The technology behind sending an email has become an afterthought to most of us. It’s not because the process isn’t potentially interesting, it’s because email has become such a huge part of our daily lives. Basically, we take it for granted.

Google decided to share more about what goes on behind the scenes with “The Story of Send“, which is a website accompanied by a cool video that tells you more than you ever thought you needed to know about the process of sending email.

Here’s what the company had to say about it today:

If you’re anything like me, you send and receive a lot of emails every day. But have you ever wondered where your message goes after you hit “send?” How does an email travel from your computer to your friend’s smartphone across the country or around the world?

We’re answering those questions with Story of Send, a new site that gives you a behind-the-scenes look into how all that virtual information makes its journey through the real world—from your Internet service provider to our data centers and beyond. Along the way, you’ll discover everything from where we filter for spam and scan for viruses to how we’re minimizing our impact on the environment through energy efficiency and renewable power.

This behind-the-scenes look is an extension of Google Green, the part of the company that focuses on using renewable energy to power its data centers.

Head on over to “The Story of Send” and follow the interactive timeline that Google has designed to enlighten you on how some of its backend processes work:

Be sure to catch the cool video, too:

Today I was hanging out at the ad:tech conference in San Francisco, which consists mainly of marketing professionals who are looking for the best way to integrate social into their advertising campaigns. During a keynote with Guy Kawasaki and our friend Robert Scoble, the location-aware app Highlight was mentioned. A few times. And by a few, I mean about twenty. That’s cool though, Robert is a huge fan of the app and let us know that fifteen people in the room also used the app.

I wasn’t sure how the Highlight app fit into a discussion about trends in advertising, until Mr. Scoble dropped a bit of a teaser about an upcoming feature and functionality of the app:

Highlight shows you who’s around you, and soon…what’s around you.

His tone was extremely coy, as if he had just let a purring cat out of the bag. This kind of functionality isn’t new though, remember foursquare’s “Radar’ feature? The idea is that you’d turn this feature on and you’d be pinged with a notification when you became close to a popular location on the platform.

Only problem is, like Highlight, it eats the shit out of your phone’s battery:

I’ve made it clear that I’m personally not a fan of location-aware apps like Highlight, but if you’re in the Bay Area, there’s no way to get away from it. People are talking about it at meetups, mixers, and conferences, so there’s definitely a market for services like it.

If we take the battery drain issue out of the equation, people are finding this type of “always-on” real-time sharing to be helpful. If Highlight does indeed launch the feature that Scoble mentioned today, I can see how it could leap-frog foursquare’s Radar feature, which hasn’t gotten a lot of love from the team lately, and build a nice platform for small businesses to draw attention to themselves.

It’s surprising how much of the “creepy” factor we’ll ignore when we’re getting something “valuable” in return, but that’s how all of the big companies are handling things these days. We give all of our data to Google and Facebook but don’t worry about it since we’re getting something we use daily in return.

We’re not sure how soon this feature will be made available, but we’ll keep you up to date.

Are you a fan of location-aware apps? Let us know what you think in the comments.

From time to time we’ve all entered the forums for a product that we need to ask questions about. Depending on how popular the product is you might get lucky and get a response within a few hours of posting your question. For example, Apple’s forums are full of product fans and experts who are just waiting to answer your question.

Apparently Google has the same type of fans in its community, as the Gmail team has shared an interesting story about one of its top contributors.

Brett, better known as “bkc56″ in the Gmail forums, has become the first person to post 100k answers about the product in response to questions from its community. Yes, one hundred thousand. Brett isn’t a member of the Gmail team, nor does he work at Google, but his dedication to Google’s email product is second-to-none.

Since Brett was the first person to post 100k answers to its forum, the Gmail team invited him to visit the Googleplex to mark the occasion:

To celebrate, we invited Brett to come by the Google offices in Mountain View for lunch and a day with the team. While he was here, Brett shared his insights on Gmail, the forum, and the Gmail community; those he met with described his observations as “brilliant” and “invaluable.” He met with Googlers in many different roles, from support specialists and engineers to vice presidents. We learned a lot from speaking with Brett and we are all very grateful that he shared his time with us.

The official Gmail forum has also gotten a facelift and now looks a lot like the rest of Google’s products, namely…Gmail:

I get a ton of email and I’m not necessarily a fan of it, so I can’t imagine giving up my spare time to answer questions about an actual email product. Good for Brett though, someone has to do it! Get that guy a job.

