Quick Access to Gmail Attachments

I often find myself sifting through boatloads of mail looking for that video attachment of that guy getting hit in the crotch. There's a way to do that fairly quickly in Gmail using a couple tools:

• Quick Links from Google Labs
• Advanced operator searches

Getting the "Quick Links" tool:

You can check out the article Manually Enable Gmail Labs in Your Account or you can just copy and paste this into your browser: https://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=1#settings. You will then see a green beaker in the top right of your Gmail screen just after your email address. Click on this icon and you will be taken to Gmail Labs where you'll see a tool called "Quick Links". Select 'Enable' and you will now have a "Quick Links" tool on the left pane of your email screen.

Using Advanced Operator Searches:

The best way to get results is to play with the operators in your search. You can find the search operators here. Here are some that I use:

• has:attachment (*.mov || *.wmv || *.wm) - With this in my searchfield, it will return any videos that were sent to me with the formats of .mov, .wmv or .wm.
  
• has:attachment (*.wav || *.mp3 || *.m4a || *.wma) -"You have received a new voicemail message" - This search string will return all .wav, .mp3, m4a and wma files that were attached, but that don't include the string "You have received a new voicemail message" in it. (I have my voicemails emailed to me and I don't want to include them in my music search.
  

As you can see, these searches are pretty self explanatory.

Once you're happy with your search results (I'm sure I'll be tweaking mine for a while), and you have your search string in the search field, simply select "Add Quick Link" from your Quick Links tool. When it prompts you for a title of the search, enter a name and select "OK".

You will now have a custom search in your Gmail that will serve up all of your Videos or Music that was ever sent to you through Gmail.