One thing that plagues many people about Gmail is the interface. Many people don't care for the default interface and try to find ways to improve it, such as through Firefox addons. One of the best ways to spruce up your Gmail experience is by visiting the website, Userstyles.org. Upon installing the Firefox addon, Stylish, you can then use the styles that are contained on the website.

Globex Designs has created a brand new Gmail interface that can be used with the Stylish Firefox addon. So what does the style look like? Check it out!

This is a huge improvement over the default interface.

Another thing that makes Gmail so popular is the sheer amount of space it offers, with the amount being upped daily. So why not take advantage of this space? With GSpace, you can. GSpace is another firefox extension which uploads files to your Gmail account for safekeeping. Any file extension that gmail allows and is within the upload limit can be stored within. This makes online file storage virtually obsolete except for larger files. GSpace organizes the emails by the file name, and you can optionally label the emails for quick referencing. It's like having an online file cabinet that goes anywhere, for free.

1. Don't shout

   Typing with ALL CAPS in e-mail is the electronic equivalent of shouting and is considered bad manners.

2. Be brief

   Keep your e-mail as brief as possible. Your message will be clear-and more welcome-if you say what you mean in the fewest possible words. Lengthy messages that flow through screen after screen are less likely to be read by busy people.

3. Write clear headlines

   The subject line of an e-mail form is intended to let the recipient know at a glance what the e-mail is about. Subject lines such as “a question” or “hi” are unhelpful and can be downright annoying to those who prefer to sort and prioritize e-mails before opening them. A descriptive subject line is a big help to the reader.

4. Cool off

   Never give in to the temptation to fire off an angry or sarcastic message. A tap of the “send” button makes this easy to do, but making amends afterward may be more difficult. Use your “save draft” file to hold messages until you are calm enough to reread before sending.

5. Forward selectively

   A joke that's new and hilarious to you might not be to someone who's already seen it or to someone who's so busy that extra e-mail is a nuisance. Don't get in the habit of routinely forwarding jokes and various other e-mails to everyone on your address list; send them only to those you're certain will appreciate receiving them.

6. Reply sparingly

   Not every e-mail requires a reply and some need only a word or two. If you want to let the sender know you received something, a brief “Got it, thanks” is perfectly fine.

7. Use good judgment

   If you're writing messages at work, be careful. Company e-mail can be retrieved and read and should not be considered private.

1. Personal Diary

   Dear diary... you can set up filters and a new Gmail account so you can keep a record of your day-to-day activites. Create a new account and set up a filter so emails coming to that email address will be labelled "Diary" or "Journal" etc. and go straight to the archives. You'll be surprised at how quickly those emails can build up!

2. A Baby Book

   Rafe Needleman of the site Webware posted his "parent hack" - he sends important details of his child's development to a dedicated Gmail account. He sets up a filter so it goes directly to the archives. He also forwards email from that account to another PC-based email account, which is backed up using Carbonite, making the chances of losing his precious baby's memories almost zilch.

3. A Virtual Drive

   Backup, portability... whatever: you can use Gmail as a virtual drive using Gmail Drive. Because there's such a ridiculous amount of storage on Gmail, why not put this to better use by storing your files on it? Gmail Drive integrates into your computer (meaning that you can save onto it the same way you save into My Documents, etc.), so it's easy to use.

4. Email Blacklists

   Receiving too much spam from one email address? Is a company sending you too many "newsletters"? Is a friend bombarding you with chain letters? You can add all of these email addresses to your blacklist by setting up a filter sending all of their emails that you receive straight to the spam folder or trash - it's up to you. If you're a steadfast user of another mail program, try using Gmail as your "watchguard". It has a better spam filter than other web-based emails and you can also filter out any unwanted email using Gmail's filtering feature.