Fab.com is hot, hot, hot. The daily deals site has seen some amazing growth in the past four months alone, and it doesn’t look to be slowing down at all.

Today, Fab CEO Jason Goldberg shared some interesting stats and trends on his personal blog about the company.

Most notably, Fab saw its direct traffic pass traffic from email for the first time since ever last month. That means that the company has serious brand reputation which could be driving some wild word of mouth advertising.

In his post, Goldberg shared a graph showing the jump:

His insights on why this is?

We believe that the rise in direct traffic is because of 3 reasons:
- Mobile visits now account for nearly 1/3 of all visits.
- More and more people are just typing in www.fab.com into their browser at 11am ET / 8am PT each day instead of waiting to click on our emails.
- With 2 million members now, growing by 450,000 in January 2012 alone, we’ve reached a bit of a tipping point in general awareness of Fab.

The fact that its email traffic has dominated so much is a testament to how much its members love the service. That much traffic just from email campaigns is impressive.

Speaking of hot services, Goldberg also pointed out that Pinterest has now passed Twitter in referral traffic to the site, a pretty impressive feat for a service that’s still in its infancy as well.

If you’ve ever worried about someone holding on to a private email or text you’ve sent them, then you aren’t alone. A developer named Jacob Robbins decided to build a service to cater to those who want to keep their conversations private forever. Today, Burn Note has officially launched, and all of your messages will self-destruct after they’re read.

When you send someone a message using Burn Note, you can chose how long it takes for the message to blow up after the person has opened it. Be sure to give them enough time to read it though, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.

The email that gets sent gives the person you’re sending a note to a link to visit the site, so none of the private message is disclosed via email. Even if what you’re talking about isn’t top secret, this is a neat way to ensure that your message doesn’t get forwarded or saved for years. Sure, the person could take a screenshot or copy and paste the message, but let’s assume they won’t.

The message creation screen is quite simple, with focus on a short message. Additionally you can set a password for super secure messages:

As soon as the message is opened, the timer starts. If your friend can’t read fast enough, they’re out of luck. I’ve been using this in Beta for a few weeks, and it’s a pretty awesome service.

Also, any messages that aren’t opened for 72 hours are automatically deleted as well. This is all extremely reminiscent of movies like Mission : Impossible, where spies get topical messages about their next plan and whatever sent the message explodes. While nothing physically explodes with Burn Note, the effect of it being trashed for good is still kind of cool.

➤ Burn Note

Microsoft has been unafraid to create apps that run on devices made by competing companies, and the latest official app to arrive is Hotmail for Kindle Fire. Previously, Hotmail could be accessed on the Kindle Fire through the browser or the native mail application, but a dedicated Hotmail app developed by Microsoft allows for a more tailored experience. Based on Hotmail for Android, but modified for the Kindle Fire (a custom implementation of Android), the app syncs all mail, contacts, folders and subfolders, thanks to use of the Exchange Active Sync protocol in place of POP3 (which only downloads mail).

“We think it’s critical that our customers can use Hotmail from any device they choose,” wrote Director of Hotmail Product Management David Law on the Inside Windows Live blog, “So, in addition to making Hotmail work great on devices running Windows, we’ll continue to invest in great experiences on other major device platforms.”

Increase in number of Hotmail accounts on iOS and Android, from Microsoft

According to Law, there are over 12 million active Hotmail users on iOS and 3 million on the official Android app.

Our own Courtney Boyd Myers went hands on with the Kindle Fire shortly after its release, which you can read about here.

➤ Hotmail for the Kindle Fire

Google has announced some changes to its popular Chrome app that allows you to access your Gmail account offline.

The biggest feature of the bunch is the ability to now choose how many days of email you’d like to synchronize for offline viewing. The options are 7, 14 or 31 days now. If you have a long flight or plan on spending some quiet time in the woods, this feature will definitely come in handy.

Additionally, the Google team has made some performance enhancements that doesn’t make using the offline app feel like such a chore anymore:

Improved attachments: All attachments are now downloaded and available for offline use
Keyboard shortcuts support: If you have keyboard shortcuts enabled in Gmail, your setting will transfer over to the Gmail offline app. If you’re not sure what you can do with keyboard shortcuts, try pressing ‘?’ next time you’re using Gmail or Gmail offline.
Numerous performance enhancements: Messages and attachments now download at a faster rate and some bugs have been fixed.

