Gmail, Fluid, and all things wonderful…

In the last 3 weeks my life — as far as computer life goes —has gotten very, very nice.  Why, you ask?  There are a few reasons.  Much like the fellas at Carsonified (but before I read that article) I have moved my email servers and began using the power of Fluid.

First off I moved our servers.  We’ve had this domain, noelgreen.com, for many a years… and, therefore, have had our own “@noelgreen.com” email addresses for just as long.  That’s been just great and I’ve been happy using Apple’s Mail.app for all those years.  I had, however, always really wished I could use many of the features that Gmail offered… especially after seeing friends using it more and more recently.  Then, about 3 weeks ago, I learned about Google Apps, an amazing new way that Google is letting you map your domain emails to Gmail.  So, of course, I did it the first chance I got.

So then, being the idealist that I am, I wanted to be able to use my new Gmail interface without having to have a tab constantly open in my browser simply to “hold” Gmail.  So I began searching.  First I found MailPlane… which is a great little app, but it costs $25.  If I could find a free way to do what it did, why not?  I finally happened upon Fluid.  Fluid lets you create “SSB” (site specific browsers).  Basically, it turns any website into a stand alone application.  So, Gmail, Google Calendar, Hulu, even Facebook if you want, can all have their own icon in your dock and can all run as a seperate application you can tab over to.  Your browser can, once again, be for browsing!

These 2 little “changes” in my work structure have made a HUGE difference in my productivity.  Having things out of “the browser” makes me pay less attention to them.  I don’t keep wanting to look at my email because I know that the little badge (yes, Fluid uses badges!) will pop-up when I have one.  I don’t mind closing my browser completely now — which keeps me from surfing aimlessly — because I don’t “NEED” to have it open all day.

Thank you Google and thank you Fluid.  You have truly made my life simpler.