Many people have experienced the frustration being booted out of their Gmail and Google Apps account after Google’s transition of all Google Apps accounts to proper Google accounts.

You can enable account switching without using multiple browsers by using the following page multiple sign-in settings page:

When multiple sign-in is turned on, you can click the arrow next to your address (at top right) to switch between accounts with these Google products: Gmail, Calendar, Google Voice and Google Reader

Once you agree, you’ll be able to go back and forth between your personal Gmail and your Google Apps account:

Use multiple Google Accounts in the same web browser.Select each of the checkboxes below to confirm you understand how to use multiple sign-in:

• The account you’re currently using is displayed at the top of most Google product pages, or at the bottom of most pages on mobile devices. Always check to make sure you’re using the account you want.
• Not all Google products support multiple sign-in. When switching between Google products, the account you’re currently using may change.
• Google products not listed above will default to the first account that you signed in to using your current web browser session.
• Offline Mail and Offline Calendar will be disabled. You may lose any unsent mail.

You may need to sign out of your browser to activate this.  Use Google Chrome as your browser for the best experience in setting this up ^_^

After I activated this, I was able to go back and forth without problems between my accounts.

Here I’m signed in with my personal gmail account:

and now I’m in my Google Apps account:

Summary

Now this doesn’t work for every service that Google offers and there are some known issues but overall I found this account switching feature to be a great way for people to transition stand alone Google accounts into a Google Apps setting as well as stay focused within a single browser to increase productivity.

Following up with the blog post from a few days ago announcing the new Google Calendar feature called Appointment slots, I’ve created a video on how to use them. Enjoy!

Make sure to think about using Bit.ly or another url shortening service to make it easier for your potential clients and visitors to reserve time!

This long awaited feature that has been backfilled by companies like Timebridge, Tungle, TimeTrade and Genbook is arriving for Google Calendar and Google Apps in a browser near you soon!

With appointment slots in Google Calendar, you can setup blocks of time that are publicly available for reservation.

While GigaOm points out that both the calendar owner and the person looking to book the time need to be using Google Calendar to reserve time on the the appointment blocks, I’m confident that Outlook clients will be able to eventually see these booking times.

Before online appointment scheduling was a reality, someone would have to send an email in order to request time or call you by phone.  Even using one of the products listed above, there could be communication issues about time zones or appointment length.

Now with appointment slots, you’re in control of your calendar availability.

I created a video to show you how it works:

If you’re a Gmail user, this is a free feature and you should see it rolled out soon and it’s just been announced for all versions of Google Apps as well!

I’m curious to see how companies and universities take advantage of this tool to reserve conference rooms and time with professors.  Also, stay on the lookout for more commerce based appointment scheduling with a social media twist!

Google announced 12 new supported file types in Google Docs, their online office productivity suite.  The most exciting part of this announcement is that several design related file types including Adobe Photoshop (.PSD) and Illustrator (.AI).

This means that proofing images between clients and freelancers just got easier!  With Adobe Postscript (.EPS, .PS) and SVG (.SVG) vector images also being supported, companies who work in publishing and printing are obviously be targeted by Google as a developing vertical market.  Google Apps is doing a great job at giving creatives every reason to take a second look at leaving Apple mail, aging Microsoft Exchange servers and email hosted by website providers for the centralized, collaborative and cloud based solution known as Google Docs.

Other new supported file types include Microsoft Office 2010 Powerpoint files (.PPTX), Autocad (.DXF), True Type fonts (.TTF) and Apple pages (.PAGES) which are the equivalent of Microsoft Word.

Today, I ran across yet another person who still provides their email in the following format as some sort of maladaptive coping mechanism to spam protection:

myname at mydomain dot com

Folks, you don’t need to do this if you have Gmail or Google Apps and I’ll explain why in a bit. I’ve also seen people put annoying third-party email verification systems on top of Gmail. Completely unnecessary.

Whenever possible, I try to educate these folks and help them understand the root problem with spam and how Google addresses it for the millions of email users, businesses and organizations they support.

photo credit: SBeggsMiller

Why people get spam

Spam is unsolicited email.  Unfortunately, many people working at companies walk in, sit down at their desks and then wade through their email, much of it being advertisements, promotions and now phishing scams.

If they are done by 9:30am, they are feeling pretty good about their day!

photo credit: patriotworld

Email doesn’t have to be this way.

It is the responsibility of the email host to filter spam before it reaches your inbox.  If you are receiving unwanted emails on a daily basis, the company in charge of your email is not doing their job.  Many companies are still running email servers out of their offices like Microsoft Exchange and although there have been improvements in the last couple of years to this mail server platform, it’s complex and misconfiguration is common.

