Sunday, March 16, 2014

Google linky--Learn about Gmail Searches!

In my attempt to learn more about Google and how I can use it in my classroom, I have made a commitment to try to take the online Google coursework offered for free!  I don't know if I will get all the way through it, but I have already learned some new things. A bunch of other bloggers have decided to do the same thing, and we are going to try to work together to share some of our learning with all of you.

This week, we are all posting about new things we have discovered about Gmail. As you know, with most email accounts, you can search for things that you are looking for by typing in the search bar.  Gmail has some particularly helpful search terms that you might be interested in!

So...when I am looking for an email, I have always searched by the sender's name...then I scroll through all the emails until I find the one I want.

I learned that the "search" function not only scrolls through the subject line, but the body of the text as well, so if you know of other words that will definitely be in the email, it can help refine your this!

Voila!  It ruled out a ton of emails that weren't relevant and made my search faster. This is especially helpful when the email was sent quite a while ago or is from someone who sends you a lot!  I use it to find emails from my principal more quickly...if I know the topic, I throw some key words into the search.  I never knew that!

You can also use a few different search terms followed by a colon.  Typing "from:Robert" will only search messages from Robert.  Typing "to:Robert" or "Subject:Robert" will limit searches as well.

You can also get even fancier by using search terms like "has:" to find emails that "have" certain things--like attachments.  So, typing "has:attachment from: Robert" will narrow it down even more.

Pretty slick, right?  I hope to do some more sharing of what I learn, but there are a BUNCH of other people doing this as snoop through their blogs to see what little tidbits you can learn!  Have a wonderful week!


  1. Meg,

    I love all we are learning in our Google adventure! I really like the searching capabilities of Gmail. I think I need to print out the list of all the terms you can search with and keep it next to my computer so I will remember to try them all out.

  2. I like the search feature. I am guilty of just typing in the name and scrolling through to find the right email. This really helps narrow my search. Thanks.

    1. Same here! I guess it never occurred to me that I could be more efficient with that!

  3. I use Gmail searches all the time! Especially before I learned about labels. I know so many people don't even know half the things you can do with searches. Thanks for sharing!