BlogmyQuery – BMQ

There’s no doubt that eBook devices such as the Kindle and the Nook have changed how people read books forever. At the start of 2011 Amazon reported that for the first time eBook sales exceeded paperbacks. It’s doubtful this trend will ever be reversed.

Though with E ink devices, image heavy books tend to not work well (anyone who has tried viewing a PDF on an eBook will testify to this). This may change in 2012 with the rise of tablet devices, but for now printed books are still in demand. For instance, many web workers prefer to read web design and development books in printed form.

In this article we will look at 25 printed web design and development books that we think you will find useful. Many of these books are also available in digital form and the prices of which have been denoted where applicable.

Design

1. Adaptive Web Design: Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive Enhancement
Print: $22

One of the most popular books available on Progressive Enhancement. It focuses on progressive enhancement with markup, CSS, javascript and accessibility.

2. Mobile First & Responsive Web Design Bundle
Print: $30, Ebook: $15, Print/Ebook Bundle: $38

A good bundle from A Book Apart. Luke Wroblewski’s Mobile First provides a strategic guide to mobile design whilst Ethan Marcotte’s Responsive Web Design focuses on designing for mobile browsers, netbooks and tablets.

3. The Smashing Books Bundle
Print: $49.80 , Ebook: $24.90, Print/Ebook Bundle: $69.70

Smashing Magazine have produced a beautiful series of books on web design. Smashing Book #3 is available for pre-order now, and set for release at the end of April 2012. So at the moment the best deal is the Smashing Books Bundle which contains Smashing Book #1 and #2.

The first book focuses on usability, color theory and main rules for web design, whilst the second book provides more practical advice and tips on building mobile apps and e-commerce websites.

4. Photography For The Web
Print: $34.95, Ebook: $29.95, Print/Ebook Bundle: $39.90

A digital photography book that teaches you how to take photographs specifically for the internet. It covers using light effectively, displaying and sharing your photos online, software tips to help enhance your images, and much more.

5. The Adobe Photoshop Layers Book
Print: $26.23

A whole book that is dedicated to understanding Photoshop layers. Masking, isolation, layer effects, styles and composite images are all covered in this useful book.

6. Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Print: $22.22

With over 100,000 copies sold, Steve Krugs ‘Don’t Make Me Think’ is one of the most popular and entertaining books on web usability. Covers designing billboards, navigation, usability testing and much more.

7. The Web Designer’s Idea Book, Vol. 2
Print: $19.80

One of the most inspirational web design books available. Patrick McNeil looks at the basic principles of design and showcases over 650 websites. Sites are divided by type (e.g. ecommerce, directory etc), style (minimal, illustrated etc) and by structural elements (buttons, tabs etc).

8. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People
Print: $17.99

A book that looks at the psychology of design. Author Susan Weinschenk helps you see design from a non-designers point of view and looks into what people see, think and read. It also looks at how people focus their attention and are motivated.

9. The Little Black Book of Design
Print: $9.99

The design field’s ‘Art of War’, The Little Black Book of Design has inspired thousands of designers with short useful tips such as ‘Always ask why’ and ‘You built it, so natrually you understand it. Will the user?’.

Coding

10. Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites
Print: $23.99

A great book for those who want to learn how to create database driven websites using PHP, MySQL and JavaScript. Perfect for those who want to know more about the backend.

11. Effortless E-Commerce with PHP and MySQL
Print: $23.09

Another PHP and MySQL book though this one focuses specifically on ecommerce. It covers structure and design, security, user accounts, creating a catalog, the checkout and administration.

12. Murach’s PHP and MySQL
Print: $34.34

With 24 chapters spanned over a whopping 840 pages, Joel Murachs book is a great book for beginners and advanced developers alike. A good choice for anyone looking for a PHP/MySQL reference.

13. JavaScript & Jquery: The Missing Manual
Print: $23.99

Features an introduction to Javascript, Ajax and jQuery and includes lots of examples of how these languages can be used online to build forms and connect to services such as Google Maps.

14. PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy
Print: $26.99

A good introduction to PHP and the MySQL databases. PHP Solutions features a lot of practical examples of using PHP such as generating images, creating online galleries and managing databases.

