Help me thwart the Man!

July 12, 2007 9:40 AM

How can I get Gmail to show up in Google Reader (not the other way round)?

My new employer bans web-based email clients, so I can't get to my Gmail at work. This is normally not a problem, but I'm also two weeks away from closing on a house and need access to my Gmail account so I can keep tabs on what's going on. I thought I could just use my phone to connect to the net, but I work in a basement, so my phone doesn't get any service down here.

I can, however, get to Google Reader.

There are all sorts of Greasemonkey scripts and things that will get Google Reader to appear in my Gmail, but is there a tool or anything that exists that will allow my Gmail to show up as a feed in Google Reader? Or is there any other way I can get my Gmail delivered to me (I'm using Outlook at work, but the company's pretty tight about adding/changing stuff so I don't think I'll be able to monkey with it too much...)?

I can set up my Gmail to forward stuff to me tonight, if I have to, but I'd rather see if there's another way to go...

posted by pdb to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Just have it forward, not worth getting fired over or making you look like a trouble maker to your new employer.
posted by zeoslap at 9:48 AM on July 12, 2007

But here you go
posted by zeoslap at 9:50 AM on July 12, 2007

Right-o. Set up a new Gmail filter that forwards all email from the house people to your work account.

Done.
posted by unixrat at 9:51 AM on July 12, 2007

Here ya go.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:51 AM on July 12, 2007

Well, if they've banned it with firewall rules, this will be less straightforward; chances are greasemonkey's not going to cut it.

If you can't get to mail.google.com at all, you might have to use a public proxy.
posted by boo_radley at 10:04 AM on July 12, 2007

oh, even better. There's me overthinking a plate of beans.
posted by boo_radley at 10:05 AM on July 12, 2007

not worth getting fired over or making you look like a trouble maker to your new employer

Surprisingly enough, my new employer was the one that suggested I find a way to get gmail in google reader. They know I'm buying a house but also know the ban is non-negotiable (several people in the IT shop, where I am, get around it apparently) . Thanks for the tips - if the ideas in the links don't work I'll just set up a forward...
posted by pdb at 10:08 AM on July 12, 2007

several people in the IT shop, where I am, get around it apparently

Make friends.
posted by desjardins at 10:21 AM on July 12, 2007

If you have a hard time getting to Gmail on their computers then one nice work around would be to access Gmail using your phone.
posted by zoey08 at 10:24 AM on July 12, 2007

You may want to try an alternate url to reach gmail, they may only be block www.gmail.com versus some of the alternatives.

I grabbed the following from "How to access Gmail when it is blocked at work or school" which also offers some other alternatives.

Instead of using http://mail.google.com use https://mail.google.com

You can also try

* http://www.gmail.com or https://www.gmail.com
* http://gmail.com or https://gmail.com
* http://m.gmail.com or https://m.gmail.com
* http://googlemail.com or https://googlemail.com
* http://mail.google.com/mail/x/ or https://mail.google.com/mail/x/

posted by sdinan at 10:24 AM on July 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Has anyone tested this actually in Google Reader, I have tried several times to get Gmail to feed into Reader and it doesn't seem to work. In fact, a comment on the page that zeoslap and Happy Dave posted reads:

"I have tryied This whole convo of ideas gmails’ rss feed does not work in their own reader. If it does it is not one of the above formulas."

So, instead of posting google results, does anyone have a way to actually get Gmail into Reader?
posted by idledebonair at 8:49 AM on July 13, 2007