Google Apps Compose Mail Pop-up With Bookmarklet

Posted on August 8, 2007 in Tech | Leave a Comment

I was checking out a post on top 10 gmail tips and figured out a way to create a “compose mail” bookmarklet that will pop up a window to compose a mail through your Google Apps account.

I can’t really take credit for it, other than modifying one thing in the JavaScript to make it work for Google Apps.

Here’s the original bookmarklet code that works for gmail:

javascript:popw='';Q='';x=document;y=window;if(x.selection) {Q=x.selection.createRange().text;} else if (y.getSelection) {Q=y.getSelection();} else if (x.getSelection) {Q=x.getSelection();}popw = y.open (' https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=&su=' ,'gmailForm','scrollbars=yes,width=680,height=510,top=175,left=75,
status=no,resizable=yes');if (!document.all) T = setTimeout(' popw.focus()',50);void(0);

To make it work for your Google Apps account, you need to change the URL to whaterver your account URL is and one minor tweak. For example, most likely your Google Apps email URL after you log in is something like “http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/” so you change “https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=&su=” to “https://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/mail/?view=cm&tf=0&to=&su=” - note that you need to add a slash between “mail” and “?” also.

Here’s the modified code:
javascript:popw='';Q='';x=document;y=window;if(x.selection) {Q=x.selection.createRange().text;} else if (y.getSelection) {Q=y.getSelection();} else if (x.getSelection) {Q=x.getSelection();}popw = y.open (' https://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/mail/?view=cm&tf=0&to=&su=' ,'gmailForm','scrollbars=yes,width=680,height=510,top=175,left=75,
status=no,resizable=yes');if (!document.all) T = setTimeout(' popw.focus()',50);void(0);

Just change “yourdomain.com” to whatever you have in your Google Apps email URL, and you should be good to go. Of course, YMMV.

Another potentially easier way, is to just drag this link to your bookmarks bar, and then edit the properties of it and replace “yourdomain.com” with whatever.

Google Spam Error - I think Google Hates Me

Posted on August 8, 2007 in Tech | Leave a Comment

This has happened more days not in the last 2 weeks. All I’m doing is searching things like blogsearch, web search, etc.

Going Camping

Posted on August 6, 2007 in Life | Leave a Comment

I’m heading out camping with some of the guys this weekend, so if anyone wants to come let me know. Probably somewhere close, out in the coast range. Unfortunately, I’ll be missing the Portland bridge pedal which I was totally looking forward to doing again this year.

I can’t wait!

Google-owned YouTube Hosts Duplicate Content

Posted on August 5, 2007 in Tech | Leave a Comment

I’ll leave all the SEO arguing up to other people, but I just noticed this and thought it was kind of ironic that the Google-owned YouTube hosts the same content on multiple URLs

• http://www.youtube.com/debates
• http://www.youtube.com/republicandebate

Clearly these are the same page right now. The Google Guidelines pertaining to duplicate content state:

Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.

Take a look at these search queries:

• http://www.google.com/search?q=republican+debate - YouTube ranks #7
• http://www.google.com/search?q=debate&start=10 - YouTube ranks #17
• http://www.google.com/search?q=presidential+debate - YouTube ranks #6

Do you think this is an intentional quest for higher SERPs, or just an oversight? And if, it’s a quest for traffic, doesn’t this violate Google’s own guidelines?

Anywhere.FM is Awesome! It Lets You Play Your iTunes from Any Computer

Posted on August 2, 2007 in Tech | 2 Comments

I just started playing around with Anywhere.FM and I really like it. The concept is simple - upload your mp3 music files in iTunes (they have a little uploader app) to their service, and then you can play them from an iTunes-like interface in your web browser. Apparently there is no limit to the number of songs you can upload currently.

I don’t know if they also upload AAC files, but if they work with iTunes one would think they do.

Here’s a screenshot - looks kinda similar, doesn’t it?

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