate Gmail Labs for your account, then enable “Multiple Inboxes” from the list of Labs options (you’ll have to scroll down a bit to find it). The term Multiple Inboxes is a bit of a misnomer – you can’t actually show messages from other accounts, but that could still come in a future Labs release.
To set up your panes, go to the Gmail Settings menu and select “Multiple Inboxes” (once you’ve enabled them). From there, you can create up to five different panes. Creating a pane seems to be a little counter-intuitive – you’ll need to manually enter the Gmail ‘code’ of your label (for example, “label:friends” would display a list of messages tagged with the friends label). But the system is also flexible, as it allows you to combine multiple attributes into a single pane (for example, “is:drafts OR is:starred” would show messages that are either drafts or starred).
Google first launched Gmail Labs last June, giving Googlers a way to showcase the results of their 20% time. Labs apps have included everything from a version of the classic game Snake to features like SMS chat, Gadgets, and even Mail Goggles, meant to keep intoxicated users from sending drunken Emails that they’ll regret in the morning.
For more, check out Google’s blog post on the new feature here.
Anything to get people back into the browser instead of using a client + imap is a win for google. Probably also why they enabled offline mode.
This feature looks pretty cool, but since I have 12 gmail addresses to differentiate banking and to cut down on spam, etc. I still prefer gmail clientside. If they start to enable multiple gmail sessions within one browser window then we’re in business
Yeah, I’d love to have that too. When I saw it was called Multiple Inboxes I thought that was actually what the feature would do.
There is still that annoying pause every time you load something in GMail…that 5 second delay that drives me friggin insane.
Why should we go through all that pain when all we can do is simply click on the Label in the sidebar! I mean it may have some good use to, but it’s just that the good uses in this feature are not quite apparent to the naked eye.
i am in accordance. i would absolutely love multiple gmail accounts logged in simultaneously.
Why not just use + and filter them? There’s really no a need for 12 separate accounts.
Or use Autoforward and filters to manage all 12 accounts.
You might try a free account at http://www.emailcenterpro.com. The tool is targeted at teams and small businesses who need to collaborate on multiple email accounts (like info@), but it would work great for the case you describe with 12 personal accounts to manage.
Yeah. But you can even customize your inbox in many ways, here is a good example:
http://jashsaya...ltiple-inboxes/
You can also set-up Auto-forwarding in your other accounts to a main account and set a filter to add a label and display it in a separate pane.
I was surprised when I opened up my 1st Google Apps account (mail.oneofmydomains.com) that I was able to login simultaneously in 1 browser to multiple GMail accounts. I’ve been doing it successfully for months – 2 GMail accounts one each in a tab of FireFox. I guess they cookie based on browser path to make this possible. Anyway, something to check out.
If you’re on a Mac, an application called “Mailplane” allows you to view unlimited numbers of gmail accounts in an app without using a browser — preserving the entire gmail experience and every single command (i.e., not IMAP or POP but rather a customized browser). They’re talking about adding a Windows version also but, alas, none yet.
Looks good to me. Should be useful to manage multiple projects (each project can be its own section).
At last!
I was thinking that Google will surely do something like this. Not only the pane but also sophisticated filtering I hope, like all mails after a certain date labeled as something etc.
Google is stepping up their game, this is good, saves clicking time.
I agree. Am luvin it!
cooljobsalways
http://tinyurl.com/7uj5ay
I thought it was a good idea when I read this, but it is kind of useless now that I have tried it out.
If I was able to do my searches at the top on the fly and have them show up to the right rather than separately, then we’d be talking.
As of now, I can’t really think of 2 or 3 searches I need done constantly to justify them taking up that space permanently.
Lena: if you use Firefox, CookiePie will allow you to just that – open all 12 accounts in 12 tabs, if ya want…
This is huge – potentially the greatest improvement to my work flow since chocolate covered espresso beans.
Michael, the SAS layoffs on your tech layoff page is wrong. SAS is an airline, not the BI company. SAS isn’t even a tech company…
u should check
the software company SAS isn’t laying off anyone.
I’ve wanted this feature for a long time…I am very pleased…sigh
Jason, you got the name right: multi-pane viewing is a much better description than calling it “multiple inbox”. What were they thinking?
I see GMail finally implemented something we like to call “folders”.
I’d say the first ever feature in Gmail to increase the productivity. All the rest of them are okay but this one takes the cake. Now, I’m wondering why do I have Google Reader and Gmail, they should technically merge together.
