via PCWORLD

Users on Google’s help forum report that the Gmail bug responsible deletes everything, including e-mails, labels, folders, and settings. When affected users log on, they see a welcome message as if they’ve never used Gmail before. Other users simply found their accounts disabled while repairs are being done. According to Mashable, the bug affects less than 0.08 percent of users.

It’s not yet clear whether Google will be able to restore the deleted e-mails. Google hasn’t addressed the issue on the official Gmail blog, and the Google Apps Status Dashboard only acknowledges an ongoing “service disruption.” Eventually, Google will have to explain how this happened and what will become of affected users’ accounts.

For everyone else, the lost e-mails are a reminder of how Web storage isn’t completely immune to failure. If you rely on Gmail to safeguard e-mailed documents and important correspondences, consider backing up your account.

In short: to verify that your Gmail is not spam, voice call is now used. Read on below..

Update 20 Jan 2010: Exactly four days after my Gmail account being temporarily disabled, it’s now active again. A email notice was sent to me this morning:

“We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The issue you described should now be resolved.

If you are still having trouble accessing your account and you still have access to the email address you used to create your account, please reset your password by visiting here. If you aren’t receiving the password-assistance email, please check your inbox for an email from accounts-noreply@google.com.

If you don’t have access to the primary email address on the account or have forgotten the answer to your security question, please fill out the form.”

Well, I can access my Gmail again (fatihsyuhud-at-gmail-com] which used to be my main email for correspondence with many companies and friends. Not now. I have moved to another email, my old one in yahoo. Gmail just gave me a traumatic experience which force me NOT to use it again as my reliable free-email partner.

***
I am shocked this morning when I found out my main Gmail account disabled despite temporarily. Here’s the notice from Gmail when I tried to login into my Gmail account:

Account temporarily disabled
We apologize for the inconvenience. Accounts may be disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service. Learn more

For immediate assistance, enter your mobile phone number below and we’ll send you a text message with a verification code.

I tried to follow the instruction by entering my mobile phone number. Strangely enough, no text message being sent to my cellphone. I repeated the process using the 0062 (contry code) or without 0062. All to no avail.

Update: Voice call is now being used as Gmail verification. It works better than the text one.

What the “perceived violation” is not clear. As far as I am concerned I did nothing wrong with my Gmail. The probability is that (i) my email gets virus which has used my email to automatically send email to multiple email addresses as mentioned here:

In an effort to fight spam and prevent abuse, Google will temporarily disable your account if you send messages to more than 500 recipients or if you send a large number of undeliverable messages. If you use a POP or IMAP client (Microsoft Outlook or Apple Mail, e.g.), you may only send a message to 100 people at a time. Your account should be re-enabled within 24 hours.

If it’s the case, how to keep your Gmail secure in the future? Here’s an advice from Google:

* Update your secondary email address and your security question. This will help you recover your account if you ever lose access to it. Make sure that you have access to the email address listed as your secondary, and the answer to your security question is easy for you to remember, but hard for others to guess.
* Use a secure connection when signing in. In your Gmail settings, select ‘Always use HTTPS.’ This setting protects your information from being stolen when you’re signing in to Gmail on a public wireless network, like at a cafe or hotel.

You should also be sure to:

* Never tell anyone your password; if you do tell someone, change it as soon as possible.
* Use a strong password, and don’t write it down or send it via email.
* Run scans and change your password immediately after noticing any changes in your account that you didn’t initiate.
* Always sign out of your account when you’re using public computers. Just click Sign out at the top right corner of the screen when you’re done using your Google Account.
* Clear forms, passwords, cache, and cookies in your browser on a regular basis, especially on a public computer.

If the first step does not work, i.e. there’s no text message from Gmail to you mobile phone like what I’ve experienced, try the second step by reporting your issue by going to this link .

You can also contact support to restore access to your account without using a phone, click here.

