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Wondering why a certain e-mail was dumped into your Gmail spam folder? Google will now clue you in.

As of yesterday, Gmail users can select any message banished to the spam folder and see a "Why is this message in Spam?" notice near the top. The notice will display a brief explanation accompanied by a "Learn more" link to a page describing the many reasons certain messages are considered spam.

A look at the e-mail in my own Gmail spam folder revealed a variety of explanations.

For one e-mail that claimed to be from YouTube but … Read more

Google has added a new setting to your Gmail account, which allows you to revert back to text buttons, instead of the icon-style buttons found in Gmail after the redesign.

To revert from icon buttons back to the familiar text buttons, log in to your Gmail account and navigate to Mail settings (gear icon in top-right corner > Mail settings).

Under the General tab, there will be a new option titled Button labels. Change the setting to Text, then save your changes at the bottom of the page.

Easy-enough change, right? Gmail users should have the setting available for them … Read more

Gmail labels and stars are a great way to organize your e-mail, especially if you keep all your messages, the way Google recommends. Now, you can add those labels and stars to your messages, before you send them.

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When you compose a new Gmail message now, you'll notice the new Labels drop-down menu, next to the Discard button. Before you send your e-mail, select your label or star it, then when you're done composing your message, just hit Send.

When you go to your sent mail now, you'll see that your sent message has been … Read more

Gmail, as long as I can remember, has always displayed a paperclip icon next to the date/time of an e-mail indicating a file is attached to that particular e-mail. While the basic indicator of an attachment is great, it would be nice to have a heads up of what kind of file is attached, especially if you are expecting a specific type of document from someone. With a Chrome extension called Attachment Icons for Gmail, getting alerted to type of file attached is possible.

Visit the Chrome Web Store to install the extension; it's free and … Read more

We are not only the product these days. We are also the product marketers.

Yet some Gmail users have, in recent days, become increasingly upset that Google appears to be using their names in order to sell Google products to non-Gmail users.

A Google forum discussion offers the spontaneous distaste of users who claim that Google has co-opted them as salespersons.

"STOP IT!" reads a post from someone with the handle Mrcheck. "At no point did I say it was ok for google to send email messages to my non-gmail contacts recommending they sign up for gmail.&… Read more

Many of us have our favorite e-mail provider up on our computers all day long. Using keyboard shortcuts, instead of pointing and clicking, can save a couple of seconds per action, leading to improved efficiency.

Gmail If you haven't taken a look at what you can do in Gmail with your keyboard lately, you may want to check it out. Though Gmail keyboard shortcuts have been around a while, new ones have been added periodically, coinciding with enhancements and new features.

See: How to use Gmail with keyboard shortcuts

Yahoo Mail Yahoo's Webmail service hasn't … Read more

Few business resources are as valuable as your list of contacts. It's no wonder companies such as Twitter and iPad app vendor Path are trying to get their hands on their customers' contacts--with or without their express permission.

Contacts are like rabbits: they tend to multiply whenever they get together.

In the past year my Gmail contact list has grown by 50 percent, not to mention the many updates and changes to existing entries. Contact-sync programs promise to keep the information in multiple address books up-to-date, but the programs I've tried create so many duplicate records they'… Read more

Hotmail, like Gmail and Yahoo Mail, supports the use of keyboard shortcuts. The interesting part? You can customize them to mimic the keyboard shortcuts from Gmail or Yahoo Mail.

Hotmail shortcuts Ctrl+N : new e-mail Ctrl+Enter : send e-mail Delete : delete e-mail Ctrl+Shift+O : open e-mail Ctrl+R : reply Ctrl+Shift+R : reply all Ctrl+Shift+F : forward e-mail Ctrl+Q : mark as read Ctrl+U : mark as unread Ctrl+S : save as draft L : flag e-mail Ctrl+Shift+J : mark as junk Esc : close e-mail F7 : check spelling S then A : select all S then N : deselect all … Read more

While e-mail was never intended to be a file storage method, it often ends up being used that way. This design shortfall can lead to some infuriating searches for attachments you know are in your account.

Attachments.me wants to help you solve this frustrating problem. To get started, you need to visit Attachments.me on your computer, and sign in using your Gmail account. You will then be asked to grant the service permission to access your account.

After gaining access to your Gmail account, Attachments.me will index attachments in your Gmail account. Going forward, you can then … Read more