Google+ is offering its users the ability to have IM conversations through a Google Talk integration that’s very similar to the way the service is integrated within GMail. Part of that integration is regular contact with Google’s IM servers, which seems to be the core of this particular bug. Here’s how it works:

Let’s say Peter logs into GMail and Google+, then leaves both windows open on his computer. Peter’s Wi-Fi connection goes out for a minute, causing his Google Talk session within Google+ to lose sync and wait a few minutes to reconnect. Mary now borrows his computer, logs Peter out of GMail and logs into her own GMail account. The Google Talk session within Peter’s Google+ page finally decides it’s time to call home – and then automatically reconnects under Mary’s Google Talk account.

Mary logs out of her email, closes the browser window she used and hands the computer back to Peter. He’ll find now that he is still logged into Mary’s Google Talk account within his Google+ page. To make matters worse, any IM message Mary sends from a different device automatically gets relayed to Peter on his machine.

A Google spokesperson told me today that this looks like a rare bug that is currently being addressed. He also said that Google generally recommends to always log out of your Google account if you share a computer. However, this wouldn’t have helped Mary, since she dutifully logged out of GMail at the end of her session, unaware of the fact that her IM session persisted within Peter’s Google+ page. Correction: Turns out that logging out of your GMail account actually does force the Google Talk session to disconnect a few seconds later. However, Mary’s Google Talk session will persist if Mary simply closes her browser window and Peter uses another login screen instance to access his GMail account. In fact, Peter will be able to access both his and Mary’s Google Talk account simultaneously without still being logged into her GMail account.

To be fair, it’s unlikely that many people will run into this issue — even though it happened to me yesterday, resulting in some very confused IM exchanges between me and my wife’s work colleagues before we finally figured out what had happened. But a Google+ user has told us that the same has happened to him with his own multiple GMail accounts, suggesting that Google may have to find a way to unify multiple accounts under one Google+ identity.

Google+ users have already been vocal about the inability to access the service with enterprise Google accounts, forcing users to revert back to their personal emails for Google+ usage. Google has said that it will add enterprise support to Google+ in the future, but hasn’t given a timeline for doing so.

It might be a good idea for Google to take the roll-out of enterprise access one step further, allowing people to link their personal and professional accounts under one Google+ identity. This would not only allow users to share content with contacts across their multiple Google accounts, but also simplify the discovery of Google+ users within the network, many of which now show up with multiple but separate Google accounts.

Update (08/11/2011): A Google spokesperson told me that the bug in question has since been fixed.

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The truth is that I wasn’t an early adopter of this feature. I always thought, “My contacts will think I’m too lazy or self-absorbed to write them a real email.” But after enabling Canned Responses for a few weeks and finding productive ways to use it, I wish I had been using this feature from the start! Here are three ways to use Canned Responses that will benefit both the sender and the receiver:

Send out smart autoresponders. What I love about Gmail’s canned responses is that unlike most autoresponder features from other free webmail providers, you don’t have to send the same automated email to everyone who sends you anything. By using canned responses hand-in-hand with Gmail’s filters, you can trigger Gmail to send out a specific response based on an incoming email’s keywords, who the the sender is, and other criteria.

This feature comes in handy for me because I provide free advice via email for one of my nonprofit blogs. Since it’s a low priority project, it often takes me a few days before I can give a sensible response to the readers who want to consult with me.

The online form that readers use to contact me sends me an email with the subject “Contact Form Results FP”. Here’s how I was able to create a filtered autoresponder (feel free to adapt the instructions based on your needs):

1) I wrote an email in Draft mode and saved it as a Canned Response.

2) Then, I created a filter for the subject “Contact Form Results FP”. I checked the option for “Send Canned Response”, and chose the appropriate template (see below).

Now, everyone who sends me an email via the contact form will know that while I will definitely reply to their message, I can only do so during the following weekend.

This helps me by preventing my inbox from filling up with “Did you get my email?”-type messages (which happened regularly before setting up this Canned Response). It helps my readers by telling them that yes, I do care about them and I will reply to their questions, just not right now. They’re not left frustrated and wondering when they can expect my reply, since my autoresponder gives them a timeframe.

Sending contracts and other paperwork. Online freelancers regularly send out contracts and other documents to their clients. Emails that have these documents as attachments often include at least a basic description of each attached file. You can use Canned Responses to handle this repetitive task for you so you don’t want to type these instructions over and over again, or even copy and paste it from a text file.

Here’s a concrete example: Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today has written a tutorial about how he uses Gmail’s Canned Responses to send DMCA notices. You can apply the same idea when you’re sending independent contractor agreements, non-disclosure agreements or client questionnaires.

Using multiple signatures. Right now, Gmail doesn’t allow multiple signatures. One workaround is to use the canned response feature to apply a specific signature to each message. Why is this useful for web workers? Well, odds are you have a vast network of contacts across several industries. Your services might mean different things to each of those contacts.

If you’re mostly helping out a specific client with their social media needs, then you can sign off the email as a “Social Media Consultant,” including a relevant link to a resource you’ve created on the subject. But if you’re providing design work for another client, then you can have a different signature tailored for that task, too.

Canned Responses may seem like a very basic tool on the surface, but if you use it well, you’re likely to lessen the amount of time you spend going over your email. Just make sure that it’s a good thing not just for you, but for your recipient as well.

Have you enabled Gmail’s canned response feature? How do you use it to increase email efficiency?

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