Maybe this is why Gmail remains in perpetual beta; the labs team can keep adding useful functionality without having to announce version 1.7, 2.5, 3.0…

Google has been rolling out new features for Gmail at a furious pace lately, with something new popping up almost once per week. This week’s gem? Instant e-mail-to-document conversion.

Software engineer Jeremie Lenfant-Engelmann explains, “More than once, I’ve had a conversation over e-mail and later realized that the information contained in the messages would make a great starting point for a document. So I built an experimental feature for Gmail Labs that does just that: with one simple click, ‘Create a document’ converts an e-mail into a Google Docs document. No more copying and pasting the text from your e-mail — just open the message you wish to convert, click the ‘Create a document’ link on the right side of the page, and voila, you have a brand new document which you can then modify and share!”

I enabled the feature this morning and tested it out. It works perfectly. The document is created in a manner similar to when you choose to save an e-mail attachment as a document. It takes perhaps three seconds, depending on the size of the e-mail and what it contains. This works with simple text e-mails as well as HTML e-mails. (Source-InformationWeek)

This is especially useful for bloggers. I often get thought-provoking emails that I want to use to form the basis for a post. Being able to put them into document format, I can create my post right in Google Docs then transfer it into my blog.

Can you suggest other uses for this new ability?

Amit Agarwal at DigitalInspiration passes along this valuable information:

It seems as if email spammers have found a workaround to trick both the virus scanner and spam filters of Gmail.

I have got at least three different mails in my Gmail account today that carry virus attachments but they still managed to reach the inbox just like other regular mails.

Looking at the file name (mywifepics.zip), it was fairly obvious that the attachment is a virus and Windows Defender too helped confirm the same as some Win32/Wmfap exploit.

Why you get Virus Infected mails in Gmail

Now the reason why these infected zip attachments could trick Gmail so easily is because they were password protected and Gmail scanners cannot read contents of such files. What’s surprising though is that even the spam filters of Gmail failed to catch these messages.

If you get an email with a suspicious attachment, forward that to scan@virustotal.com to confirm if the file is a virus or not.

Amit has screenshots on his site that show you what to watch for. As always, beware of attachments from people you don’t know. Your virus scanner should inspect all attachments, even those from friends.

Just as many of us are eager to buy online this year, there are those eager to steal your money.

Phishers always think out of the box, thinking of ways to fool victims into falling for their phishing schemes.

Now, from targeting financial institutions and banks, we’ve found a new twist – one that involves the popular fast-food chain McDonald’s.

The phishing page displays a fake Member Satisfaction Survey, and for the customer to take the bait, it promises $75 credit to the customer’s account.

After filling out all the required information for the survey, the customer will be asked for full name, email address, credit card number and electronic signature.

This isn’t the first time a bogus survey has used in a phishing attack. Surveys related to Wal-Mart, American Airlines, and even U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama were previously used to collect personal information from potential victims. (Read more at TrendMicro)

Only provide this type of information on secure sites (https://) and only when you initiate the transaction. No one else needs your credit card information. Legitimate surveys will provide a credit voucher or discount coupon code that doesn’t require any more information from you than an email address.

Don’t let scammers ruin your holiday cheer.