Filed under: Software, Freeware
Gmail changes break gCount
I was bummed today when I launched gCount, one of my absolute, "must-have" utilities for Mac OS X and was greeted with a dialog box that read, "The email service has changed its ways and is no longer compatible with gCount v0.5..." Oh, no! For the uninitiated, gCount is a simple utility that periodically checks your Gmail account for new messages, and displays the results of the query in the menu bar. I hope that Nathan is able to fix this quickly, as I'll miss it in the meantime.For more information on gCount, check out Scott's post from earlier this year.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike said 9:27AM on 6-23-2005
Now that you can POP Gmail, are programs like gCount even needed anymore? I've been popping it for awhile now (there are instructions inside Gmail).
Reply
Nick said 9:29AM on 6-23-2005
Yep, the exact same thing happened to me yesterday with my little "G-Mail Notifier" extension for Firefox.
Reply
Richard Earney said 9:30AM on 6-23-2005
How about subscribing to the RSS feed of your GMail Inbox?
Then you know when you get a message and a quick summary of the first couple of lines
Reply
matt said 9:31AM on 6-23-2005
Gee! is a better app for Gmail notification, anyhow. It offers a drop-down display of authors/subjects, in addition to Growl support. The key to fixing the recent change is just switching the Atom feed to mail.google.com...
Reply
Dave said 9:32AM on 6-23-2005
Mike and Richard: You guys are right, I just like the simplicity of that small icon in my menu bar. I'll wait for a fix.
Reply
bloodthirstyrobot said 9:39AM on 6-23-2005
This happened once before, and prompted me to switch to Gmail Status. Has the same functions and feel as Gmail Count, but...well...it works.
Reply
Andy said 9:43AM on 6-23-2005
GmailStatus.app still works (found on MacUpdate) too.
Reply
Jason said 10:22AM on 6-23-2005
i noticed that GMail has recently changed it's default URL. it is no longer " http://gmail.google.com/gmail"
now it is "http://mail.google.com/mail"
that may very likely be the cause of these sudden incompatibilities
Reply
fishpatrol said 10:33AM on 6-23-2005
I think it was Gmail Status that I had installed on my Powermac. Noticed that my crunch speed was way way down. Somehow that little Gmail checker was eating up 70% plus of the CPU. I axed that one real fast.
I'm a big fan of Gee. Not my favorite to look at, quite, but it's easy to update the feed address, and it does show the sender and the first few words of the email. Way more useful than just seeing that I've got mail.
I use Mail as a local mirror of my Gmail account. I prefer this to using Gmail outright because then I'm sure to have kept my sent mail; plus when Mail pulls down messages, it grabs emails I've sent and includes them in threads. No hunting around to see what email goes with what reply. Nice. Now if I could just make a smart folder that could also include messages sent To a certain address..
Reply
Jam said 11:33AM on 6-23-2005
The address changed which broke it, if you have the firefox exstention simply change the address to the new one and it works, nathen will be able to fix this Gcount problem the same way, its no biggie really.
Reply
Nathan Spindel said 12:32PM on 6-23-2005
Dave, thanks for the concern and for your kind words!
Indeed, as someone already mentioned, the problem is that Google changed the URL to their Atom feed. I'm quite busy working at Apple this summer, but along with the URL fix I'm going to try hard in the next few weeks to revamp gCount with some new features, open source it, and hand it off to the Growl guys to maintain. Before that gets done, I suggest both GmailStatus and Gee to keep you on your toes with the mails.
Reply
paul said 1:21PM on 6-23-2005
While you're at it, Nathan, why not add a Hotkey to open the Gmail inbox? And another to check for new mail? That's the reason I switched to Gmail Status. Yours is still prettier, though. ;)
Reply
ToeKnee said 7:29AM on 6-24-2005
I have to agree with those above who recommended Gee! I thought gCount was the best ever until it stopped working and I searched for alternatives. Gee! has the number of new Gmail messages viewable without clicking, and when you do click, you get a preview of what's waiting for you. I'll try gCount again when Nathan updates it, but Gee! is pretty cool in the meantime.
Reply
paul said 12:12AM on 6-28-2005
When is Gcount going to be updated? It's been a long time. I've actually gotten to the point where I downloaded "Gee!" and replaced all the icons I could to make it look like Gcount (Using the "Show package contents" right-click option).
It's a shame there isn't one Gmail notifier that has everything. Gee! looks terrible and has no hotkey to open your inbox, Gcount is always broken and also lacks the hotkey option, and Gmail Status doesn't tell you the e-mail sender name and subject with Growl. But then again, this is free software. ;)
Reply