I've heard that I can view more information about where an e-mailmessage came from, by viewing the "full headers" of the message. Howcan I do that in Gmail?

Dave's Answer:

Normally when you view an e-mail message in your inbox, it shows only the"From" address, the "To" address (typically your address, but also includinganyone else the message was sent to), the "Subject" line, and the date sent.The "full headers" can show more information about where the message wassent from and what path it traveled before reaching your inbox.

Recent articles have explainedhow toview full headers in Hotmail, for example. Gmail, confusingly, doesn't make thisoption easy to find, but here's how to do it:

Start with an open e-mail message whose full headers you want to view. (Below is anexample of spam that I received, so I'm curious to see where it came from. For privacyreasons, I've "scratchedout" the addresses of the senders whose messages are in my inbox.)

In the upper right corner of the message, to the right of the word "Reply", is a boxwith a downward-pointing arrow. Click that box:

and click the "Show original" option:

This will open up a new window displaying the full headers of the e-mail message:

What the full headers mean, and how to read them, is a much longer and more complicatedanswer. This article just explains how to view full headers in Gmail, since Gmail makesit far from obvious where to find that option!

Simply close that window when done viewing full headers.

About the Author: Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is internationally known as an expert on both business and technology issues. Holder of an MSEd and MBA, author of twenty books and founder of four startups, he also runs a strategic marketing company and consults with firms seeking the best approach to working with weblogs and social networks. Dave is an award-winning speaker and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs. AskDaveTaylor.com http://www.intuitive.com/blog/