Make a shortcut to your unread Gmail

One thing about e-mail, no matter how much more convenient it is over opening a letter and reading a piece of paper, we always want to make it easier. Here's a trick for making a shortcut to your unread e-mail in Gmail in Firefox.

Gmail makes it easy to bookmark different parts of itself. For instance: you can book mark your in-box at mail.google.com/mail/#inbox. That keyword after the pound sign is the key. Change that to #sent and you can book mark your sent e-mail.

Unread mail doesn't have a nifty keyword like that. Instead, you need to do a search within Gmail. Go into the search box in Gmail and type: is:unread in:inbox. Once you get the search results, which should be your unread mail, bookmark the rather ugly but useful URL. The easiest way would be to drag it right to the toolbar.

Now that seems simple, so let's make it more complicated so that it is easier to use later. You won't want to hunt around for that bookmark, right?

So, do this: right-click on the bookmark you just created and select properties.

In the keyword field, type a name you'll easily remember like GU.

Next, open a new tab. Type GU in the address bar and press enter.

Boom! You're taken directly to your unread e-mail. Nifty.