What can you do with Gmail Labs?
Gmail Labs is a very unknown component of Gmail that you can use to add features to your Gmail account. These features in the Gmail Labs section are experimental and that means that they can brake. After they have been tested for an extended period of time by you, the Gmail users, they are rolled in as a new Gmail feature or removed.
As they say on the Gmail labs page:
Gmail Labs: Some crazy experimental stuff.
Gmail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may change, break or disappear at any time.If (when) a Labs feature breaks, and you’re having trouble loading your inbox, there’s an escape hatch. Use https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?labs=0
Gmail Labs How To:
I installed 4 Gadgets in my Gmail account and this is how I did it.
I first went to the “Settings” button located at the top right of Gmail and clicked on “Settings”.
I then clicked on the “Labs” tab and made my choice of 4 Gadgets to install in my account.
For each gadget you want, you just have to select “Enable” and then click the Save button.
Gadget 1 – Undo Send
Have you ever clicked the send button and realized that you’ve just made a mistake? Well, that’s usually to late. If you forget an attachment, a piece of information or name the wrong person… it won’t be a problem anymore, “Enable” the following gadget.
After installation you will see that Gmail’s confirmation yellow message has changed.
You can now click Undo… for 10 seconds… and you can prevent a mistake to be made!
Gadget 2 – Canned Responses
This one is very useful if you have to send the same email over and over again. You can actually write your email and save it as a Template for future use.
When you open the “Compose” window to write a new email, your canned response is shown when clicking the small arrow down at the bottom right.
You can see in the menu “Canned responses” and the Template I saved “Hello my Friend” as an example. You can of course write and save as many templates as you want. A great time saver!
Gadget 3 – Quick Links
This gadget enables you to bookmark certain areas of your Gmail account. You may want to have a shortcut to all your emails from the family or your office, for example.
The Quick Links gadget becomes available in the left margin, after your Mailboxes and Folders, as shown below.
You have to click on the 3 dots in order to show or hide the gadget. Then navigate to the section you want to bookmark. Click the “Add Quick Link” blue link, a pop-up will show with the path of the bookmark. Rename it to something you can understand. In my example I chose the first one to be “Gmail Lab”, and of course it goes to the lab section in Gmail when clicked.
Gadget 4 – Add any gadget by URL
This one is actually my favorite gadget. There are many gadgets out there that you can add to your Gmail account or you can create your own if you can do simple programming.
When it is enabled a new tab named “Gadgets” appears in the menu bar. You can then add the URL of a gadget.
I have in my example just added my Viral Inbox Notifier. This way I can see if I have new messages in my account, open my account and read my mail there, and earn mailing credits for having this banner.
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I hope this post about Gmail Labs will be useful to you.