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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
MySpace
Pretty similar gadget to the Facebook but will enable you to stay connected with your friends over at MySpace.
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.
World Clock
This gadget is designed especially for Gmail and offers possibility to add current time of different places of the world. Pretty neat.
bit.ly URL Shortener
Small but useful gadget that will convert your URLs into short ones using Bit.ly service.
Calculator
Very nice looking calculator for your Gmail if you quickly need to count some numbers or do more advanced calculations.
Google Map Search
Great gadget to find your desired location fast. With combination of Google maps it works really well.
Toodledo To-Do
Very powerful and feature rich gadget for organizing to-do lists. Provides better organizations
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.
That’s it! I hope you find some (or prefferably all) of these helpful and fun to use. Enjoy!
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