Analyzing Your GMail History

thbar writes "I had some fun analyzing my whole GMail account data with Mac OS X, Ruby and software called Tableau. I'd be curious to know if others did the same thing, and how they achieved it."

Analyze my GMails?

[Jupix]

I thought common consensus was that Google are already busy analyzing the hell out of them...

Maybe soon..

[aerthling]

Come to think of it, I'm surprised Google haven't already added graphs and stats and crap to GMail the way they have with Search History.

Maybe it's just a matter of time before something like this appears in the Labs.

Re:Maybe soon..

[brajesh]

Mail trends [google.com], written by Mihai Parparita (a Google engineer) does something similar and has been there for quite sometime.

Re:

[thbar]

Thanks for sharing! I didn't know about Mail trends. Seems like a very interesting piece of software.

Wow!

[Chemisor]

That's two orders of magnitude more email than I have received in my entire life!

Re:Wow!

[Al Oser]

You need to make more friends.

My internet friends e-mail me all the time, telling me how I can "turn my banana in to a steel pole"! They're always looking out for me...

Re:Wow!

[adamofgreyskull]

That's two orders of magnitude more email than I have received in my entire life!

So we've established you're not subscribed to the LKML...

Re:

[Chemisor]

> So we've established you're not subscribed to the LKML...

Of course not. After all, I believe that mailing lists are a hideous misuse of email. A usenet group or a web forum is a much more appropriate way of having discussions about something. It is much easier to read posts that way instead of wading through a sea of email on subjects in which you have no interest.

Re:

[thbar]

Size doesn't matter :)

Re:

[RichiH]

You are currently using 3359 MB (46%) of your 7160 MB.

This account has existed for about 1 1/2 years, now. Mailing lists can be evil ;)

Re:

[thbar]

Mailing lists really are evil...

One month ago I decided to unsubscribe from the various lists I was subscribed to, as I received their messages...

It's a *lot* more peaceful in there now!

Re:

[RichiH]

Which is why I use a dedicated mailing list account with filters & automagic tagging, these days. It's the only way to have the benefits of being on a lot of lists while maintaining your sanity (and ability to follow what you are involved/interested in).

Re:

[thbar]

Neat idea - like it.

Re:

[RichiH]

In this case you want to filter on 'list: foo' in the contains words list (look into the raw mail and search for List-Id: or the like), apply a tag and _archive_ immediately. Set up another filter that picks up every mail that looks as if it came from you. This way, you have a tag/folder that contains all threads you ever participated on. Then, you want an 'important' tag which you simply apply to everything you don't take part in but still want to follow. Optionally, you want a tag for mails sent to/by you

Re:

[RichiH]

PPS: You will now only need to go through your inbox from time to time to keep it clean of crud. Ideally, your inbox would be completely empty

PPPS: Except for the various lists like debian-security-announce@ldo. You want to see those immediately and in a obvious place. But only keep the very low traffic lists in your inbox.

PPPPS: The beauty of this is you notice you filtering not seeing all mails from X in a short time and be sufficiently annoyed at losing your tidy inbox that you do something about it.

The danger in doing this

[Anonymous Coward]

I ensured that all the emails were downloaded by using the Mailbox / Synchronize menu item (and that took quite a long time â" a couple of hours to the least).

I'd love to do a similar analysis on my Gmail mail box. But I've already watched a Netflix movie and downloaded a couple iTunes - downloading my Gmail might exceed some Comcast quota.

Good thing they're not evil

[David Gerard]

Google will maintain complete confidentiality within the marketing department [today.com] of whatever the browser accessed concerning your confidential business data, bank account details, medical information and personal preferences in pornography. "We're Google. We know where you live. In a completely not evil way. Sponsored link: Get Chrome Browsers on google.com. Or we'll make you use Windows Live. Ha! Ha! I'm sorry, that's my 'spreading good cheer' laugh. Really."

Numbers...

[KGIII]

In an odd twist of events open source applications never get nearly the response that a good Microsoft or *insert political party of choice* no longer get responses on /. at all really. So, in answer to your question... "No. No one else did and no one is going to. If you could have found a way to tie this into politics or Microsoft you'd have a billion responses."

Re:

[KGIII]

And my next major language classes will be in English. Sadly, yes, I used preview prior to posting.

Re:

[thbar]

Hehe - I think I'll have to make a new version, with trends related to Microsoft vs Apple or Youtube vs DailyMotion.

Re:

[KGIII]

I'm serious... Sort of...

I'm actually a Linux convert to Microsoft. (really you read that right)

I blame work. I still use and support open software but, well, I gotta admit that most Microsoft products actually just work after SP1. Hell, even WITH my mentality I'm an MVP awardee many times in a row and for a lot of years. (I figured I'd disclose that so you'd be aware of any potential biases but I really don't think I have any.)

Unless Google, Apple, or Microsoft is included in the article they get no respon

Re:

[thbar]

Maybe Slashdot is not too much a programmers' site nowadays ? I know there is quite a lof of quality stuff on dzone or rubyinside for instance.

What!?

[gooman]

Linux convert to Microsoft?

You must be reading Slashdot backwards.

Re:

[Bat Country]

I hear if you do that, Richard Stallman appears and steals your soul.