Filtering is an essential Gmail power-user feature. With filters (and labels) you can use Gmail to handle a ton of incoming mail. I know — I’m subscribed to 64 mailing lists at Google. My filters let me manage the deluge with ease.

But managing the filters themselves has been another story. Each filter has to be crafted individually — though the ability to "filter messages like these" (see "More actions" while reading a message) does simplify the most common case a great deal.
Filter import/export, available today in Gmail Labs, helps you work with filters in bulk, rather than just one at a time. The basic function is simple: turn it on from the Labs tab under Settings, and from the Settings > Filters page you can download a file containing some or all of your filters or upload a file to create a set of filters all in one go.
Here are some other ideas for things you can do by importing and/or exporting your filters:

• Download all your filters. If you’re using POP or IMAP to get backup copies of your mail messages, now you can include your filters too.
• Share filters with other people. If you have a set of filters that is especially good at organizing particular kinds of mail that others also receive, you can now make those filters available to them.
• Temporarily "disable" a set of filters by exporting them and then deleting them. To "reenable" them, just re-import them from the file you exported.
• If you’re comfortable editing XML, you can make new filters that are similar to existing filters. Export the old ones, edit the resulting XML file, and import it back again. For more information about modifying these XML files, see Gmail Labs user group for Filter import/export.

via Gmail

There are added two new features in Gmail. Task and Text Messaging in Chat.

Tasks
Keep track of what you need to do with a lightweight task list right inside of Gmail. Just click and type to add new tasks, convert emails into tasks, and (most satisfyingly) check them off as you’re done. Once you turn on this Labs feature, look for the Tasks link to the left of your inbox under Contacts.

Text Messaging in Chat
Send SMS text messages right from Gmail. You chat from your comfy computer and reach your friends on the go; they get your messages as texts and can peck out replies on their little keyboards.

You can add this two features by sign-in to you Gmail account and after settings. Find Labs tab and activate Tasks of Text Messaging. In the Labs you can find a lot of other options that can be added to Gmail account.

1. Enable IMAP in your Gmail settings.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Mail.
4. Tap Add Account.
5. Tap Other. (Note: If you’re running software update 1.1.3, tapping the ‘Gmail’ icon will automatically configure IMAP. However, archiving and deleting messages will work differently. If you want your Gmail IMAP actions to operate as designed, please continue on to Step 6. Google Apps users, please also continue to Step 6).

   

6. Make sure that:
   • The IMAP tab is highlighted
   • Host Name is imap.gmail.com
   • User Name is your full Gmail address, including ‘@gmail.com.’ Google Apps users, enter your full address in the format ‘username@your_domain.com’

     

   • For Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP), Host Name is smtp.gmail.com

     

7. Tap Save.
8. Check our recommended client settings, and adjust your client’s settings as needed.

And you’re done. You can verify your Advanced settings by tapping Settings > [your Gmail IMAP Account] > Advanced.

Incoming Settings
Use SSL: ON
Authentication: password
Server Port: 993

Outgoing Settings
Use SSL: ON
Authentication: Password
Server Port: 587

Via Google Gmail How to

Google introduced Gmail Labs, a new link on the Gmail Settings page that offers a selection of experimental Gmail features for users to evaluate. So what is in the lab, AIM, colored labels, group chat, and rich emoticons only work in the latest version of Gmail, currently available for Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.

The new features are Gmail has a new look on the iPhone browser, Gmail includes AIM friends, Colored labels, Group chat, New emoticons, Free IMAP, and more.

5. "Archive and next" shortcut
We added a bunch of new shortcuts to Gmail, but one that I’ve found to be a true time-saver is what I call the "archive and next" shortcut. When I have a lot of mail, it can be really annoying to have to open a message, click "Back to Inbox" and then select the next email I want to read. So once you enable shortcuts in Settings, you can simply press the left bracket key "[" while viewing a message to archive it, and then immediately open the next oldest one. When I see a long list of unread messages, I like to open the first one and then just hit "[" to swiftly move through my mail and archive as I go. (P.S. By clicking the right bracket "]" you can also move the other way if you want to open newer messages after you archive).

4. Share mail searches with friends
How many times do your friends tell you, "I can’t find that email you sent me." Now you can prove that you did indeed send that message, despite the accusations. All you have to do is search for the message using your expert mail searching skills, and when you find it listed in the results, just copy and paste the URL and email it to your friend. When he or she goes to that link while in Gmail, your friend’s Gmail will run the same search you ran and will be able to locate that "lost" email instantly. For example, if you wanted to share a search for "pick me up at airport," so flight information can be located, you would send over this URL: http://mail.google.com/mail/#search/pick+me+up+at+airport.

3. Browser navigation and history
Your web browser is now a great way to navigate Gmail. Instead of having to find the right links on the page to move from inbox to messages to other Gmail views, you can use the browser navigation buttons (back and forward) to jump back and forth between emails. You can also open your browser history and click on specific emails that you’ve read to go right back to them. This allows you to quickly access certain emails without having to re-read your inbox. Browser history is something that often doesn’t work well on complex web apps like Gmail, but we’ve gone to great lengths to make it work right.

2. Bookmark emails
I frequently need to save a single email for a period of time, such as a message that includes an important phone number. But I don’t want to create a separate label for one message, and I also don’t want to archive all the email that comes in after that message just to keep that thread near the top of my inbox–and hopefully the top of my mind. This problem is now easily solved by a new ability to bookmark specific emails. All emails now have dedicated URLs, so just by adding a browser bookmark while viewing a message, you can return to it whenever you want, just like a regular web page–although you will still have to log in to Gmail if you’ve signed out.

1. "Filter messages like this"
I find filters to be one of the most useful features in Gmail, but sometimes it can be hard to set them up quickly. So we added a new capability that makes a filter based on the message you are reading, so you can keep track of future similar emails. By clicking on the dropdown menu in the upper right-hand corner of every email (the upside-down triangle), you can now see the option to "Filter messages like this." Not only can you easily create a filter based on the sender, but this is especially handy if you are trying to filter emails sent to mailing lists. We automatically set up a filter for you based on the "list ID" header, which does a better job of finding emails sent to mailing lists.

{via GmailBlog}