Gmail becomes safer

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Google has decided to step up the safety of Gmail by adding some small new features available to every user. The footer of your session will now contain information such as your last log in, activity, and IP address that the session was accessed from.

In addition to above, users will also be able to see if they are logged in on another computer, and check recent activity to ensure their account is not being accessed by anyone else. Should a user forget to sign out, they are now able to safely remotely sign out from any location.

The Gmail service is one of the most popular web mail services, but Google is keen to make it safer.
"Your email account can contain a lot of personal information, from bank alerts to love letters. Email that, I'm sure, you don't always want other people to see," Gmail Engineer Erwin D'Souza.

The features are currently in the process of being tested and rolled out to the public. Some may have access to these features while others may not. They will be fully accessible to everyone in a short period of time.

View: TechRadar

View: Gmail Blog Official Post

#1 +Ficman on 08 Jul 2008 - 18:58

Sweet...

#2 tsupersonic on 08 Jul 2008 - 18:58

Nice.

Woohoo it was applied to one of my accounts! Very nice!

Last edited by tsupersonic on 09 Jul 2008 - 01:25

#3 Citizen Erased on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:20

Cool. I love Gmail.

#4 +Island Dog on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:27

Fantastic!

(4 replies) #5 chenks on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:30

i take it this is not live yet, as i don't see any footer information.

#5.1 coolkat007 on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:34

#5.2 Horrocks on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:34

(chenks said @ #5)

From Google:
Note: We are in the process of rolling this feature out to the latest version of Gmail, which is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer 7.

#5.3 chenks on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:37

(Horrocks said @ #5.2)

as i am a safari user i guess i have to wait.

#5.4 Brodel on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:45

It's working on my account. Looks like a very handy feature.

#6 +Yuxi on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:31

Great!

#7 RichardK on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:33

I saw something pop up in the lower right had side that said "Last logged in" but then it disappeared when the page loaded fully.

#8 KavazovAngel on 08 Jul 2008 - 19:43

Nice to know. Not available for me yet.

#9 +status-seeker on 08 Jul 2008 - 20:10

Wow.. Google never dissapoints. This is a very good feature imo.

(1 reply) #10 thealexweb on 08 Jul 2008 - 20:35

Why is Gmail still in Beta, it's been stable for years.

#10.1 chilliadus on 08 Jul 2008 - 21:10

(thealexweb said @ #10)

So they could claim it's provided "AS IS".

#11 .statix on 08 Jul 2008 - 21:27

Wow this is really lame. As an avid email stalker, this is going to be really disapointing when people start figuring out that ive been reading their emails for years. An email service rolled this feature out a long time ago, since they were so small they werent able to fully maintain their service and promptly shut down. As was the case with that service, most people wont know what their ip addresses are.

#12 darkpuma on 08 Jul 2008 - 21:37

Sounds cool, and remote sign off should be amazingly useful

#13 Tikitiki on 08 Jul 2008 - 22:09

Would be nice to be able to password protect/encrypt certain emails before we're able to read them

(4 replies) #14 aarste on 08 Jul 2008 - 22:39

Gmail still gets flooded with spam despite not using my address anywhere on sites. My own email address gets none >.<

#14.1 x-byte on 08 Jul 2008 - 23:16

(aarste said @ #14)

Because it's popular?

No problems with spam for me. My inbox almost never have spam. As long as it gets filtered I really don't care.

#14.2 tiagosilva29 on 08 Jul 2008 - 23:50

What I hate about Gmail is that it doesn't have a blacklist/whitelist feature.

#14.3 tsupersonic on 09 Jul 2008 - 00:29

I haven't given my address out to anything I consider spam, and I receieve no spam in my inbox. I even get no spam in the spam folder lol. It is very nice. However I do have another gmail account for spam purposes, and damn it gets a lot of spam mail, more so than hotmail and yahoo mail, but 95% of it ends up in the spam folder, so it's all good

#14.4 Magallanes on 09 Jul 2008 - 02:18

[quote=aarste said,#14]Gmail still gets flooded with spam despite not using my address anywhere on sites. My own email address gets none >.

#15 TonyLock on 08 Jul 2008 - 23:05

They should improve the Windows Google Mail Notifier and make it work for multiple accounts.

#16 TheNay on 09 Jul 2008 - 01:22

Smart move, hope Live can do that too in the future.

(1 reply) #17 jayr0 on 09 Jul 2008 - 03:34

when can we start blocking addys is what i want to know

#17.1 C_Guy on 09 Jul 2008 - 15:00

Oops, never mind...

#18 +Kushan on 09 Jul 2008 - 09:15

Just checked it out and I'm impressed. It showed my current session at work as well as my computer at home (I recognise the IP), so it definitely works.

#19 kaborka on 09 Jul 2008 - 20:04

I never see the webmail interface cuz I always use it via IMAP in Outlook.

#20 no-sweat on 09 Jul 2008 - 23:13

I was just snooping around someones email today. Luckily if your stupid enough to give your password out you won't think about checking this information

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