WebRev Blog

No, that's not a typo in the title.  Most of us probably by now know what a "virtual assistant" (or "VA") is.  Basically, it's someone who handles the job duties for a small business that a secretary and/or receptionist would handle for a larger business.  Virtual assistants usually work as freelancers, often from home.  While working conditions may vary, virtual assistants do have one thing in common - they are human.  At least until now.

A team of researchers at Georgia Tech has several ongoing projects including some focused on making social media work for us - using automation.  One that is getting attention today is courteous.ly, which keeps track of how much incoming Gmail you have, and lets people know how long they might expect to wait for a meaningful response from you.  It's similar to those hold messages on inbound call center switchboards which tell you approximately how many minutes you might need to wait for a response.

The project is meant to determine whether letting the people who e-mail you know how busy you are will actually cause them to be more patient with you.

Will it work? Who knows?  People in my experience tend to feel that whatever is on their mind is MUCH more important than what is on anyone else's mind, so it is likely they might just start looking for the e-mail equivalent of hitting the "zero" over and over until you finally skip all of those annoying hold prompts and get a live person on the line.  Or, they might be nicer by e-mail. 

The other concern, of course, is that in order for this to work, you have to give a third party limited access to your Gmail account.  While the service does not have access to the content of your e-mails, it can see how many you have, and what is "normal" for you.  It then, based on your preferences, sends auto-responders to those who send you incoming e-mail. 

In spite of the questions and concerns, however, it's hard not to be impressed with the technology, and notice that these researchers are probably showing us a glimpse of the inevitable.  Increasingly, automated systems are being used to handle the more mundane, repetitive, "tedious" tasks previously handled by humans. Humans are then free to use their creativity for more interesting, productive pursuits. 

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. 
 

One of the biggest problems I have in responding to a couple hundred e-mails per day is that I tend to get in a hurry and make typographical errors.  One tool that can help with that in Gmail is to use the "Canned Responses" lab. This is similar to the mini-macros and auto-fill features you might have used in the past in word-processing programs.  It saves text that you type frequently, and automatically fills it in, to save time, and reduce the chance of errors.

To set these up, sign in to your Gmail, and go to "Settings."  Then click on "Labs," and use the quick search bar to find "Canned Responses."  Hit "enable," and you're set.  Go back to your inbox, and begin either replying to a message or composing a new one.  Once you've typed the content you want to save to re-use for later, be sure to proof-read it a couple of times.  The last thing you want is to send out the same message on a regular basis for the next three years containing the same typo...

Once you're ready, just hit the drop-down arrow next to "Canned Responses (illustration above), and select "New Canned Reponse," and follow the instructions.  The next time you get ready to type that same message, click that same drop-down menu, and click on the name of the canned response to auto-fill your e-mail. 

Now, what are you going to do with all of that extra time in your day?

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. 
 

Brace yourselves, people, and get ready for another round of shock and outrage as a new generation of internet users discovers that free, web-based web service has to be paid for somehow - and that "how" is usually through paid advertising. 

Actually, Google has been using keywords in our Gmail users' e-mails to run ads for a long time.  For example, when I was discussing a friend's European vacation a while back, I started getting ads in German and French, depending on what we were discussing in the e-mails.  Did this freak me out?  Well, not really, because I understand that the ads are automatically generated, and that I have a hard enough time getting the people I'm writing to in my e-mails to read my e-mails.  No one else could endure it.

So Google has been working on that ever-mysterious algorithm of theirs, and is now working on a system to make the ads more relevant to the users, by using software to learn what types of ads the users might actually want to read, click on, and ultimately make a purchase.  Is there a potential for abuse or invasion of privacy in this?  Yes.  There is no fail-proof way to make sure tha electronic communications will NEVER be hacked.  Is it likely that my privacy will actually be breached in a way that will hurt me by this new ad program? No.  Still, if you'd like to turn off the feature once it is rolled out to your account by visiting your settings page.

For more information, see Coming Soon: Better Ads in Gmail.

Jennifer Pointer (e-mail) is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking. 
 

UPDATED: No, seriously.  Where are my e-mails...hundreds of them, on my Gmail account?  Sunday night I noticed that my Google reader on my phone was giving me a strange error about needing to log-in.  When I tried to log in, I got a message saying that my Gmail account had been disabled.  Everything was just gone: my reader, my docs, my e-mail, my pics...everything.

I sent an e-mail to Google, and waited.  I read the terms of service, and nearly drove myself nuts trying to figure out of something about my settings on my laptop or mobile phone had somehow caused this to happen (according to the terms of service, having multiple sign-ins open at once can theoretically trigger a security alert with Google).  This morning, I got up, and read that this had happened to about 150,000+ other people, too.  I also read that there actually is a way to back-up your Gmail account (before it is disabled, of course), which I will do if I ever get my stuff back (see Google Glitch Disables 150,000 Gmail Accounts on Mashable).

On Monday afternnon Google restored my account access, so I can use my reader, docs and pics, but as of Tuesday afternoon, I still don't have access to my e-mail.  I'm getting the notice shown above when I try to sign in.  Hopefully, all of us will have everything back in a day or two. 

Jennifer Pointer is in Tulsa, OK. She promotes a simple, a low-tech approach to effective online profile management, search engine optimization and social networking.