Along with much of the internet community, we were highly anticipating Google's new social sharing tool, Google Buzz. Because Buzz is highly integrated into Gmail, we began to think about how OtherInbox should work with Buzz updates.

Currently, pointing OtherInbox at your Gmail account means automatically labeling and archiving all of your messages that aren't from real people (newsletters, coupons, receipts, confirmations, and alerts). This includes notifications from various social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

When we started using Buzz, we noticed there are a few actions that result in a lot more email. For example if anyone replies or likes one of your updates, you get a notification in your Inbox. In addition, if you reply or like someone else's update, future replies also result in another email. More Buzz activity leads to even more notification emails!

Pretty soon, our Gmail Inbox became overwhelmed with Buzz notifications. As one of our developers said, it is going to be difficult to maintain "Buzz Zero" as it grows.

The question is "How would you like OtherInbox to handle these new notifications?"

We could easily add the labeling and archiving of Buzz notifications that reach your Inbox, just like all the other messages we organize. This way, you could get a Digest that lists all of your Buzz notifications from the previous day. But is that what you want?

Now is your chance to tell us what would work for you. Please leave your comments and ideas below so we can better shape OtherInbox for Gmail.

We always want to make sure your OtherInbox emails are as accessible as possible. That is why we created an IMAP server for OIB.

Although there have been some bumps and bruises along the way, we are committed to keep IMAP an option for our users. We are confident our fixes and improvements have resulted resulted in a more reliable IMAP server.

If you have used the IMAP server before, would you be so kind and take this survey? In the past, your feedback has been incredibly valuable in helping us understand what you feel is important. This helps us prioritize what we need to work on next!

Thanks for helping us make OtherInbox even better!

I'm very excited about Google Wave and have been playing with the developer preview for a few months. On the one hand, I see how this could someday replace much of current email conversations, IM, Twitter,  and Campfire. I'm trying to figure out how this interacts with OtherInbox. Is OtherInbox just a plugin for  Wave similar to how we plug in to Yahoo! Mail? Or do you think Wave will be used for convesations and you'll still have an old school email address for getting receipts, shipping notices, newsletters, new friend notifications?

Please share your comments and suggestions! If you're on Wave, my account name is "joshuabaer". I will send one Google Wave invite to one of the people who comments on this blog post with a suggestion.

When we connect OtherInbox to a Gmail account, we automatically find messages that aren't from real people and organize them inside of your Gmail account by labeling them OtherInbox and removing them from the Inbox by Archiving them. We synchronize the messages with your OtherInbox account and send you a daily digest so you don't miss anything important. 

During our beta testing period, one of our most requested features was a way to get OIB on the iPhone. As a first step, we created a Mobile Safari optimized website that allows all OIB users to read their messages on their iPhone or iPod Touch. Then, we released an IMAP server for premium users that allows you to add OIB as an additional email account on your iPhone, your Blackberry, or even your desktop computer. We're still thinking about the right way to do a native iPhone app.

Although we've had some bumps and bruises along the way, we recently fixed many of the problems our users reported on our support site and are confident the iPhone web app is working properly. We would love it if you would give it a try and let us know what you think!

Just point mobile Safari to my.otherinbox.com, log in with your OIB credentials, and you're all set. If a message is too large to view, tap the "Open message in new window" link above the message to view it full screen, complete with pinch-zooming and everything!

   

What do you think? How can we make the OIB iPhone web app even better? Would you rather read your OIB messages over IMAP or the web?

In addition
to keeping you organized and in control of your inbox again, OtherInbox
has many additional perks.  I wanted to share a few of the ways I use
OtherInbox to help me manage my work, hobbies, volunteer activities,
family, shopping, and even vacations.

How OIB helps me with my job

I’ve
had many superusers tell me that OIB has helped them with their
careers.  Several professionals, from hairdressers to leasing agents,
have reported ways that giving on the fly email addresses and having
organized mailboxes have made them more efficient and organized.  As
the Community Manager of OtherInbox, I use on the fly email addresses
to help me with networking, partnership activities, user feedback, and
volunteer organizations that we work with every quarter.  I give each
group their own email address, where they are all nicely organized and
easy to access in one place, my OtherInbox account. 

My own personal encyclopedia of knowledge

I,
like many people, have a lot of things I wish I knew how to do.  Being
a full time employee of an awesome startup and a full time parent does
not give me a lot of extra time to take classes and lessons.  However,
in the last year I have managed to learn how to start my first garden,
enhance my cooking skills, and stay up to date on the newest social
media trends!  How did I find the time to do all that?  I signed up for
the latest newsletters, blogs, and social groups like Ning and had them
all go to my OtherInbox!  It’s like customizing your own virtual
newspaper and reading it when you want to without it EVER overwhelming
your primary inbox.

My pond

Coupons and other money saving tips

We
all love a good bargain but not at the expense of giving out our email
address.  It is not worth overpopulating your inbox with spam and
risking it being sold to other companies.  My absolute favorite part of
having an OtherInbox is the ability to be fearless with my email
address.  I use an on the fly email to sign up for ANYTHING and
EVERYTHING I want.  It has become an obsession.  I sign up for all of
my favorite stores' newsletters, contests, and everything else I can. 
As a result, I get a ton of free stuff.  Free food, free books, and
coupons to all my favorite stores.  I still have not won anything, but
I check my OtherInbox daily to make sure.  It is kind of like playing
the internet lottery - for free!  Now, as you can imagine, I get
spammed all the time, but I don’t stress about it because I have the
power to keep spammers from ever emailing me again with just one
click.  I have also learned who leaks my email address out and will
never spend another dime in their stores or online with them.