CSS & HTML

15. The CSS3 Anthology
Print: $39, Ebook: $17 , Print/Ebook Bundle: $34 (Promotion)

A great CSS resource that addresses common problems of text styling, navigation, cross browser techniques and more. The CSS3 Anthology is uniquely set up in a question and answer format to make it easy to find solutions to common CSS problems.

16. HTML5 & CSS3 For Web Designers Bundle
Print: $30, Ebook: $15 , Print/Ebook Bundle: $38

Another good combo from A Book Apart. Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 for Web Designers summarises the 900 page HTML5 spec into a more concise 85 pages. Dan Cederholm’s CSS3 for Web Designers explains gradients, shadows, rounded corners and other CSS3 goodies.

17. CSS Pocket Reference
Print: $8.86

Whilst CSS is easy to understand, it’s very easy to forget the vast number of CSS selectors and properties available. The CSS Pocket Reference is a useful companion for any designer who wants a quick answer to a problem.

18. Sergey’s HTML5 & CSS3: Quick Reference
Print: $46.14

Another good reference book that covers HTML5 and CSS3 topics such as HTML5 Elements, Web 2.0 Forms, HTML5 APIs, browser compatibility and more.

19. Introducing HTML5
Print: $20.99

Introducing HTML5 gives a good introduction to the possibilities of HTML5. Lots of practical examples are given such as applying the most important JavaScript APIs, how to build web forms, and more.

Drupal

20. Drupal User’s Guide: Building and Administering a Successful Drupal-Powered Web Site
Print: $23.17

Drupal developer Emma Jane Hogbin provides a step by step guide of how to use the Drupal content management system in this comprehensive user guide. It covers basic Drupal functions up to advanced topics such as designed for Drupal, accessibility and search engine optimisation.

WordPress

21. Professional WordPress Plugin Development
Print: $24.44

A practical approach to learning how to develop WordPress plugins. The book walks you through how to create a plugin file, using hooks, and much more. Code examples are given to help you understand what you need to do.

22. Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog
Print: $24.34

A great book from Thord Daniel Hedengren that helps you understand code concepts such as post types, child themes, the functions.php file and much more.

23. Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes
Print: $39.95, Ebook: $29.95 , Print/Ebook Bundle: $49.90

Written by 4 experienced WordPress theme developers, Build Your Own Wicked WordPress Themes shows you how you can build, promote and sell professional designs using the Thematic framework.

24. The WordPress Anthology
Print: $39.95, Ebook: $29.95 , Print/Ebook Bundle: $44.95

A good WordPress guide for beginner to intermediate users. The WordPress Anthology covers subjects such as the WP loop, post type, taxonomies and the WordPress API.

25. Digging Into WordPress
Print/Ebook Bundle: $75, Ebook: $27

Arguably the best WordPress reference available, Digging Into WordPress has over 400 pages of content. It’s how the WordPress codex should have been written!

With all the great web design and development books out there it’s difficult to get them all into this list. So leave a comment if your favourite design or development book was left out and tell us why it’s your fav.

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Tubmlr has gained a lot of fans over the last 5 years, and with good reason. Whereas many blogging platforms are striving to add more and more features to their platform, Tumblr has stayed true to its microblogging roots by keeping things simple. This has resulted in one of the most user friendly interfaces available online.

And though it may be simple, it still has some great features. There are a wide range of post formats to choose from and you can automatically update your Tumblr page with your latest entries from Facebook and Twitter.

The Tumblr design can be changed in seconds through your Tumblr dashboard. There are over 1,200 free and premium themes currently available in the Tumblr Theme Garden. Today we would like to share with you 30 great designs from the ranks. You can install any of these themes easily through the customise section of Tubmlr. Enjoy!

The Themes

1. Vacant
FREE

A cool design that features a large content area for displaying images. Large fonts are used and the bottom of each post has been designed to look like a torn piece of paper.

Info & Download | Demo

2. Showroom
FREE

Showroom gives the impression of notes being pinned on a wooden wall. The right hand side of the page has a sidebar with a great looking ‘about me’ widget displayed at the top.

Info & Download | Demo

3. go CRAZY!!
FREE

A colourful minimal theme that uses green, pink and blue fonts throughout the design. Each icon is also a different colour.

