Mountain View, California — Are you a frustrated Gmail user because you could not instantly view how many e-mails you have in your inbox? Gmail users can rejoice now as search engine titan Google has made a simple but very effective addition to its Chrome browser — that delivers desktop notifications for Gmail and Gtalk.
Google over the weekend launched two new features, the first new feature is entitled Unread Message Icon. This tab shows that Gmail users using the company’s browser, Google Chrome, about how many new e-mails they currently have waiting to be read in their inbox, this means that you can now be notified instantly when someone emails you through Gmail or pings you through Gtalk without actually having to flick back to your Gmail account.
The feature, which takes advantage of functionality available only in HTML5, can now be activated by a setting that will allow them to receive desktop notifications for when they receive emails or chat messages.
“We just rolled out HTML5 desktop notifications which display pop-ups whenever a chat message or new email arrives,” said Google’s Andrew Wilson in a blog.
Users must choose to enable this feature by browsing through the Lab settings and then clicking the green formula bottom at the top of the window. It can also be configured to display alerts only for messages that Gmail considers important, instead of for every incoming item.
“To activate the feature, click on the Settings link in the top right corner of Gmail and scroll down to the ‘Desktop Notifications’ section.”
These notifications feature should help maximize the attractiveness of the Gmail Web interface, which Google asserts is superior to e-mail desktop client software, like Microsoft Outlook. The feature is designed to keep users aware of e-mail and chat messages, even when they are not looking at the Gmail interface browser window, according to Google.
“Many of us are guilty of constantly switching back to Gmail to check for new messages. And if you are like me, you have probably missed an important chat message because you were not looking at your Gmail window when it came in,” wrote Wilson, in a blog post.
“If you use Google Chrome, these days can be over since we just launched HTML5 desktop notifications which display pop-ups whenever a chat message or new email arrives,” he added.
While the latest feature is just for Google Chrome users that can have the notifications at present, the search engine leader mentioned no word on whether non-Chrome users can expect this feature in the near future or if they will have to switch.
Gmail was first unwrapped on April 1, 2004, becoming available to the public on Feb. 7, 2007. G-mail has 193.3 million users a month, as recent as November 2010.
In comparison to other e-mail sites, Y-mail remains as the current leader in free e-mail accounts. Google however, recently began delivering unlimited storage for any Gmail account giving it a huge advantage over the competition.