Last year, Firefox 3 added the option to associate protocols with web applications. A common way to link to mail addresses is using the mailto: protocol, so you'll often find links like security@google.com.
When Firefox 3 was released, Yahoo Mail was the only webmail service that could be selected directly and the instructions for adding Gmail were complicated. Gmail has been added to the list of mail applications and it's easy to set it as the default email client in Firefox and open all the mailto: links in Gmail, without installing extensions:
* For Firefox 4+, click the Firefox drop-down menu and select Options > Options. For Firefox 3.0-3.6, go to Tools > Options.
* select the Applications tab
* search for mail
* select Use Gmail from the list of actions associated with the mailto protocol
* click OK to save the settings.
If you want to set Gmail as the default mail client for your computer and not just for Firefox, install Google Talk, Gmail Notifier for Windows or Google Notifier for Mac.
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When will Chrome (chromium) be able to do that?
ReplyDeleteThe option with installing a second application is not best fit...
Hmm... Doesn't work for me, I wonder why?
ReplyDeleteIn most Linux distros the path in Firefox to this option is "Edit/Preferences/Applications".
ReplyDeleteHow I can use Google Apps mail as default?
ReplyDeleteIgnore my previous comment, I went into about:config, found that network.protocol-handler.external.mailto was set to false, and toggled it. Toggled a few other values also, but I think the aforementioned was the important one.
ReplyDeleteNow it works, thanks!
For Google Apps, check this post from Gmail's blog. Remember to edit the domain name.
ReplyDeleteIf you have Google Toolbar installed and the option "Use Gmail for Mailto: links" is checked, the Firefox preferences are not taken into account.
ReplyDeleteI don't have the gmail handler in Firefox 3.0.11 on Ubuntu 9.04..
ReplyDeleteWeird - works on one machine, but doesn't work on the other. I'm using FF 3.0.11 on all PCs. Cool feature though.
ReplyDeleteSame as the last Anonymous... it's not there for me.. I use Kubuntu 9.10.
ReplyDeleteThose Google Apps instructions seem unrelated to this option in Firefox you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteEasiest thing for Google Apps users is to use Greasemonkey and install the "Mailto - Google GMail (Clean, Fast, Popup)" script which works perfectly with Google Apps.
Not working.
ReplyDeleteThere is no "Gmail" option to select from list (FF 3.0.11 , PL)
In Mac it's Firefox/Preferences
ReplyDeleteI used Google Apps it works
ReplyDelete1) Go to Google Apps and sign in.
2) While in Google Apps, copy and paste the following into your browser's address bar and hit enter.
(but be sure to replace yourdomain.com with your Google Apps domain name):
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://
mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","Gmail")
A message will dropdown prompting you to add the application.
Then
* go to Tools > Options
* select the Applications tab
* search for mail
* select Use Gmail from the list of actions associated with the mailto protocol
* click OK to save the settings.
I've never seen deliver the URL for Google Notifier for Mac something else than a 404. Same this time when I tried in eager.
ReplyDeleteIt is working. I have also done. Thanks for sharing this information !!
ReplyDeleteis google trying to rule the world? it's becoming like micro$oft
ReplyDeleteYou may also want to check-out Affixa (http://www.affixa.com/), which becomes your machines default mailto: handler, supporting multiple GMail, Google Apps, and Yahoo accounts, as well as drag-and-drop attachments.
ReplyDeletebuy_acai - Enough of the spam. Your name alone made me not want to go to the link. Not to mention it only works in Windows.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this informative post.I am using Firefox for quite few months but was unaware of this thing....Thanks again and please keep on sharing useful stuff.
ReplyDeleteRegards
This is great. I want to see the the new message dialogue open in a tiny new window, instead of new or current tab. Is this possible?
ReplyDelete< http://felipe1982.com >
People with other browsers - lrn2greasemonkey.
ReplyDeletehttp://userscripts.org/scripts/show/595
Oh, okay, I never knew about this feature, although I do seem to remember it doing this automatically without me having to set anything.
ReplyDeleteI am new in internet. I got g mail conection 3 days back. When I entered the User Id, Without entering the Passward, the passward is automatically entered (stayed) Please help me anybody what shoud I do for that?
ReplyDelete@jara:
ReplyDeleteThat's a browser setting. Assuming that you use Internet Explorer, check this guide. For other browsers, use Google to search for [disable password autocomplete].
by installing fire fox and naming gmail as primary email client, will this make gmail primary email when using MS Publishers as email client in lieu of MS Outlook?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteNo, you'll only change the email service that handles mailto: links that open in Firefox. For a system-wide change, install Google Talk's desktop client (not the video chat plug-in) or Gmail Notifier.
Here you can find a way to do that for every browser without any software or javascript just by editing a registry key.
ReplyDeleteAnyone any idea how to make the ?Subject+ parameter work, such as you get in the HTML digest form of Yahoo groups?
ReplyDeleteworked perfect - thanx!
ReplyDeleteBless you! this has been driving me nuts. So simple when you know how!
ReplyDeletei need a step-by-step here. i cannot find tools and when i copy and paste there is no drop box for an addition of the application. HELP!!!
ReplyDeleteHey i feeling very glad to see this type of information as well as shortcut. I like to keep my browser very smooth and definitely it works very perfect.
ReplyDelete