Info & Download | Demo

4. Royal Ribbon
FREE

An elegant theme that has great typography and beautiful post icons. With only one content column, there is no space for any widgets or additional information, just the title and description at the top of the page. This minimal approach should appeal to quite a few users.

Info & Download | Demo

5. Griddlr Theme
FREE

A unique design that packs content into 3 columns. The top navigation area remains fixed as the user scrolls down the page. Clicking on the information link underneath the navigation area will bring down a menu with your profile details, a search bar and a list of the latest posts.

Info & Download | Demo

6. Hobo
FREE

An interesting design from British designer Mike Ballan. Your profile info and various links are displayed in a fixed left hand colummn. The main content area is split into 3 sections

Info & Download | Demo

7. Pink touch 2
FREE

A conversion of the popular WordPress theme of the same name, Pink Touch 2 is an elegant one column design with beautiful typography. A search bar is placed in the header with navigation links in the footer.

Info & Download | Demo

8. Color Shades
FREE

A multi colour one column theme that alternates the colour scheme in every post. There are around a dozen colour schemes to choose from via the colour picker.

Info & Download | Demo

9. Postage
FREE

A mail themed design with a traditional 2 column blog layout. Profiles are posted in the sidebar with rss, random and archive icon links all contained in the footer.

Info & Download | Demo

10. Panda Classics Recycled
FREE

A great looking one column design with beautiful typography. Posts are divided using colourful banners and the one column design makes it great for showcasing images.

Info & Download | Demo

11. Solaris
$9

A premium one column design that has a cool navigation menu at the top of the page. To the right hand side of each post are the post icons and tags with the date the post was published on the left.

Info & Download | Demo

12. Savory
$49

One of the most feature rich Tumblr themes available. You could be forgiven for thinking that Savory was designed for WordPress or Drupal due its design and typography (powered by Typekit). Links to your Tubmlr RSS feed and archives are displayed at the top of the page with other content and navigation links being displayed in the sidebar. Social media sharing buttons have been integrated into the post area and it has support for Disqus too.

Info & Download | Demo

13. Beckett
FREE

A clean minimal design that has a simple navigation menu at the top and sidebar at the right hand side. The large fonts make reading a pleasure.

Info & Download | Demo

14. Juuvy
$49

A fashionable design that comes with over 70 appearance options. The sidebar is on the left hand side though the content area can be divided using shortcodes. Posts can be 220 px, 500px or 780 px wide. This allows you to show 1, 2 or 3 posts in the main content area.

Info & Download | Demo

15. Julia
FREE

Large fonts and big bright colours are used throughout this large one column design to really set it off.

Info & Download | Demo

More Waiting for You on Page Two

You are well on your way, with half of the themes now behind you! However, don’t stop just yet, as the rest of this beautiful collection of resources is still waiting for you on page two.

Photoshop has been the darling of the design industry for decades. It’s a fantastic program that has led the way since the release of Photoshop 1 on the Mac way back in 1990.

However, not everyone can, or wants to, pay the $699 that Photoshop costs. Thankfully there are a lot of free Photoshop alternatives available for photo editing. Some of these are very basic and are suitable more for only basic photo editing, whilst others are feature rich applications that give Photoshop a run for its money.

Today we would like to show you some of the best free photo applications that are available online.

The Free Alternatives

1. GIMP
Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, AmigaOS

The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a great application that was created for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. Written on Unix, GIMP is arguably the most popular alternative for Photoshop available today.

2. Gimphoto
Windows, Linux

Gimphoto is a modification of the GIMP graphics program that aims to present a more user friendly interface. The layouts are more similar to Photoshop, making Gimphoto a popular choice for those who are switching from it. It’s currently only available for Linux and Windows though a Mac version is available.

Another GIMP modification that aims to make things easier for former Photoshop users is GIMPshop. Unfortunately, someone hijacked the GIMPshop domain, resulting in a dispute between the original developer and the hacker who was profiting from hijacking the domain. This is one of the main reasons the application is no longer developed.

3. PhotoPos Pro
Windows

PhotoPos Pro is a rich photo editor that has support for most picture file types and support for digital scanners. It also features image enhancement, text tools, layers, masks and special effects.

The pro version of the script used to retail for $59.90 (with a lite version available for free) but it has since been released as Freeware (apparently due to thousands of requests).

