Since my last post about my unorthodox uses of Gmail, I have been thinking there might be more ways I could be using it as my Personal Nerve Center (PNC). And in fact, there are a bunch. Time on the road away from my computer helps! Many of these work well in other web clients too by the way. Here's another round. (Note: as of this writing, Gmail is acting up. Murphy's Law. However, I have found that 99% of the time it is fine.)
* Create a Mobile Searchable Database of PDFs (Gmail + Adobe PDF Conversion by Email)
* Archive Your Weblog and Comments and Make Them Searchable (Gmail + FeedBurner/FeedBlitz)
* Import a Searchable Version of Your Calendar (Gmail + Google/Yahoo/MSN Calendar)
* Build a Weather or Sports Almanac (Gmail + Windows Live Alerts)
* A round up of other ideas
Create a Mobile Searchable Database of PDFs (Gmail + Adobe PDF Conversion by Email)
Like many of you, I have gobs of PDFs on my computer. Most of them are research reports written by analyst firms like eMarketer, Pew and Forrester or even PowerPoints. Sometimes I need to pull up a nugget of information from them in a split second. Often this occurs when I am away from my computer or logged out of the server at work. In fact, my colleague Leah was asking me about one of these nuggets today. Now I have a solution.
Although Google extracts text from attached PDF files, it does not index the contents in the Gmail database. This limits its utility. Thankfully, Adobe (which I should note is an Edelman client) has a free service that will take care of this for you.
All you need to do is email your PDF to pdf2txt@adobe.com and they will send the full text of the PDF back within minutes. These files can be searched from within Gmail. Then set up a filter from the Adobe address (noreply@adobe.com) and have the messages archived and automatically labeled. Now you have a searchable database for your PDFs - oh and it's fully accessible via a mobile too.
Back Up Your Blog and Make it Searchable (Gmail + FeedBurner/FeedBlitz)
Feedburner and other services like Feedblitz can take your RSS feed and convert it into an email newsletter for readers who don't use RSS.
I have been using Feedblitz on my blog for years and I subscribe just to make sure it is working correctly. I used to delete these emails but now I figured out they can actually be quite useful. I set up a filter, as described above, to archive these emails as soon as they arrive. As far as I know, Google doesn't place a limit on the number Gmail filters. Now I can search my blog quickly from the PNC by using the from:Feedblitz command and my search keyword. Plus, I automatically have a backup for my entire blog.
By the way, if you use Blogger, you can configure it to automatically email your posts once they go up. Here's the result when I searched for from:Feedblitz ajaxy newsgator. (Bonus tip: you can create a searchable archive of all your comments by archiving the email alerts and mining for them later.)
Create a Searchable Version of Your Calendar (Gmail + Google/Yahoo/MSN Calendar)
I don't know about you, but I a few years back I started saving old versions of my calendars - even from when I was in another job. I keep them on my desktop and occasionally search them. In fact, just the other day I referenced an old calendar to find a hotel I once stayed at in San Francisco.
Archival calendar data on the desktop is useful, but it's even better on the web and it's awesome when you roll it into your Gmail PNC and it's mobile. So even though I manage my calendar on the desktop, I export it into Google Calendar every few days and make sure that it sends me my daily agenda via email every day. Yahoo and MSN Calendar have similar features. I have a filter whisk these out of site and bingo - I have a quick way to search my calendar right from Gmail - and, most importantly, on the go.
Build a Weather or Sports Almanac (Gmail + Windows Live Alerts)
Quick, what was the score the last time the Bears played the Jets? What is the W-L record of the Dallas Mavericks against the Phoenix Suns the last three years? Finally, what was the weather on your birthday the last five years? If you care about this stuff, set up your Gmail PNC so it can quickly fetch it for you.
The secret is to sign up for alerts and have them archived. In my last post I mentioned Yahoo Alerts. Microsoft has a bunch of good ones too - including Fox Sports - and they are sometimes more reliable. You should configure these to alert via email and for the final score. (Disclosure: Microsoft is an Edelman client.)
For weather, check out Accuweather and Weather.com. They too have email services. You can also take any RSS feed and run it through a service like Rmail to create all sorts of archives. Once you're set up, all you need to do is filter, archive and search and your good to go.
What other types of information can we store in a Gmail PNC? Some of the ones that come to mind are a but more manual. Movies is a good one. Using the Google Toolbar method described in my last post you could clip and save movie information from a bunch of sites and annotate them with your own reviews. Some folks store recipes in Gmail. Combine this with a recipe-a-day email service and it becomes even more powerful. Share your Gmail PNC ideas in comments.
