John Miedema

Update March 8, 2010. If you have access to a web server, see my recommended approach here.

Update June 16, 2009. This hack is no longer working. The “maximize” button that allowed entry into the expanded Gmail interface seems no longer available. No doubt the sandbox is somewhat volatile. Harrumph.

Original post >>>

I experienced information culture shock when I went from working at home to working in a business office. Most significantly, I lost access to my personal email. Personal email is my daytime connection with my family and it is an organizational tool, with my inbox serving as my to do list. It boggles my mind that personal email is filtered since it serves no valid security purpose – viruses can still come through work email, the web, or sneakernet. If it’s time wasting they are worried about, I can more effectively waste time surfing the web than peering through my email.

I am no small hack, but every effort I made to access my Gmail account failed. The recommended hacks available on the web may have worked once upon a time but are now stale. Address variants were denied. Portable apps could not access mail servers. Anonymous address sites were no longer available. Gmail APIs no longer work. The best I could do was see the first dozen or so words of my email when I embedded a Gmail gadget in iGoogle. Yes, I could have bought a Blackberry, but the cell signal is weak two floors below the earth.

Today, I accessed my full Gmail account. I cannot take credit. A bright hacker figured it out. Google is working on a new iGoogle look. You can try it in advance using the iGoogle sandbox. It is intended for developers but anyone can sign in with their Gmail account. Once you do, you will see the new iGoogle look. Maximize your Gmail gadget, and you have full access to your Gmail. If you use other web-based mail clients, you can access them via a Gmail account.

Likely this arrangement works because the sandbox address does not have the word ‘mail’ in it to be trapped by a filter. And no one is going to filter plain old Google are they? Hope it stays this way after the new iGoogle goes live.