4. Photoshop Express
Online Service

Can’t afford the high price of Photoshop? You may be pleased to know that Adobe offers a free basic version of the script online. The editor allows you to edit your photos online with ease. You can resize, crop and rotate, reduce red-eye and saturation, adjust white balance, fill light and much more. You can also apply effects to photos such as pixelate, tint and crystalize.

Photoshop Express is a great choice for basic photo editing and quick touch ups.

5. Artweaver Free
Windows

Artweaver Free is a limited version of the artistic application Artweaver Plus (€29). The free version has common editing tools such as gradient and crop, support for PSD files, arrangeable palettes plus image and effect filters.

6. Splashup
Online Service

Formally known as Fauxto, Splashup is a free online photo editing tool and manager that has support for layers, filters, brushes, text editing, blend modes and much more. You can import photos from your desktop and from a range of services such as Facebook, Flickr and Picasa.

Multiple photos can be edited at the same time and there is a lite version for mobile PCs available too.

7. Aviary
Online Service

A cool online photo editor that lets you edit photos easily. You can crop and rotate images and apply lots of cool effects such as sharpen, blemish, red eye, contrast, blue and much more.

There are advanced tools available too (also free) for dedicated editing such as an image editor, vector editor, effects editor, image markup, music creator, audio editor and screen capture.

8. Inkscape
Windows, Mac, Linux

A vector graphics editor which boasts that it has similar capabilities to Illustrator, CorelDraw and Xara X. It saves files in the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. It should be considered as a compliment rather than an alternative to raster graphic editors such as Photoshop or Gimp for most tasks, though it has adopted some common photo editing tools such as blurring etc.

9. Photoscape
Windows

A basic photo editor that lets you fix and enhance photos. It has a lot of interesting features such as support for animated gifs, a splitter which divides a photo up into several pieces and attaching multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo.

10. PhotoPlus Starter Edition
Windows

PhotoPlus Starter Edition is a limited version of PhotoPlus X5 ($89.99). It comes with a lot of great tools that help you adjust photos and give them a complete makeover. Through PhotoPlus you can repair old and damaged photos, remove objects from a photo, smooth skin, whiten teeth and much more.

11. Seashore
Mac

A beautiful image editor that supports gradients, textures and alpha channel editing. You can compare the current image to the last version of it saved, and can save in SVG, PSD and PDF file formats.

12. Paint.NET
Windows

A great program that evolved from Microsofts famous Paint application, Paint.NET supports layers, special effects, unlimited history and more. It uses an intuitive tabbed interface that shows live thumbnails of the opened image rather than text. It also has a very active support community.

13. Darktable
Mac, Ubunut, Fedora, Opensuse, Arch, Gentoo

One of the only applications that isn’t available for Windows, Darktable is a feature rich photo editing program that supports lots of special effects and correction tools. It has support for 15 languages and the export system works with Picasa, Flickr, email attachments and more.

14. Photofiltre
Windows

An image retouching program that allows basic or advanced image editing. It supports over 100 filters and lets you use useful preset selection tools such as ellipses, triangles, rounded rectangles and more.

15. VCW VicMan’s Photo Editor
Windows

A basic image editor that supports over 30 types of file formats and 100 transformations, filters and effects. Photoshop compatible filters are supported too.

16. PaintStar
Windows

An image processing application for editing and retouching photographs. Image morphing, multiple layers and screen capture are supported and it supports more than 30 file formats, 100 effects and filters.

17. Picnik
Online Service

A simplistic online photo editing service that lets you modify images with one click. Basic edits like rotation, resizing and cropping as well as changing exposure and colors and sharpening the image, are all free. More advanced effects and edits are only available to premium users ($24.95 a year).

18. Cinepaint
Windows, Mac, Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD

An offshoot of GIMP, CinePaint has been used on many Hollywood films such as Spiderman and The Last Samurai to touch up frames.

19. Pixlr
Online Service, Windows, Mac, Mobile Devices

A cool free online photo editing service that works on browsers and a variety of operating systems and devices. Available in 23 languages, Pixlr has the most usable Photoshop features such as color adjustment, special effects, layer support and much more.

20. Picasa
Windows, Mac, Linux

Originally created and sold by Idealab, Google aquired Picasa in 2004 and released it to the world for free. The current version supports easy geo tagging and heavy integration with Google+ that lets you easily tag Google+ friends and share photos through your circles.