This is awesome!
Nice, but I would really like to see Gmail have tabs…so i can write an email but also look at my inbox or another message at the same time.
The three pane layout is an acknowledgment that the laptop (and majority of desktop LCD) has shifted to a widescreen format.
This is unique in that the design is advantageous and that other areas within the company are focused on iPhone and other presentation modes in the mobile computing area as well. Looking good and providing useful screen real estate is critical across the variety of interfaces users expect to access.
Congrats to the Gmail team for stepping outside the “tall” application presentation format.
Great!
Multiple Inbox, Multiple Panel viewing or simply Multiple Pain-el viewing?
Nice.
Ugh.
This feature has NO relevance to my personal email life – Disable.
I love some of the features they’ve been adding like tasks / docs / calendar… but it’s really starting to feel like a bucket of random bolts with docs & calendar the equivalent of looking through a keyhole and Tasks it’s own animal competing w/ chats.
Me fear the “inmates are running the asylum”.
“Disable”?! surely that’s why it’s in labs and you don’t have to have it (don’t enable it!).
(Me fears the inmates are hitting “Add Comment”
mistaking it for “Type as The Thought Enters My Head Without Working Out if it Adds Any Value to the Discussion”…)
headless, we can’t all loose our heads every time Google comes up with a new feature. Or rather we can’t all be unconditional Google fanboys like you.
There’s nothing spectacular about this new feature, and that’s my opinion. You’re entitled to yours.
ditto that… but now I’m guilty of it.
and that was meant as reply to headless – in agreement. not a reply to itsbiscuits.
Disappointed. For me, panes meant not having to switch back and forth between list view and body view. This just gives me more lists.
I would really like to see GMail enable “Push” technologies, why wouldn’t they do this? This is just about the only thing keeping me from switching over.
This feature is super cool!!!
It saves my time!!
I tried it few minutes ago. It works perfect. Great feature. Keep going google.
I did notice they changed their entire platform, and the buttons do look quite different
when i read mike’s twit, i thought cool, a reading pane! just like in t-bird (and all of _every_ other mail program). *sigh* i don’t see how this one’s gonna be useful. we’ll see ..
Yeah, I’m hoping for a reading pane too.. Hopefully that’ll be the next Labs feature
Damn, I got excited thinking this was going to enable some sort of reading pane, so I could click on an e-mail and it would open on the right in the this new panel! Still cool, but shame it can’t do that.
Lovely Gmail.
But Gmail is becoming larger and complicated. How could it be like what it was before. I prefer a clean Gmail, so I disabled most of the labs features.
I got excited and thought gmail was adding a preview pane.
Very nice.
This feature is sweet. But its really tricky to configure the correct names of the labels. I found the easiest way was to open a lable in another tab and copy the exact text in the search bar within gmail.
Wow, truly amazing. GMail is staying on top of their game lately. Well done.
RT
http://www.onli...anonymity.at.tc
Don’t trash me for wanting an Outlook feature — but if they would just let me SORT and Search, I’d never use anything but Gmail.
And yet you still cannot delete an email and just go to the next email, you get sent back to the inbox every time. Yeah, I think I will stick to my plan of forwarding everything to Yahoo until they fix the deleting problem, if they ever do…
This is one of the reasons why I use google email – their innovation is awesome.
The cool thing about this new feature is that it allows us to manage our emails both offline mode and tabbing between windows.
Google is really the best email client right now and it’s only getting better.
http://www.twit...thetechbasement
Nice feature, but personally, I think it’s just a mess on a laptop with a 13″ screen
I tried it but am not really impressed. I don’t think there is a need for this – labels are already very efficient and also this distorts the look of my inbox. The most annoying thing is the reduced span of my ‘main inbox’ which makes it difficult to read the subject of an email.
I agree with comments that a facility to login into multiple google accounts using the same browser window would be a big blessing. A similar feature is available in gmail for mobile where there is an option to switch accounts in a drop down to access the respective account. Am eagerly waiting for a similar feature on pc brower
This seems really cool, I’d like it if you could compose an email in this second half though. Now that would be awesome. (Half the screen’s your inbox, the other half would compose mail, this’d be really useful for wide screen users imo)
this is one of the best options ever. I’m glad they didn’t force it upon you though like most other webservices seem to do when they develop a new feature
Settings -> Accounts -> “Get mail from other accounts:”
Then just add your other gmail account(s) and it will automatically bring them into the one, without the need for sessions.