Another example is where the email is hosted remotely with the company who does the website hosting or…the company is using a free email service.  Again, the responsibility of getting rid of that spam fall squarely on their shoulders.

How to reduce spam in your inbox

First, figure out who hosts your email.  This may be as simple as asking your IT person, looking at your website hosting agreement or making a phone call.

Next, explain what and when you see spam.  If you can give 3 example subject lines like:

• “Discounted Viagra”
• “Buy A Home With Your Tax Refund”
• or “Authentic Rolex Watches For $300″

this will help immensely because your technology staff or email host can now scan for these specific items and work to determine their source.

The Difference Between Free Web Based Email Services

Maybe you are using a free service.  There is a HUGE gap in terms of quality when it comes to free email. Read this carefully…

AOL is very, very bad.

Hotmail is very, very bad.

Yahoo is very, very bad.

Gmail is excellent, amazing, awesome, easy and efficient!

Why are the first 3 bad?  They are horrible at filtering out spam (aka junk mail), they have distracting advertising throughout their web interface, they charge if you want to download your email (POP3) or connect to it with your favorite desktop app (IMAP) and they don’t even come close to offering the amazing list of features that Gmail offers including:

• 7GB of inbox space
• Works on the web, with your PC/Mac or Linux system
• Mobile clients for iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, PalmOS
• Keep using your desktop client – Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird
• Built In Chat
• Calendar
• Online Google Docs
• and more!

I’ve had a Gmail account since June 2004 and receive less than two spams a month in my inbox.  That’s right!

I’ve been setting up Google Apps for clients since 2006 and think it’s one of the best email solutions out there.  It’s scalable for small companies with less than 100 employees and can give enterprise email systems a run for their money too!

Google Has Built In Spam Filtering

photo credit: tkjoseph

How is it possible?  Google made a smart move in 2007 and purchased Postini, a world leader in spam filtering services.  Not only do users of Google’s free, personal email service Gmail use it but business and organizations signed up for Google Apps benefit too!

This means if you have a Gmail account or are a Google Apps user, you don’t need to spell out your email address in hopes of tricking the robot scripts that harvest email addresses from websites.  In fact, I’ve had my email publicly posted on my websites, social networking sites and in forums for years and still have no problem with spam using Gmail.

You also have the option to add Postini’s excellent spam filtering services in front of your email server.  Here is what they describe as your new experience with Postini in place:

Your users will no longer have to spend hours sorting through spam. You will also see a tremendous reduction in your overall inbound email traffic (Google stops the bad traffic in the cloud). Also, most customers notice a dramatic drop in their mail server utilization on the first day the service is enabled. This gives you more scalability with your existing systems.

I agree.  I’ve seen too much time wasted chasing down blacklisted servers, inbox meltdowns and lost productivity from poorly configured email servers and overtaxes servers.

Email Inspired Blog Post

In an effort to double educate, I sent the following email today in hopes of helping the person save time and not continue using outdated methods to protect their email account from spam.

*First part of email removed for relevance*

Also, to let you know, it’s not necessary to spell out domain names as a form of spam control in general.  The real issue is that the company manage the email MX records is to blame and end users should not have to use “evasive” methods like that.  Also, the University of Minnesota migrated to Google Apps last year and Google purchased Postini to provide exceptional spam filtering.  I have been using Gmail since 2004 and Google Apps since 2006, receiving less than 2 spams a month.  My email address is all over the internet and on every single one of my contact pages like http://butyoureagirl.com/contact

You can read more about the University of Minnesota switching to Google Apps at the Minnesota Daily and on their own website.

Hope you find this helpful in your quest to be more productive in the office!

At this time, I am going to do a shameless plug that I offer Google Apps administrator and end user training.

Sign up to be notified of upcoming classes I teach online http://signup.freshworkshops.com

Wow, Google is doing it again and stepping away from the crowd with it’s latest announcement that you will be able to upload documents of any type and up to 250mb!

I checked my Google Apps account to see if the changes had taken effect but I was still limited to the much smaller sizes of:

• 500KB for documents
• 10mb for presentations
• 1mb for spreadsheets and
• 10mb for PDF files

This applies to all editions of Google Apps including: Standard (the free one), Premier, Education plus Team and Partners and will roll out in the next few weeks.

I can’t wait!

So, it’s been quite a while since Google’s email service, Gmail experienced an outage.

Check the status of Gmail here http://www.google.com/appsstatus

Workaround

The web interface is down by you can still access your Gmail through a desktop client like Outlook Thunderbird, Apple Mail.