It’s user-friendly interface makes it easy to apply basic edits to your photos and touch them up. 12 effects are available and there are additional affects via Picnik too.

Do you use any of these free photo editing programs? If so, please let us know in the comments area and let us know the advantages to using the application over others.

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Over the last 100 years or so advertising has been integrated into every walk of life. Whether you are working on the internet, relaxing at home watching TV or getting the bus or train to the cinema; you cannot avoid being bombarded with advertisements from all angles.

The sheer volume of advertisements that people see can make it tough for advertisers to get their message across. To penetrate this ad blindness companies have come up with lots of interesting ways to make their advertisements funny, entertaining and interactive. At the very least they want to grab your attention so that you remember their brand.

Today we would like to share with you 30 creative advertisements that made people stop and take notice using inventive and entertaining ways.

Hitting the Mark

1. Gillette Fusion Power Zamboni

Gillette promoted the launch of their Fusion razor by converting a Zamboni into a ‘Fusion Ice Machine’. Zambonis are commonly used during breaks in Ice Hockey matches so this creative advertisement would have gotten a lot of exposure.

2. Ikea Home Delivery

A simple idea that creates the illusion of a showroom in the back of a delivery truck. The ad was launched to promote the introduction of free home delivery by Ikea (though fans of the ad turned customer may have been disappointed when the Ikea delivery van arrived and they realised they had to build everything themselves!).

3. Bare Wetsuits

“Stay down longer”. A somewhat freaky advertisement that exaggerates the seal and protective nature of their wet-suits. It’s a good idea that was implemented well.

4. Australian Surfer Sunblock

A cheeky ad from down under that emphasises that the sunblock only protects you from the sun. The pregnant woman ad is part of a fairly tongue-in-cheek campaign, with similar ads showing a drunk man who has been written on while sleeping on the beach and a truck that has been torched.

5. Google Streetview

Google made use of the fact that most bus shelters in the UK are see through by giving passers by a live preview of what their Street View service would look like. They also placed directional arrows on foot paths and cycle lanes.

6. WWF Wildlife Campaign

To promote their ‘Give a hand to wildlife’ campaign, the WWF used body painters to paint hands into endangered species. Beautifully implemented.

7. Shopping Bag Designs

A series of innovative shopping bags that are sure to grab peoples attention. It’s frightening how realistic the ‘Nail Biter’ shopping bag is!

8. Nikon D700

An interactive billboard that people can’t argue is creatively implemented. A red carpet was placed next to the advertisement that led all the way to the Nikon shop. As a person walked by, the cameras in the ad flash to give the impression that they are a celebrity being photographed by the paparazzi.

9. Panasonic Nose Hair Trimmer

In many countries worldwide, electrical wires are connected to buildings via street poles. Panasonic made use of these wires by building their advertisement for nose hair trimmers around them to comic effects.

10. Ballet Classes

A cool ad that shows you don’t have to have a huge budget to be creative with your advertisements. The ballet studio spread the contact information pull tabs out at the bottom of the ad to give the impression of a ballerina dress.

11. iPod Shuffle Campaign

An Apple campaign that showed off the random nature of the iPod shuffle. The series of ads placed the iPod earphones on popular destinations to give the impression of the route the runner had taken.

12. Ford Trees

Ford promoted their dedication to eco-friendliness by stating that ‘The trees blocking this billboard are a problem we don’t want to solve’. A cool way of making the most of an advertisement area most companies wouldn’t want.

13. Oldtimer Restaurant

An Austrian chain of motorway restaurants surrounded tunnels with huge advertisements to promote their ‘all you can eat’ rest stops. I doubt there were any drivers who didn’t take notice of this massive in your face ad campaign.

14. Duracell

For a long time Duracell showed robots, rabbits and other objects being powered by their batteries and outlasting rivals who are using alternatives. This idea transferred well to buses and trucks and no doubt grabbed the attention of a lot of fellow motorists.

15. McDonald’s Coffee

McDonald’s advertised their 2 week free coffee promotion by filling up a bus shelter window full of coffee beans. As the promotion progressed, an appropriate percentage of coffee beans were removed to reflect how much was left in the promotion.