All this money saving has made me want a vacation

Although
I have not yet saved thousands with OtherInbox, I still use it to sign
up for travel sites and possible vacation destinations.  My OtherInbox
notifies me of flight deals, discount vacation packages, and much
more.  When it is time to pack up the family and head out of Dodge for
a week or two, I know just where to go to get the most bang for my buck!

What do you do with your OtherInbox?

While
I hope some of this information was helpful, I am always amazed by the
creative ways other people use OIB to their advantage.  Share your
story with us, and email me at myoib[at]peeps.oib.com…oh look, I used it again .

Do you have
experience converting Apps?  Are you familiar with OtherInbox? We need
your help! We also want your help with merchant lists, outreach, and
troubleshooting.

Get early access to all our new features, free premium upgrades, and much more!

This month we are looking for help with the following countries:

* India
* Australia
* Brazil
* Mexico
* Taiwan

We are also looking for:

•    UK
•    France
•    Germany
•    Netherlands
•    Etc..
We will be updating many more, so feel free to reach out if your country is not listed yet.

Gracias
Obrigada
Merci
Thank you!

This post was guest-written by Superuser Chip Riley.

Follow chipriley on twitter.

I happened to come across OIB while searching Twitter during SXSW.  I
have two Google App accounts, one for personal and one for business,
and I was constantly under bombardment from mailing lists and various
Web2.0 service emails. 

OIB saved my inbox and allowed me to organize
(via custom email addresses) and cut out the spam quickly and easily. 
I actually replied to a user on GetSatisfaction that was complaining
about OIB and how it "took over" his email.  I gave an example of how
the service can allow you to weed out the spam (youdontgetit[at]myname.oib.com)
and, lo and behold, got hit with some spam at that address a couple of
weeks later.  I was able to block the address and never worry about it
again.

Also, as an Austinite, I love seeing local businesses do great and wonderful things!!!

Dear OtherInbox,

I'd just like to thank-you for your great product!

I am a sproutcore developer, and first heard about your product through
that channel, as you were developing it. I
was immediately intrigued by the idea of having many email addresses to
hand out. I've attempted to do this before with gmail and the "+" (ie myname+otherinbox[at]gmail.com), that failed horribly, as most email
inputs don't accept '+'s.

One of my first reactions when starting to use OIB, was "oh, not
another email to have to check", but I found almost right away, that
you had struck just the right balance in sending out daily summaries,
and notices of the first email to the account. Now I find myself
checking my OIB with out even thinking.

I now have a gmail address that only gets emails that I really need to
action right away, and everything else is neatly filed away for me to
read in my own time. Genius!
I shared this with my work mates who also have lots of email, what got
them interested is the gmail syncing, such a great idea, no need to
have to hand out new addresses to all the sites already signed up for.

I've seen OIB develop from near the very start, and I'm very impressed
with the way that you've handled bugs and feature requests. The choice
of Sproutcore as the tech to use was, by far, the right one!

Thanks for OIB!

A very grateful user,

Geoffrey D.

While OIB focuses on helping you control email overload, OIB offers
several other cool things that most of our early beta testers enjoy. 
One of my personal favorites is being able to make up an email address
on the fly when I sign up for something new that I don’t want to go to
my personal email.

For example, while I was at SXSWi, I found a lot of cool prize
giveaways, newsletters, and blogs to sign up for.  Before
OtherInbox, I would have passed on most of these, if not all of them,
for fear of filling up my email.  OtherInbox allows me to be fearless
with my email addresses, so I can sign up for all of the above and
never have it touch my main email.  For every prize giveaway, I signed
up with the address prize@myname.oib.com, and for all the cool companies I signed up with, I used something like opera@myname.oib.com.  When these companies email me, the email goes to
a specialized mailbox under the company name to help me remember who
each email is from. If I win one of those prizes (keep your fingers
crossed), it will show up under my mailbox labeled “prize”.

Another cool thing about creating email addresses on the fly is that
you can use them for networking.  Going back to my SXSWi example, I
gave everybody I met that was interested in partnership opportunities
the email address partnership@myname.oib.com.  Several potential job
candidates came by, and I gave them jobs@myname.oib.com.  It’s not that
I don’t think these people are important enough to go into my “real”
inbox, but this helps me remember where we met and how I can best help
them.  When you are at a conference or other event where you meet
hundreds of people, this is a great tool for remembering and organizing
contacts.

A good friend of mine is an artist who likes to sell paintings in
public places like coffee shops.  In the past, giving out her real
email has been a hassle.  With OtherInbox, not only can she be fearless
in giving out her email to total strangers, but she can use the tricks
above to find out where she is getting the most response from possible
buyers.  She sets up email addresses using the names of the shops where
she is displaying her work to help her track the “hot spots” for her
business.  I have another friend who cuts hair for extra cash while she
is getting back to full-time work.  She gives out one email for
booking@hername.oib.com, one for cancellations@hername.oib.com, and
another for anything else she wants organized.

Another cool thing about creating addresses on the fly is that you can
easily block them if someone is spamming you.  All you have to do is
hit the block button in your OtherInbox.

There are countless ways you can use OtherInbox to control email.  We
love to share unique stories from our users. If you have a story you
would like to share, please send it to myoib@peeps.oib.com.

One last thing, if you ever want a good chuckle, you can watch
someone’s expression when you give your email address as
theirname@yourname.oib.com.  It always raises an eyebrow or two!