Disambiguate Your Email with Emoticons (Occasionally)

For every great new Google Labs invention like the forgotten attachment detector, it seems there's an equally silly one, like Mail Goggles. The new emoticons for Gmail fall somewhere in the middle. While you're not going to, say, accent an email to a prospective client with a steaming GIF of dung (see far right), emoticons can be useful in helping you express things that email is notoriously bad at: mood, tone, sarcasm, etc. Used very sparingly, a smiley face can be a welcome addition to a friendly message. Just click on the yellow face next to the highlighter above your message to get the full range to choose from.