There's stuff hidden in Gmail that I'd never have known about had I not read Steve Rubel's post at Micro Persuasion today. Specifically, I looked at how to turn Gmail into a massive personal database (Gmail + the Google Toolbar) - write on Steve!

Yep! Steve Rubel is smiling - here's how to use Gmail as a massive personal database:

"…The latest version of the Google Toolbar has a send to Gmail function. Select some text or graphics, right click on it and send it to Gmail.  The Toolbar then automatically feeds it into a new message.

Now, when I find something I want to save I use this feature and send it to a secret  contact in my address book. This is basically a steverubel+[secretphrase]@gmail.com email address (Lifehacker explains the value of these here).

Once the article arrives in my Gmail inbox, I have a filter whisk it a way into the archive and tag it with an @Database label. Further, I am toying with having the same filter also forward these to a premium  Google Apps account that has 10 gigs of space. Now all I need to do to call it up later is enter label:@Database and a keyword. Whammo - an instant personal database.

Here's a screenshot of a photo of Steve Ballmer's office that I felt like filing away for inspiration (I was amazed by its size). Note that the Google Toolbar automatically inserts the source URL. I also use this method to store notes, ideas and musings.

 

Honestly, this "secret" account name and all the ingeniousness sounds like too much work for me.  Maybe it's not that much work though - just need to get used to it.

And I  haven't gotten to the rest of Steve Rubel's Gmail Secrets, especially blogging from Gmail - which I can do with my SideKick 3:

"..How to blog from Gmail

Last but not least, you can also blog directly from Gmail. This works if you blog on Blogger, Wordpress, Moveable Type or TypePad. Simply set up your moblogging settings so that your gmail address is recognized. In addition, you can also blog from Gmail using IMified.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do when you "hack" together a bunch of free tools. Eventually I could run out of space but I suspect Google will offer storage upgrades by the time I come close. What's unmistakable, is that Gmail is really the Internet's version of the Ginsu knife."

I played with IMified a couple of weeks ago but got nowhere with it.