Google+ is a great source of clean textual data that you can mine, but it’s just one of many starting points. Since this chapter showcases Google technology, this section provides a brief overview of how to tap into your Gmail data so that you can mine the text of what may be many thousands of messages in your inbox. If you haven’t read Chapter 3 yet, recall that it’s devoted to mail analysis but focuses primarily on the structured data features of mail messages, such as the participants in mail threads. The techniques outlined in that chapter could be easily applied to Gmail messages, and vice versa.