Like many of you, I’ve been happily using GMail for years. While there are many things I like about it, one in particular has always impressed me: email search. It’s no surprise that Google would add powerful search features to their email system, but there are many great features that go laregely unnoticed by many GMail users. Today we’ll go over some of GMail’s best search tricks and how to get the most out of this powerful feature.

We here at MakeTechEasier got a lot of positive feedback on our coverage of Google Wave, along with quite a few requests for additional information. So here, by reader request, is the second installment of Wave. Today we’ll be covering some of the more advanced and detailed features that didn’t fit into the original post. In this installment we’ll take a look at Wave’s use of folders, contacts, extensions, and believe it or not, even scroll bars.

I see posts on business oriented sites almost daily shelling out tips for every inch of the Microsoft Office Suite. An equal number of sites talk about Gmail, giving tips and ways to be more productive while using it. What about Google Docs? Docs can do some equally fancy stuff too.

Slowly but surely Google has been adding a feature here and a feature there. Some have been bigger steps than others; all of them are chipping away at the reasons you need to buy an office suite. I’m not going to get on a soapbox and shout to the world. I will however, give you a few nifty tips to make using Google Docs spreadsheets a little easier.

Google’s not afraid to reinvent the wheel, as long as they think they can make a better wheel. So far, in my opinion at least, they’re usually successful. That being said, when I first heard about Google Wave, the new browser based communications system, I was skeptical. I like my emails, IMs, message boards and blogs the way they are. Could Wave really transform the way I communicate online? Could Google really reinvent email in a way powerful enough to pull me from my beloved GMail? Well through my massive underground operative network I was able to get one of the beta invitations to try out Wave for myself.

By now you may have guessed I’m a big fan of Google. Not because they are the biggest kid on the playground, but because they have an awesome approach to what they do. They see people needing something and they solve the problem for free. How can you not succeed when you give people what they want for free?

Many are in their Labs stage of development. A lot of the sites you have grown to love have been in Google Labs at some point. Google Maps, Reader, Docs and Alerts are just a few. Here are a few cool sites you may not be aware Google has in the lab.

Few days ago, Google announced that they have released the push notification support for Gmail for mobile devices such as iPhone and Windows Mobile. Today, let us show you how you can set up a push Gmail account on your iPhone.

By following this tutorial, you can also configure it to sync your contact and calendar.

Before you start, please note that Google sync only work with iPhone firmware 3.0 and above.

For quite a while, Google has been releasing add-on features for a good number of their web applications. Gmail, Calendar and Reader all have several user selectable features. Links to these experimental add-ons can be found on the Google Labs page. Not all of the add-ons are perfect, but they are kid tested and mother approved.

Here is a quote about the Labs add-ons from the top of the Gmail Labs page:

“Gmail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may change,break or disappear at any time.

If (when) a Labs feature breaks, and you’re having trouble loading your inbox, there’s an escape hatch. Use http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0.”

I apparently have nothing better to do with my time than add fancy features to my Gmail. I’ll go ahead and save you the time of figuring out which of the Gmail Labs add-ons you should head for and give you the top 10 to get you started.

A while ago I was perusing the Google help files and found a cool little tidbit. It didn’t really hit me right away how useful it could be. Once I started to use it, I wondered how I got by not having it before. What I am babbling on about is Gmail’s ability to handle aliases. These are variations of your email address, not totally different email addresses, going to a common inbox.

The main idea behind using aliases in Gmail is to help you automate organizing incoming emails. Most people I know have separate folders for different people or projects. When an email is received, it eventually gets manually moved to the folder in which it belongs. Some who use desktop programs like Mail or Outlook may have rules set up. Few people however, take the time for this with their web based email accounts. This is one of the reasons people spend so much time dealing with email everyday.

As some of you may know, invites are being sent for Google’s new service aimed at simplifying your phone usage, Google Voice. I received my invite about 2 weeks ago and jumped at the chance to try it out. With so many features that appealed to me, I was like a kid in a candy store when I was able to play with it for the first time. For me, this service was a great solution to a lot of the complaints I have with using the phone. Being a Blackberry user, I was also VERY happy about the Blackberry app available right from the get-go.

Below, I will explain the layout of the site, then get deeper into a few of the main features. There are several other features to this service if you’d like to check them out for yourself here.

When Nokia first released the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet, many Linux geeks could not resist a hackable handheld computer, even if they had no use for it.  With the subsequent releases of the N800 and N810 versions, the devices gained even wider appeal.  One of the problems I have always had with it, however, is that it has no default PIM (personal information management) software, and the free options available for it were always rather slim.

Nokia advertises it as an “Internet Tablet” rather than a PDA, so perhaps they expect you to rely on cloud services, such as Google Calendar.  Very well, we will, but we will do it with style.  mCalendar is a small application for the Maemo operating system that allows you to have an appointment calendar on your tablet and also sync it with your Google Calendar.  It is finger-friendly and easy to use.  It is available for Maemo/Tablet OS2007 and OS2008 and should work on Nokia 770, N800, N810, and N810 WiMax models.