I
think Gmail is the best e-mail client available on the web. It’s better
than most ‘premium’ e-mail clients that demand monthly payment or
subscription.
One of the great things in Gmail is of course Google’s Gmail Labs
where many developers showcase and test their creative and useful
gadgets.
Amongst those you can find pretty great features that can really make
your inbox more functional, and sometimes more fun. Like the one that
enables you to add Twitter to your Gmail inbox in 3 steps or even these 5 Cool Gmail Apps.
But here’s something you need to know. Gadgets you can find in Gmail
Labs are not the only ones available on the web. There are far more of
them out of Labs, and to find those, you will need to put some effort
and search for a while. There are some real gems out there, believe me.
To save your time, I made a search and compiled a list of 15 great
Gmail gadgets that will add some social media juice to your inbox and
make it easier for you to stay tuned on all your online profiles,
directly from Gmail. You can stay in your inbox 24 hours a day now!
Everything you need will be there! :)
But first you need to enable
“Add any gadget by URL” functionality on Gmail Labs.
To do so you need to go to
Settings > Labs and switch to ‘
Enable’ button next to
“Add any gadget by URL” gadget. After that you will be able to add gadgets by submitting the URL in the
Settings > Gadgets page.
Below every gadget, I will post an URL to it, so you get that URL and
paste it in Gadgets page, as explained above. Nice and easy.
So here they are, the great 15!
Twitter Gmail Gadget
There are several Twitter gadgets you can use but I found that this
one works best for me. You can post instant tweets straight form the
Gmail and browse your friend tweets. I would say that this gadget turns
Gmail into pretty decent Twitter client.
URL: http://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml
gBook Facebook Gadget
gBook offers all the basic functions so you will never loose contact
with your Facebook friends. You can update your status and see email and
notifications straight from your mailbox. Feel free to search for other
Facebook gadgets as I found this my favorite but there are few more if
you prefer.
URL: http://www.francesco-castaldo.com/fb-gadget/gBook.xml
FriendFeed
Keep track on your friend activities on the web using FriendFeed
gadget. Everything is simple, nothing fancy – just the way you like it.
On the other hand it would be great to see better Gmail implementation
as in general it is an iGoogle gadget.
URL: http://friendfeed.com/embed/googlegadget/spec
Zoho Gadgets
Zoho have built several gadgets for different tasks. You can find
Zoho Docs gadget for creating, editing, sharing, viewing all your
documents. There are also mail, calendar, tasks, planer and notes
gadgets. You can find more information on Zoho gadgets page or just try
them out.
URL: http://gadgets.zoho.com/zc/index.do
Remember The Milk
Yes you can use Zoho tasks what I described before, but I think this
one is pretty great. It truly is “The best way to manage your tasks”.
With the gadget you can review your existing tasks, create new ones,
overdue and postpone them. Check out all the other features in Gadgets
page.
URL: http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/gmail/gadget/
Digg
With this gadget you can quickly browse all the popular stories on
Digg. You will always be well informed on latest events and friend
activities.
URL: http://digg.com/goog/ig.xml
MySpace
Pretty similar gadget to the Facebook but will enable you to stay connected with your friends over at MySpace.
URL:http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/100080069921643878012/myspace.xml
Delicious
Simple gadget to display Delicious hotlist on your Gmail sidebar.
Easy to browse bookmarks of different users. It’s great especially if
you use Deliciouss often as I do.
URL: http://www.labpixies.com/campaigns/delicious/delicious.xml
World Clock
This gadget is designed especially for Gmail and offers possibility
to add current time of different places of the world. Pretty neat.
URL: http://gad.getpla.net/poly/clock.xml
bit.ly URL Shortener
Small but useful gadget that will convert your URLs into short ones using Bit.ly service.
URL: http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/107368512201818821991/bitly-shortener.xml
Calculator
Very nice looking calculator for your Gmail if you quickly need to count some numbers or do more advanced calculations.
URL: http://www.poturi.net/gadgets/calc/calc.xml
Google Map Search
Great gadget to find your desired location fast. With combination of Google maps it works really well.
URL: http://www.google.com/ig/modules/mapsearch.xml
Toodledo To-Do
Very powerful and feature rich gadget for organizing to-do lists. Provides better organizations
URL: http://www.toodledo.com/widget/gmail.php
Ask A Word
Search Thesaurus, Dictionary and Encyclopedia without leaving Gmail.
You can also use built in spellchecker so you won’t make a single
spelling mistake next time.
URL: http://www.openinventions.com/spellcheck/openinventions_spellcheck.xml
That’s it! I hope you find some (or prefferably all) of these helpful and fun to use. Enjoy!
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