How to setup POP or IMAP for your Gmail

IMAP is much better because it stays in sync with Google’s server vs POP which pulls down your email and does not leave a copy on the server.

Previous Downtime

I blogged about Gmail being down last August and there have been reports of sporadic downtime for Gmail every few months but none lasting very long.

I consider a “significant” outage anything that lasts over 1 hour.  This outage lasted just under 2 hours.

Bad for Business

This time Google Apps is down too and this clearly won’t sit well with business owners who recently made the switch to Google Apps after their big nationwide campaign, Google At Work.  I’m calling my customers who have Google Apps to let them know about the downtime.

Status

Resolved!

Folks,

Reminder that the live training to setup Google Apps is coming around again!  This will be offered every few months as the waiting list grows.

January 2010 is the next worskshop.

We will:

Content

1. Learn how to register for a new Google Apps domain
2. Learn how to register a new domain name at GoDaddy and always get a low price
3. Review the steps to fully activate your new domain email
4. Discuss mail records (MX)
5. Discuss email migration strategies
6. Discuss the difference between Google Apps and Microsoft Exchange
7. Verify domain ownership for new Google Apps account
8. Change mail records (MX) for new Google Apps account
9. Tour of Google Apps dashboard
10. Learn how to test for mail record resolution

The workshop goes for 1 hour and the cost is $25.

Registration ends tonight so make sure to signup at Freshworkshops!

A bit about me and Google Apps

I setup my first Google Apps account in December 2006 for a client.  They were using Comcast for their domain email and were “graciously” allocated 2mb per mailbox.  They couldn’t save email correspondence let alone communicate with each other.  They were also plagued by spam.

I setup approx 40 employees with Google Apps and at first, the owner couldn’t believe it!  1GB of inbox space?  No spam?  A contact list of all his employees?  No way!

Since then, I’ve continued to help businesses migrate away from pop mail, Microsoft Exchange and personal email accounts to Google Apps.

Now that Google is running a nationwide campaign on Google Apps called “Going Google”, I look forward to more people trying out the service and having a worry free inbox!

Did you know Google Apps is on Twitter as @googleatwork?

I’m looking for a conference sponsor for the upcoming BlogHer Conference and I want to promote your company!

I will be attending BlogHer ’09 in Chicago at the end of the week.  BlogHer is a gathering of women who blog on all sorts of things and this is the 5th year!

Your Market Is Out There

photo credit: jdlasica

I know women who enjoy technology, gadgets and web 2.0 apps.  We don’t need everything to be pink.  We want to buy technology we enjoy using, fits our lifestyle and that make us feel (and look) smart!

Being a geek, I’m most happy in my element of solving problems and helping people.  I smile when people thank me and say, “Adria, when you explain it, things make so much more sense!”.  I put in time to learn new technology, talk with developers and work to stay active in the technology community.

I’ve always enjoyed wearing my Firefox t-shirt and having people comment on it because they recognize it as an awesome browser!

How I Will Pitch You At BlogHer

photo credit: journeyscoffee

I offer a unique opportunity.  For thousands of years, we’ve told stories around campfires.  The same holds true today where people end up buying things once they hear that personal story of how it adds value to someone’s life.

I will tell your story through one to one conversations with attendees

Forget “live blogging” and banner ads on sites.  I will make authentic and lasting connections with people that leave them thinking about your products long after they’ve have flown home.  Get your Google Analytics ready to track the hits from BlogHer!

Want to know more details of how I would position your t-shirts, screenshot software and business cards in conversations I have with other women bloggers at BlogHer?

Contact me and we’ll discuss it in detail.

I’m a good investment to promote your company because:

• I’m quite effective in persuading people to embrace new technology
• I attended WordCamp Chicago and Blogging While Brown in June 2009
• I explain things in terms that people understand and feel comfortable with
• People on Twitter thank me a lot for my help, suggestions and links
• I understand how technologies work together in a variety of businesses
• I understand hardware, desktop software, web apps and mobile devices
• I have 10 years of IT experience with several certifications
• I do a live, online, weekly technology show at AskAdria.com
• I have a sincere passion to help empower people through technology
• I’m learning how to sell things I believe in
• My “About” page is chocked full of information on my deeds to make the world a better place

Website Traffic Stats for Unique Visitors In The Last 6 Months To This Blog

(Google Analytics reports available upon request)

• July 4,257
• June 8,727
• May 1,677
• April 2,365
• March 8,689
• February 1,509

Recent Public Speaking Sample

Women Venture – St. Paul, MN
Panel “Women In Technology”
7/9/2009

ThinkGeek: Cool stuff for your desk and geeky t-shirts

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jACFVmFK1Fc[/youtube]