Pulling over your settings is great, but the new handling of attachments is absolutely clutch. Before this update, there were many times that you’d try to grab one of your attachments while offline and it simply wasn’t there because you forgot to download them beforehand.

As the offline product has evolved, it’s looking more and more like Microsoft’s Outlook than the original version of Gmail, but nobody seems to be complaining about that. I for one appreciate the team keeping an eye on speed rather than making its UI overly fancy.

➤ Offline Google Mail for Chrome

Email. It’s quickly becoming the bane of our existence, even though it’s the biggest social network in the world. Yes, even bigger than Facebook. More people use email than they do any other service on the web, and if mis-managed, it can keep you awake at night.

If I had a buck for every person who complains about how many unread emails that they have, I’d be a billionaire. Why is email so hard to manage? For geeks, it’s because we sign up to every damn service known to man, creating more and more junk in our inboxes. For everyone else, it’s because they are busy paying attention to other things, like their actual lives. Yes, I know, it’s different for everyone, but the problem is the same.

What should we do about it? Mark them all as unread before we start 2012. Here are three reasons why:

1. If you haven’t read them already…

Who are you fooling? If you haven’t read the 3,000 emails in your inbox, you’re never going to read them. Do yourself a favor and spend an hour on setting up filters to get junk out of your inbox, then mark everything as read.

When I talk to people about that, they say “What if there’s a recruiter email in there?” or something similar. Quite honestly, if you haven’t returned an email to a recruiter in under a week, they’re no longer recruiting you. Same goes for someone trying to send business your way, or offer you a speaking gig.

2. Stress

Most people need something to stress out about. First world problems, right? How many times do you hear someone complaining about how many emails they have in their inbox? Quite a few, I’m sure. Your response shouldn’t be to coddle the person, tell them to simply mark everything as read. The more emails that stack up, the more stressed we get.

When you notice an email chain starting to get longer and longer, cut it off and try having a conversation with the people in another format. If they’re co-workers, have a meeting. If they’re friends, pick up the phone. I know, crazy right?

Cut down on the excessive email and it won’t pile up. Less stress means better performance. Focus on things that really need your full attention.

3. Behind the numbers

Spend an hour and dig into the email that is behind those huge numbers. They’re mostly worthless, I promise. No matter what email service you use, there are features to filter out messages from certain companies or ones that match certain subjects. Create the filters, learn about what’s junking up your inbox, and then mark them all as unread. Never look back.

Moving forward, just tackle email as it comes in and take action right away. If you see a notification from a music service you tried a year ago, filter it out immediately and move on. You’re not going to miss anything, and there are no prizes for having the most unread emails in your inbox.

We should use the Internet, not let the Internet use us. Do yourself a favor in 2012 and by any means necessary, cut down your stress level. There’s no reason to take a bunch of baggage from 2011 into the new year, so give yourself the gift of an inbox with a big fat goose egg.

Be careful during your New Year’s celebrations folks, and for goodness sakes, don’t read email or text while you drive.

In what was first thought to be a spam attack against subscribers of the New York Times, it turns out that it was just an oopsie by the newspaper.

Here’s what the email said:

Dear Home Delivery Subscriber,

Our records indicate that you recently requested to cancel your home delivery subscription. Please keep in mind when your delivery service ends, you will no longer have unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps.

We do hope you’ll reconsider.

As a valued Times reader we invite you to continue your current subscription at an exclusive rate of 50% off for 16 weeks. This is a limited-time offer and will no longer be valid once your current subscription ends.*

Continue your subscription and you’ll keep your free, unlimited digital access, a benefit available only for our home delivery subscribers. You’ll receive unlimited access to NYTimes.com on any device, full access to our smartphone and iPad® apps, plus you can now share your unlimited access with a family member.†

To continue your subscription call 1-877-698-0025 and mention code 38H9H (Monday–Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. E.D.T.).

It was a legitimate email though, only meant to go to 300 subscribers. Not 8 million people who gave the company their email address at one point or another. That’s a massive screwup. The internet buzzed for hours, speculating on who would carry out such an evil attack. The company itself first called it spam which fueled everyone’s curious minds.

If you received an email today about canceling your NYT subscription, ignore it. It’s not from us.

— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 28, 2011

A NYT reporter however, told us that it wasn’t spam after all:

UPDATE on NYT email: “The email was sent by the NYT,” a spokeswoman said. Should’ve gone to appx 300 people & went to over 8 mil. Story TK

— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) December 28, 2011

Now the flub is causing more work and confusion for tech bloggers, causing everyone to have to update their posts.