1. E-mails that tell you to say a short prayer and then pass on the mail to X number of people. “Do not break the chain. This has been going around the world for a hundred years.”, it says. Come on! I've probably received this kind of mail about fifty times in my entire four-year work experience. They must have been serious about the “going around the world”-thing! If not, then how come these mails always find me?!
2. E-mails that say, “Look at the picture for sixty seconds, pass it on to fifty people, and tada! You'll get promoted or have a chance to work in a more progressive country!” Does anyone really buy this kind of stuff? I mean, yeah, at one point, I did try staring at it for a minute, maybe even more than that, and passed it on to a number of friends, but I did not get promoted at 11:59 am the following day like it said so! Aaaargh!
3. Chain mails. I'm sure you've gotten one. The mail that says “Mr. Famous Personality got his letter and ignored it and he lost his job and his wife.” Or “Mr. Nobody resent the mail to twenty of his friends and he won a million dollars in a lottery the following day!” Again, come on! What if I got busy and wasn't able to pass on the mail twenty-four hours after I've opened it? Will I really lose my job, too? Sigh.
4. Warning mails. “Do not use public toilets. There are poisonous spiders hiding in the toilet waiting for your cute butt so it can bite you and then you're dead the next day.” Are they really serious? What if I badly need to pee? I do have a social life, honey. I'm not at home every minute of the day. It only follows that, as much as I would like to listen to you, I need to use the public toilet.
5. Mails that are supposed to be generating donations for a worthy cause. I'm not sure about this one. I do get lots of this and admittedly forward it to as many friends as possible just in case Yahoo really would donate a centavo for every mail I send. But, is this really serious? Can anybody tell me if this really works? Coz if it does, I'll just go on with the forwarding, and if not, I can go back to doing my job.
6. Magic mails. These are the e-mails that say, “Read and scroll down and say a wish. Once you've passed it on to an x number of people (again!), the phone will ring and your crush will tell you he likes you!” Uhm, does reading the mail, scrolling down and forwarding it makes me a Prom Queen after 25 minutes? (the number of minutes still depend on your age, by the way!)

Yes, I know that when you send me an e-mail telling me not to drink Coke because it can clean the toilet bowl in minutes, you were just being concerned. I get that. I also happen to know that whenever you send me forward-or-else-lose-your-job-mails, you were just protecting your own interests. But can you do me a favor? Next time, try to ignore these mails. Think about this: If all of us would stop entertaining these kind of mails and supporting it by means of forwarding it to our friends, maybe these same mails would stop “going-around-the-world-for-a-hundred-years”.

Can't do it? Then please, delete me from your mailing list.

So, here's the solution towards this problem. When an online registration requires you to include your email address simply gives them a temporary email address. What is temporary email address anyway and where to get them I hear you ask? Disposable email service is free and requires no registration and it will effectively stop spam from reaching your primary email account.

If you never heard of them, there are 2 things you need to know and you always need to keep in mind. First off, by using this service, anyone can get access to the email address you created as long as they are using the same username as yours. Only a few of them require you to have a password. So you need to be a little bit creative such that the username you created will not be easily replicated or guessed by other people. Lastly never use this service for your personal or sensitive business because nobody can tell for sure who is running this service. Chances of your information being stolen are quite high.

Anyway, here's the list of the websites that provide disposable email services; so I hope it can be of great help to you in fighting spam in your emails.

1. 1. MailMoat

   MailMoat.com is built around the idea of an endless supply of disposable (and self-destructing!) e-mail addresses that you can give to anyone you don't trust. E-mails they send to the alias that you gave them are automatically forwarded to your existing e-mail account (no need to separately check a dozen e-mail accounts if you give out a dozen aliases!). Each alias automatically dies after a date or number of forwarded messages that you set, or you can kill it at will. Live or dead, the alias is not traceable to either you or your real e-mail address.

2. Sneak Mail

   It gives you the power over your inbox from commercial forces, and catch them spamming.

3. Guerrilla Mail

   This website provides you with disposable e-mail addresses which expire after 15 Minutes. You can read and reply to e-mails that are sent to the temporary e-mail address within the given time frame.

4. Temporary Inbox

   A temporary inbox is a disposable email address, which doesn't require registration and can be used to avoid spam. Use this email address in forums, lotteries, erotic sites or wherever. The spammers will never find out your private email address.

5. Block Filter

   Use this temporary e-mail address to sign-up to websites that requires e-mail verification and its perfect for forums, e-book sale pages, or email required download pages. But bear in mind, they delete the e-mails every 2 hours!

6. Mailnator

   Mailinator is a disposable email service for people who want to protect their online identity. It is a tool that allows users to create an on-the-spot email identity that provides anonymity and fights web inertia in one easy step.

7. 10 Minute Mail

   Any e-mails sent to that address will show up automatically on the web page. You can read them, click on links, and even reply to them. The e-mail address will expire after 10 minutes.

8. Fake Mail Generator

   The Fake Mail Generator is an absolutely free disposable email system. By simply visiting this site the above address has already been saved to your clipboard. Paste (Ctrl-V) it into any form on a website that requires email verification, and when the email is received it will pop up instantly in this box.