Extra Credit
I own 4 shirts from ThinkGeek: Geek code, I’m Tweeting This, Slide to Unlock and No I will Not Fix Your Computer
Video: How To Use A Crossover Adapter [ThinkGeek]
Video: How To Use An Ethernet Loopback Adapter [ThinkGeek]
Video: Thinkgeek BlogHer T-Shirt Pitch

Techsmith: Effortless screen captures and video recordings

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wjxj8zq0fY[/youtube]
Extra Credit
Blog Post + Video: Techsmith Delivers Best Tools for Creating Screenshots and Video Tutorials
Blog Mentions #1, #2, #3,
Tweets #1, #2, #3

Moo.com: Elegant and unique business cards

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CRVgLfZizs[/youtube]
Extra Credit
Blog Post My new business cards from moo.com arrived!
Twitter #1, #2
Flickr photos of my Moo business cards

People Buy Things I Talk About

photo credit: thevoyager

Time and again, I’ve shared products and services with people.  I passionately explain the benefits (save time, save money, more professional) and people signup, buy and subscribe.

I’m quite passionate about:

• Gmail
• Timebridge
• Twitter
• Clicky web analytics
• Skype
• WordPress
• Open Source
• Harvest
• Western Digital hard drives
• Firefox
• OpenDNS
• Google
• Zendesk
• Flickr
• ThinkGeek t-shirts for women
• Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Dell computers
• Mozy online backups
• Keepass
• Drop.io
• 37Signals Highrise CRM
• Google Apps for your domain
• Lifehacker
• Apple iPhone
• and much more!

Who Are These People?

photo credit: thus

In an average month, I connect with a variety of people who are decision makers, influential people on the internet and regular folks looking to learn more about technology.  I am honest, patient and helpful with all because I keep in mind how much I would have appreciated help and guidance when I was still learning about technology.

• Business Owners
• Developers
• Company Founders
• DIY Folks figuring out technology
• Bloggers
• IT Folks
• Friends

Why I Picked You

All three companies provide products that help women authentically express their inner geek.  One of the most important ways to “show your geek” is to walk the walk.  I will be selecting one sponsor for the entire event so I can focus on delivering your message in strong and consistant way.
I’ve selected you 3 because:

• I enjoy your products
• Have detailed information share about my experience
• Understand the value you provide
• Can go into vivid detail about why I enjoy using your products
• Know that you’re the best in your markets
• Enjoy answering technical questions BlogHer attendees will have about your products

How To Sponsor Me

Pick Up The Phone
Call 612-246-4568 or drop me a line and we’ll discuss in detail how I plan to deliver your message.

Promote Your Sponsorship
A coupon code would be a great way to encourage attendees to followup as well as track the effectiveness of my efforts!

Prepare Your Schwag
Do you have good stuff for me to hand out? Let’s brainstorm on what items will get folks excited!

photo credit: Liz Henry

Why This Is Important To Me

Being a female in technology, I sometimes need to remind people that I’m just as capable as a guy.  I learned this from my hero, Valerie Aurora who is an outspoken Linux developer at Red Hat.  She taught me to stand up and speak up for myself in my career.

More About Blog Her

photo credit: happykatie

Excerpt from website:

Founded in February 2005 as a labor of love by three bloggers, BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women who blog to pursue exposure, education, community and economic empowerment. Today BlogHer provides the number-one community for and guide to blogs by women, reaching more than ten million women each month via annual conferences, a Web hub, and an publishing syndicate of more than 2,700 qualified, contextually targeted blog affiliates.

I was tooling around in my email today and creating a new filter so when I got a new email from Rochenhost (my hosting company) it would get starred when I saw the most amazing thing!

Send a Canned Response as a Filter Option in Gmail

This means you can now setup filters so when you get an email from a particular person or with a certain subject, you can send them a reply automatically!

I’m sure Microsoft is so very jealous because Outlook has nothing like this! Microsoft Exchange, eat your heart out! Okay, back to the awesomeness of Google Gmail and Google Apps.

What You Need

Canned Responses need to be enabled so you can select it as a filter option

1. Go to Settings
   
   
2. Go to Labs
   
   

3. Enable Canned Responses
   
   

You can now send out auto replies like Merlin Mann does which provide helpful FAQ information or whatever your mind can dream up!

I could use this to say to Rochenhost, “I have received your notice. Please allow 4-6 hours for a reply.”. This is like vacation reply but much more powerful. You can choose who gets a reply and then you can create as many “canned responses” as you want.

Yes, if you’re not using Gmail or Google Apps for your email, you’re living in the dark ages while everyone else has electricity.