16. Lose Your License And You Are Screwed

Using humor to tackle the subject of facing the consequences of losing your driver’s license, the ad reflects the embarrassment and frustration of taking your date to a high school dance on your bike.

17. Nikon Face Detect

Nikon showed their new face detect feature, which detects up to 52 faces, with a happy go lucky traveller who is unknowingly about to be captured in the wild.

18. Mercedes Blur

Using a motion blurred wall, sidewalk and billboard with 3D models of a fire hydrant, parking sign and mail box; Mercedes emphasised the speed of their 450hp 2012 C-Class Coupe with their ‘Looks fast. Even in park’ campaign.

19. Law & Order

Integrated into the building behind, this advertisement for the TV show Law & Order brings the street light into the ad itself in an eye catching way.

20. Hotwheels Loops

Used in Bogota Colombia, the famous toy car maker Hot Wheels added a ‘loop the loop’ to a bridge above a busy motorway. Another great example of integrating the environment with the advertisement.

21. BMW M3

Using a 50 X 2 light wall in the middle of Hamburg airport, BMW used a headline out of half letters to promote their M3 car. The reflective floor completed the bottom half of the headline.

22. Skydive Elevator

Fitted to the bottom of elevators in multi-storey buildings to give the impression of free falling, this Swiss skydiving company gained a huge amount of media exposure with a limited budget due to the popularity of the advertisement.

23. Tetris Returns

Falling from the heavens, a Tetris block prepares to fit into the city landscape. A creative advertisement that fans of the popular game will surely love.

24. Yellow Pages

Winner of the Cannes Lion advertising award, the dart campaign for Yellow Pages Canada apparently gave their website an 18% increase over the previous year. Talk about hitting the mark.

25. DHL Online Tracking

A digitised cursor was placed on DHL couriers and vans across Beijing to promote their online website. The ad was so successful that it led to a reduction in telephone inquiries and an increase in online tracking counters.

26. Playstation PSP & Renault

A joint advertisement for the Sony Playstation Portable and Renault Scenic. The ad cleverly shows one eye on the road and one eye on the Sony PSP. Drive or Play? This ad seems to comically suggest some can do both.

27. Restaurant Mirador del Alto

An elegant advertisement that promotes a piano restaurant by placing the cutlery to mimic the arrangement of black piano keys.

28. Lays

It would be hard not to notice this advertisement from Lays. All the train passengers who walked through this underground tunnel looked up to see potatoes growing from the roof.

29. Folgers Coffee

Folgers turned a common eyesore in New York into one of the most creative advertisements seen in years. The drain cover was replaced by an image of a coffee cup, giving the impression that the rising steam was heat rising from the coffee.

30. Post It

How do you advertise a product that everyone takes for granted? Easy. By showing you what you would have to do if you didn’t have it.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this list of fun, creative and entertaining print and outside advertisements. Which one was your favourite? Or if you have a favourite that wasn’t featured in this post, use the comments to leave a link to it.

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Gmail exploded onto the internet in 2004 (beta) offering users a whopping 1GB of storage. This was unheard of at the time with the largest email service Hotmail only offering a few megabytes of storage. Currently Gmail offers 7GB of free storage with competitors such as Hotmail offering 5GB of storage and Yahoo offering an unlimited amount.

Gmail is popular with business users due to how quick, reliable and customisable it is. In addition to the experimental add ons that Google offers through Google Labs, there are a lot of 3rd party tools and services that help you enhance gmail.

Today we would like to show you 25 great tools that will help you get more out of Googles pioneering email service, and ensure that your personal Gmail productivity rating remains high. Enjoy.

Let’s Get Productive

* Fun fact: Google purchased the Gmail domain from Garfield, who were using it as a free email service for their members.

1. Find Big Mail
Online Service

Find Big Mail is a fantastic free service that helps you locate large emails in your Gmail inbox. All you have to do is enter your Gmail email address and then grant access to the service to check your account.

Once you have done so, you will receive an email advising you that they are processing your request and will email you again after 5 to 60 minutes once their search is complete (depending on your volume of emails). The email details your top 3 and top 20 messages by size. It also shows you the number of emails over 1mb, over 5mb and over 10mb. Each large email is linked, making it easy to review the email and check whether you need to keep it or not (or save the file elsewhere).