The company has published an official apology from its spokeswoman, Eileen Murphy:

We regret that the error was made, but no one’s security has been compromised

That leaves the New York Times with the age-old question and dilemma of “Do we now send emails to everyone with an apology and explanation?”. Probably not, since it’s a surefire way to get dropped into spam bins all over the web.

And just as I was about to publish this post, the New York Times answered that age-old question with:

You may have received an e-mail today from The New York Times with the subject line “Important information regarding your subscription.”

This e-mail was sent by us in error. Please disregard the message. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Sincerely,

The New York Times

At The Next Web, we get asked one question a lot. “Which apps are must-have’s for my iPhone?”. It’s a common question, especially with a lot of new Sprint and Verizon users jumping on the iDevice bandwagon. Luckily, we look at quite a few apps.

By looking at so many apps, we see which ones stick and which ones get deleted quickly. Some apps are so useful, they’ll probably be on our devices until the iPhone 10.

Here is a solid list of 5 apps that you simply must have on your Apple devices. These are even better than Apple’s built in apps in some cases. Sadly for Google, the Gmail app hasn’t made the list yet. Some of them may seem obvious, but the uses for them might not be.

If you drive

If you’re a driver, you shouldn’t be looking at your iPhone first of all. But if you have a passenger, they must have RoadNinja. This app does everything you’d want a smart GPS to do, but doesn’t. RoadNinja will show you upcoming exits on the highway and what places are close to them, so that you can choose which exit will be your next. It’s completely customizable, tapping the foursquare API to tell you what coffee shops, restaurants, attractions, and pretty much everything else is conveniently close.

If you drive, you simply must have RoadNinja by your side. And it’s free.

If you’re into food

It’s pretty much a guarantee that you eat food, we all do. There are a whole host of apps that tell you where you can eat in the city you’re inhabiting at the moment. Some apps tell you what your friends think, some apps try to recommend places to go based on your previous eating escapades, but only Chefs Feed tells you what true food connoisseurs think.

Some of the best chefs in the major cities in America are on Chefs Feed to tell you what restaurants and foods you should check out. If you’re looking for a new place to eat, leave it to the professionals to tell you where to go.

If you’re tired of texting and email

It’s safe to say that most of us use Facebook these days. Over 800 millions users can’t be wrong. Even though Facebook has released updates to its iOS app and finally given us an iPad native one, it’s not the app that you simply must have.

Facebook Messenger is the perfect companion to Facebook. Even while you’re mobile and waiting for a bus, you probably don’t have the time to experience Facebook fully. Facebook Messenger takes one of the stronger features from the site, and makes it easy to use.

The app is a must-have to keep in touch with Facebook friends, letting you send photos and see who’s online. Considering that most of our friends are on Facebook too, Facebook Messenger completely replaces text messaging and personal email for some.

If you like music

Streaming is all the rage these days, and no app does it better than Spotify. This is by far the app that I use the most on the go. With a solid interface for playlists, sending tracks to friends, sharing on Facebook and Twitter, the app is a must have.

If you have a Spotify Premium account, you can sync your playlists on any device for offline listening. This makes plane trips and car rides perfect, as you don’t have to have WiFI or 3G signals to gain access to your music.

The discovery interface is equally as solid, letting you find new songs to listen to on the road. The music that you listen to on your iOS device will even update your Facebook Music feed.

If you take photos

With a powerful camera now on iPhones, iPods, and iPads, you’ll want to take a lot of photos. Even if you’re not a professional photographer, you may want to share your photos with people and hear what they have to think about them.

There is one king of photo apps, and that is Instagram. The app has a huge community around taking photos, putting a pretty filter on it, and liking them until they become popular. I’ve said it before, but the Instagram app is what Flickr could have had, if they dedicated themselves to its community like it used to.

Version 2.0 of Instagram was a huge improvement, letting you apply filters instantly. The company continues to roll out new filters and boasts a user base of over 12 million according to founder Kevin Systrom.

The not so obvious part of why Instagram is an absolute must have, is that so many developers are using its API to build fun and useful things that use our photos.

What’s in your top 5?

So there you have it. These are the 5 apps that I feel like you can’t live without, or perhaps 5 apps that can make your life a little bit easier and more enjoyable, just as Steve Jobs would have wanted it.

What apps can’t you live without? Tell us in the comments!

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