Lessons learnt:

1. Always forward the important data in your Gmail into other email as well, say Yahoomail or self-hosted email if you have any.
2. Keep your main Gmail, the one you use for all important communication, away from public eye. Don’t put it on your website / weblog.
3. Don’t use your main Gmail’s email to join a public mailing list.

Whenever I sign up / register to a free services, we are unintentionally or intentionally be subscribeb by the free service owner to receive a periodical email notification from their companies.

Now Gmail has the feature to easily unsubscribe from them infact from any email you don’t like. Sure, there’s already “Spam” command feature, but this “unsubcribe” feature is even better because there’re times when you don’t want to include a particular company’s email into spam category yet you just don’t like the notification.

Unsubscribing from mailing lists and newsletters you subscribed to a while back but no longer want to receive should be just as easy. Searching through individual messages for little unsubscribe links is too big a pain —you should be able to unsubscribe with a single click.

So we just launched something that makes this all work better, both for Gmail users and big email senders. Now, when you report spam on a legitimate newsletter or mailing list, we’ll help you unsubscribe.

… Clicking “Unsubscribe” will automatically send a request back to the sender so they’ll stop emailing you.

Google on Monday announced a beta version of Google Sync for the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones, software that synchronizes Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar events across the Web, computers, and mobile devices. And Microsoft would like to remind the world that, despite the image that Google cultivates as the workplace of choice for engineering talent, the Silicon Valley search company isn’t the only place where top researchers roam. In a statement, Microsoft said that Google’s new software was made possible by a license from Microsoft.

Read here for more

Today we’re starting to roll out an experimental feature in Gmail Labs that should help fill in those gaps: offline Gmail. So even if you’re offline, you can open your web browser, go to gmail.com, and get to your mail just like you’re used to.

Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears to download a local cache of your mail. As long as you’re connected to the network, that cache is synchronized with Gmail’s servers. When you lose your connection, Gmail automatically switches to offline mode, and uses the data stored on your computer’s hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. You can read messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you’re used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection. And if you’re on an unreliable or slow connection (like when you’re “borrowing” your neighbor’s wireless), you can choose to use “flaky connection mode,” which is somewhere in between: it uses the local cache as if you were disconnected, but still synchronizes your mail with the server in the background. Our goal is to provide nearly the same browser-based Gmail experience whether you’re using the data cached on your computer or talking directly to the server.

Of course, it’s still in beta. And it’s still tried only in US or UK for next days. Be prepared, however, to always look over at your Gmail tab if the facility is already available for you. If it’s the case do the following:

1. Click Settings and click the Labs tab.
2. Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
3. Click Save Changes.
4. After your browser reloads, you’ll see a new “Offline0.1″ link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don’t already have it.

If you receive (or send) a link to a video in a chat message, you’ll see a preview of the video right in your chat window.

Click the preview, and the video will play right there. Just remember to say something every once in a while or your friends will probably catch on that you’re enjoying the dramatic chipmunk more than their conversation…

No more copying and pasting the text from your email — just open the message you wish to convert, click the “Create a document” link on the right side of the page, and voila, you have a brand new document which you can then modify and share!

Google should do this to all its services: integrating one another in a single click. Otherwise, the various services will go wasted. I expect to see blogger.com being integrated with other google just acquired services to solidify blogger.com vis a vis its main rival wordpress.com

Gmail now lets you view PDF attachments right in the browser if you prefer not to download the file to your computer.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education and Partner Editions

Languages included:
US English

How to access what’s new:
When you receive a PDF attachment, just click the ‘View’ link to the left of the ‘Download’ option.

For more information

…starting today you can turn on text messaging for chat. Just click on Settings, and go to the Labs tab. Scroll down until you see “Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat” and select Enable and Save Changes.

We’re just trying it out for cell phones in the United States right now, but you can send texts to your friends with US phone numbers from anywhere in the world. You can start by just typing a phone number into the search box in the chat window on the left, then select “Send SMS.” You can also select the contact you want to SMS first and then add their phone number.