How to Search GMail Effectively and Easily

Everyone knows that GMail is the best web based email solution. It offers a massive 2GB+ of email storage. Searching for a particular email can be tough especially if you've vast quantity of emails in your inbox, draft, and send folder.

Here are the search syntax you can use to easily search emails in GMail:

1. from:

Allows you to find an email which has been sent by a specific email address. For example, from:(theghostintheshell@gmail.com) will search for email sent to you from the theghostintheshell@gmail.com email address.

2. to:

Allows you to find an email which has been sent to a specific email address. For example, to:(theghostintheshell@gmail.com) will search for email sent by you to the theghostintheshell@gmail.com email address.

3. subject:

Allows you to find an email which has specific subject. For example, subject:"Let's play tonight!" will search for all emails with the subject "Let's play tonight!".

4. has:

Allows you to search for a emails having attachment(s). Usage: has:attachment.

5. filename:

Finds messages with an attachment filename matching a provided pattern. Used with just a file extension (e.g., pdf or txt), filename: turns up all messages with attachments of a particular type.

filename:hello.txt

filename:pdf

6. in:

Returns a list of messages in a particular collection (read: folder). Acceptable values for in: are inbox, trash, spam and everywhere (trash and spam are not included in searches unless explicitly included using in:trash, in:spam or in:anywhere) Oddly enough, sent isn't a usable value for in:.

in:inbox

in:anywhere

etc...

Happy Searching!