Pie charts are also displayed in your email and online. These show you the number of messages by size (small, over 1mb, over 5mb and over 10mb) and the corresponding space by size these messages take up.

It also adds labels to your Gmail sidebar that lists messages that are over 1mb, 5mb and 10mb. Find Big Mail is useful if you are nearing your maximum amount of storage and don’t want to upgrade.

2. CloudMagic
Google Chrome

A search tool that lets you search Gmail, Google Apps, Google Docs, Google Docs and Twitter. Once you have installed CloudMagic and refreshed your Gmail page, you will see a search box at the top of the page. This box can be moved anywhere on the page (as you see fit).

Search works in real time i.e. results appear as you type. You can view results from other services such as Google Docs instantly by simply changing the tab at the top of the box.

It’s worth checking out if you search through your inbox on a regular basis.

3. Google Mail Checkers
Google Chrome and Firefox

Do you find yourself checking Gmail frequently to see if you have new mail? If so, you may find the Google Web Checker (Chrome) and Gmail Watcher (Firefox) add-ons useful. Once installed, the apps will show add a Gmail icon to the top of your browser. Whenever you receive a new email the icon will be updated to let you know that you have received mail. A simple add on that’s very useful.

4. Better Gmail
Google Chrome and Firefox

Better Gmail for Chrome and Firefox are great add ons that add a lot of great features to Gmail.

The exact features differ slightly between the Chrome and Firefox versions. Both versions highlight rows when you hover over messages, adds attachment icons to your Gmail page and help notify you of new messages using pop ups or sounds. The Chrome version also removes advertisements from your page.

5. Google Redesigned
Google Chrome & Firefox

A great extension for Chrome and Firefox that gives Gmail, and other Google services, a complete redesign. Worth trying out if you are bored the default design of Gmail.

It works with Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Reader. You can disable or enable the design for each service individually.

6. Active Inbox
Google Chrome & Firefox

A productivity tool for Gmail that adds a lot of welcomed features. Active Inbox helps you prioritise tasks by allowing you to set which messages are top priority. Emails can be added to a to do list to help you plan what needs to be done.

Emails can also be assigned to projects and notes can be added to conversations too. In the Active Inbox bar at the top of the page, all of your to do items and projects are listed. It also lists those emails that are defined as high priority, emails that need to be tracked until completion and emails you are awaiting a reply on. All of these filters can be applied to emails within each message at the top which makes organising your workload much easier.

7. Rapportive
Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Mailplane

Replaces advertisements at the right hand side of Gmail with an informative profile of the person who has emailed you. It shows you their photo and information about what they do. It helps make new connections via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn too.

8. Boomerang for Gmail
Google Chrome & Firefox

A wonderful application that adds a ‘Send Later’ button to your message compose area. You can send the email in an hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, 2 days, 4 days, one week, 2 weeks or one month. Alternatively, you can also set the exact time the message can be sent or ask for help by clicking on the random time link.

You can also set reminders for important messages and if you don’t hear back from the contact, Boomerang will remind you to follow it up.

9. WiseStamp Email Signatures
Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari

This browser extension makes creating modern interactive signatures a breeze by enhancing your Gmail signature with social media icons and your latest tweets and Facebook posts. You can also add social icons, quotes, your latest ebay auctions, music and much more.

You can create as many different signatures as you want (personal, business 1, business 2 etc). A link is placed discretely at the bottom of each email unless you upgrade to a paid account ($36 per year).

Images can easily be inserted into signatures and you can place information in columns using tables. You can also edit the HTML source directly.

10. Grexit
Online Service

A great application that businesses will find useful. The service lets you share emails in a common shared folder so that other colleagues can easily reference important discussions and information.

11. The Email Game
Online Service

Finding it hard to get motivated to clear your crowded inbox? You may find ‘The Email Game’ service useful. It times how long it takes you to address your unread emails. You can deal with emails right away by replying or forwarding them, boomerang posts or skip them and deal with them later, or archive or delete the email. Points are awarded for dealing with emails quicker, with 3 minutes being given to you for each reply.

12. 0Boxer
Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Mailplane

Another game that aims to help you be more productive. oBoxer rewards points for clearing emails and writing them. You can compete against friends and the site lists weekly and daily leader boards for other users.

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