9. Spam Gourmet

   There is nothing to install on your computer, and once you're set up, it's likely you won't ever have to come back here. This is what makes it one of the most convenient and effective anti-spam tools available.

10. My Trash Mail

    No registration or password needed. Your account is created on the fly. Your email is stored between 12 hours to 30 days in its server.

What's netiquette, you ask?

Netiquette is the unofficial rules defining proper behavior on the internet--whether sending mail, posting in online communities and message boards, or chatting. For the purpose of this blog, we'll tackle the basics of email etiquette.

TYPING IN ALL CAPS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING

Most people don't appreciate being shouted at. Always use lower case unless you're trying to show emphasis.

Forwards

If you must pass on the sappy friendship poem, money angel, or political agenda of your favorite politician, be sure your recipient is like minded. Few things are more annoying than being on the receiving end of an endless stream of stuff you're not interested in. In the last presidential election, it nearly got the front yard of one of my die-hard Democrat friends decorated like a GOP convention.

Forwarding Responsibly

Hate spam mail? So do all your family and friends. But if you forward emails with their names and addresses in the to: box, you've just set them up to be harvested by spammers. Take a peek at the latest joke that landed in your inbox. See all those email addresses? Spammers pay money to get lists of valid addresses like that. Use BCC (blind carbon copy) if you forward.

No One is Tracking How Many Times You Send it On

Bill Palmer isn't giving away $50 gift certificates from Applebee's if you pass on his email. There are sick children in the world, but the American Cancer Society isn't donating three cents per forward to pay their medical bills. And no matter how convincing it sounds that mutant midgets with bad teeth are going to skin your favorite pooch if you don't forward 10 copies of a chain mail within three minutes of its receipt, it's not happening.

If it Sounds Legit, visit Snopes.com Anyway

Many official and intelligent sounding messages get forwarded every day that have absolutely no truth to them--particularly in the form of health information or warnings. Snopes is the resource for refuting hoaxes, myths and rumors. Make sure the information you're passing on is legit. Don't be a part of the problem.

If You've Seen it Before, Everyone Else Has Seen it Too.
Probably more than once. I still get forwards I thought were hilarious the first time I saw them--nearly ten years ago. Just say no to passing it on.

Next- Part II: Be A Good Citizen in Your Online Community

As it already has been pointed out there isn't any silver bullet solution to stopping all of the spam that we receive, but there are ways to stopping most of it. Depending how bad a person wants to put an end to the problem these websites will help solve at least most of the problems that spammers inundate us with. Read on and use the tools provided here in this article and start living nearly a spam-free life, now.

1. Spaml

Using a disposal email address when filling out membership forms to your favorite website or forum will allow you to keep your real email address both personal and private from prying eyes. This is a fantastic and easy to use disposable email address proxy that generates its users a temporary email address, so to receive confirmation emails without having to give out your real email address to total strangers. This is not the type of email address that spammers want to bother with, because they are only good for one-time and then afterwards are disposed of.

2. Audit My PC

This website offers webmasters and businesses a free anti-spammers solution that will turn the spammers' world upside-down and inside out in just one-click of the mouse. Spammers often use Spam-Bots to search the web for email addresses to add to their databases, so to send out more spam. The Audit My Pc solution feeds these Spam-bots with fake email addresses that will make the spammers' email lists worthless and cause the spammers to have to clean out their databases and start over from the beginning.

3. Anti-spam Techniques

Wikipedia offers a wide range of subjects and topics on just about anything that a person can imagine or would be interested in. This is an excellent article about anti-spam techniques that the average person could use to start stopping spam. The more that a person understands about spam and how spammers work, then the better chance they have turning the tables on the spammers that consistently make the Internet experience a living hell.

4. Arachnoid

Since learning as much as possible about how spammers work and how they collect our email addresses this website offers an impressive look inside the world of spamming. It offers additional solutions to prevent and protect your computer from spammers.

5. SpamCop.net

If you could report unsolicited email to an organization, so to stop spammers from sending you anymore-unwanted email, would you use it? SpamCop is an organization that allows private Internet citizens to report unsolicited email (spam) to and they will do the rest for you. This is a great little Internet tool that will surely cause some headaches for those anonymous spammers bugging us on a daily basis.

6. ASSP

ASSP has developed a nifty piece of anti-spam software that is easy to install, use and is free to use for personal use. It works with the SMTP server and stops spam in its tracks, before it can be dropped into your email inbox. There are so many features regarding this anti-spam software that this brief description just doesn't do it any justice. Visit the website and read the benefits for yourself and you'll agree with this statement.

