New, Easier, Lazier Ways to Search in Gmail

Whenever I think Google can’t possibly add more features to Gmail, they prove me wrong.

Currently, I have 1908 messages in my Gmail inbox. I’m sure there are enough of you who don’t see this as a great accomplishment of email-receivership. I can also tell you this number is down from over 4000 about a month or so ago. After a major spring cleaning, I am at a more manageable inbox size. However, having said all this… it is still difficult sometimes to find that one message I need.

The new ways to search Gmail

As with most new features in Gmail, this one is still in Labs as well. Go into your Gmail labs and turn on “Search Autocomplete”. This will change how you search your messages, by giving suggestions as you type words or names into your search box.

It will look like this if you are searching for a contact who’s name starts with “Ch”:

I have so many email contacts, many of which I’ve emailed only a few times, that I tend to forget names at times. Especially with work related contacts who I have not done a project with for months. The only problem is that I sometimes can’t figure out any part of the person’s name if I’m in the middle of a name-related-brain-freeze. However, I usually do know the company name, so now I can easily find the appropriate email addresses of all my contacts at a particular business I work with.

Advanced search operators re-defined, but still available

I’ve always used Gmail’s search operators to narrow down my search for a particular message. They are still available, but you don’t need to start off using them anymore. You can use the advanced search operators to narrow down a search, or personlize it, even further. Now, instead of going Geek and typing in names in combination with ‘filename:the-file-I-need’, I can select “has document” from the drop down menu. Gmail then automatically replaces this sentence with “filename:(pdf OR doc OR xls OR ppt) OR docs.google.com OR spreadsheets.google.com”. Combine it with a name, and find the message you need in less than a second.

I’m all for easier searching, and activated autocomplete earlier today. I think I’ve already saved some time. Have you activated it yet?