7. MyTrashMail.com

Here is another Internet tool that webmasters and bloggers can use to protect your computers from spammers. This website provides users with a little piece of code that can be cut and paste to any web page and when spam-bots invade your personal space they are comforted with hundreds of fake email addresses that they carry back to the spammers' spam email database, thus rendering the spammers' email list worthless.

8. BlackMail

According to BlackMail their Free Anti-Spam Software is “a highly configurable SMTP mail filter that runs at a system level as a proxy to your existing mailer.” The computer program selectively rejects bogus or spam email during receipt and will block unwanted mail relaying, if your mailer is unable to do so on its own. This is an outstanding spam filter that checks against spam sites, spam keywords, RBL (Real-time Blackhole List) and much, much more.

9. MailWasher

MailWasher is an excellent email receiving and filtering program that allows its users to check and manage emails before downloading them into their computer. The email received will be stored on the Internet instead of being delivered directly into your computer hard drive. Users can choose to block, bounce, black list or receive the email that they receive with this easy to use anti-spam Internet tool. I have been using this program for years and I can personally testify that this is an excellent email and anti-spam tool to use. It is Free and fun to use.

10. Grisoft Free AVG Anti-Spam Software

Grisoft, the makers of AVG anti-virus and AVG Anti-Rootkit Free has done it again by developing probably one of the finest anti-spyware programs called AVG Anti-Spyware Free Edition 7.5. This computer program scans your hard drive for spyware, malware and eliminates most spam instantly. This software is completely free to download and use for personal use only. I use it daily and it is honestly the best program of its kind that I have found, tested and used.

11. Virtu-Software “Spam”

Spam is not only a headache to receive and dispose of at times, but much of these unwanted, unsolicited emails contain promises of fortune, fake PayPal and eBay notices and other types of Spam scams that cost the world billions of dollars in losses every year. This website offers its visitors an opportunity to avoid becoming the next Spam Scam victim and gives its users the tools to spot and avoid the spammers' scam traps that they have set for the unsuspecting Internet user.

The more knowledgeable that the average Internet user becomes, then the less opportunity that the spammers will have to sending out their bulk spam to the world. While there isn't any foolproof way of stopping all spam at least there are tools and a wealth of information available on the web to save us time and money that these spammers are costing our businesses and personal incomes.

Today. Right now! We can take the power back from those spammers that have been consistently causing us to curse every time we open our email Inbox, just to be comforted with every sort of spam possible. The power is yours, so use it wisely.

Here are my top 10 favorite spam subject lines from today's email that almost drove me into buying some of those hard blue pills. Who would have thought some of the cleverest metaphors would have come from Spam emails?

1. Tiny dicks need medical treatment!
2. Your baby-maker needs to be bigger in order to perform its functions well!
3. Enormous monster phallus is every woman's dream!
4. All that really matters for a hot woman, is the size of your dick!
5. How to feed your trouser snake to boost its growth?
6. Turn your wee wee into real monster!
7. Cutest girls will go horny and wild when you pull out your new big python!
8. Bigger penis won't be on TV but in your shorts!
9. Beat her womb with your new big rod, so that she knew who wears the pants!
10. If your warrior of love is too small, you may lose this war.

Well, there is a lot of incentive there to purchase, but how do I know they are really going to work? According to the best of these emails:

"I like how swiftly this product affected my boyfriend, he can not stop babbling about how excited he is having his new girth, length, and libido!"

That's proof enough for me! Now where's the fake credit card that I bought online...

Things you'll need:

Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client, found here

About 5-10 minutes of your time to set up your e-mail account

If you have a Yahoo! e-mail address and no upgraded service, the Yahoo! Widgets program, found here

AOL Standard (@aol.com, @aim.com, or @netscape.net)

After installing Thunderbird, launch it. It should ask you to set up an e-mail account. Make sure e-mail account is selected and click next. Enter your name and e-mail address and click next. Select IMAP at the top of the page. In the incoming server box, type imap.aim.com (for @aim.com or @netscape.net e-mail addresses) or imap.aol.com (for @aol.com e-mail addresses). In the outgoing server box, type smtp.aim.com (for @aim.com or @netscape.net e-mail addresses) or smtp.aol.com (for @aol.com e-mail addresses). Click next.

From your e-mail address that you typed in earlier, the program will obtain your username, but make sure it is correct before clicking next on this page. Choose your account name; it can be anything. Click next again, and then check to make sure everything is correct before clicking finish.

Unfortunately, the AOL and AIM services require advanced settings, so we're not done yet. Attempting to access your account before this advanced section is complete usually gets you a message from the server stating that you need to use ESMTP, EHLO, and AUTH. On the bar right above the toolbar, click Tools and then Account Settings. To the left, under the account name of the account you created, click Server Settings. To the right, under Security Settings, click “Use secure authentication.” Then, back on the left, go to Outgoing Server (SMTP) and, on the right, click Edit.

A new window should come up; under Security and Authentication in this window, check off User Name and Password and then type in your user name. Make sure “No” is selected under Secure Connection. Finally, click Ok in both windows that were open, and attempt to synchronize your mail. It will ask you for your password at first, but then your mail will be there.

AOL's My eAddress

Follow instructions from the section above, using imap.aol.com, but your user name in all cases is your whole e-mail address. For example, if your e-mail address is Joe@myemails.com, the whole thing is your user name.

Google's G-Mail (@gmail.com)

After installing Thunderbird, launch it. It should ask you to set up an e-mail account. Make sure e-mail account is selected and click next. Enter your name and e-mail address and click next. Select POP at the top of the page, and input pop.gmail.com in the Incoming Server box. For the outgoing server, type smtp.gmail.com in the Outgoing Server box. Click next. From your e-mail address that you typed in earlier, the program will obtain your username, but make sure it is correct before clicking next on this page.

Choose your account name; it can be anything. Click next again, and then check to make sure everything is correct before clicking finish.

Attempt to synchronize your mail, and it will ask you for your password. Type it in and click ok. You will receive all of your mail from that e-mail account.

Yahoo! Upgraded Service (@yahoo.com)

This is only for those who pay to get an enhanced Yahoo! mailbox. See instructions below for regular (free) e-mail accounts.

After installing Thunderbird, launch it. It should ask you to set up an e-mail account. Make sure e-mail account is selected and click next. Enter your name and e-mail address and click next. Select POP at the top of the page, and input pop.mail.yahoo.com in the Incoming Server box. For the outgoing server, type smtp.mail.yahoo.com. Click next. From your e-mail address that you typed in earlier, the program will obtain your username, but make sure it is correct before clicking next on this page. Choose your account name; it can be anything. Click next again, and then check to make sure everything is correct before clicking finish.

There's more to be done. On the bar right above the toolbar, click Tools and then Account Settings. To the left, under the account name of the account you created, click Server Settings. To the right, under Security Settings, click “Use secure authentication” and select SSL under the Use Secure Connection setting. Also, change the port setting above the security settings box to 995. Then, back on the left, go to Outgoing Server (SMTP) and, on the right, click Edit.

A new window should come up; under Security and Authentication in this window, check off User Name and Password and then type in your username. Make sure “SSL” is selected under Secure Connection, and then change the port number in the Settings box to 465. Click ok in both windows. Attempt to synchronize your mail, and it will ask you for your password. Type it in and click ok. You will receive all of your mail from that e-mail account.

Yahoo! Standard Mail (@yahoo.com)

This process will not get your mail in Thunderbird, because Yahoo! standard mail cannot be accessed unless you login to the webmail server at yahoo.com. So, instead, I can save you the trip to the Yahoo! page to see if you have mail by using Yahoo! Widgets.

Install Yahoo! Widgets, and then right click the Widgets icon in the taskbar (it looks like two small gears on a small black background) and select Open Dock. On the right side of your screen, a small black tab should appear; hover your mouse over it to open it up, and then click the plus sign in the upper right hand corner (it should be about the height of your screen after pressing the plus button).

Find the Yahoo! Mail Checker by using the arrows at the bottom of the screen to scroll through the widgets, and then click on it to make it appear on your desktop. Enter your Yahoo! username and password, and it will show you how many new messages you have waiting. Clicking on the number of unread messages opens up your web browser and takes you directly to Yahoo! Mail.

MSN (@msn.com or @hotmail.com)

Sorry, but only the paid Microsoft Live Hotmail subscribers can get their mail from their desktop. Even worse, there is no Yahoo! Widget or Windows Sidebar Gadget to do this job for you. Finally, only Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Mail can display these messages. But several Yahoo! Widgets are available that will tell you about new messages. Search the (located at Yahoo! Widgets) website to find one you like, because there are several.