While I am still disappointed at the lack of a to-do list application in Google’s app offerings, I do have to give them credit for continually doing things. Gmail has been around for awhile and still sports the “beta” designation. I don’t know if that will ever change, but perhaps one reason for that is that some of the Gmail Labs features may find their way into the main application.

And some of them should.

If you use Google’s Gmail and you haven’t checked out the Labs, I recommend you do so. You’ll see a tiny green flask icon in the upper right of your account. Click it and take a look.

The Best Labs Features

The following are the Labs features I think should be standard issue for Gmail:

• Quick Links: Puts a series of quick links to any bookmarkable link in Gmail. Handy for creating quick shortcuts to custom searches, labels, whatever.
• Signature Tweaks: Puts your email signature BEFORE the quoted text of the original message when replying.
• Right-Side Chat: This is a new addition, and basically puts your chat contact list on the right side of the Gmail interface.
• Right-side Labels: You guessed it. Puts the label list on the right side. I personally like them better over there, but these kinds of interface changes should be standard issue. In fact, drag-and-drop would be a killer feature (there is a lab feature for that, too)
• Forgotten Attachment Detector: Another new addition, but it will warn you if you’ve forgotten to attach files to an email which contains the word “attach” in some form.
• Vacation Time: Set a start and end date to your vacation autoresponder. Very handy because, without it, you can only turn it on and off manually.
• Mark as Read Button: Such a small feature, but so handy. Instead of having to use the dropdown to mark a message as read, you have quick access via a button.

The Stupid Ones

Some of the Labs options makes me wonder why they bother:

• Fixed Width Font: Allows you to view an email in a fixed width font. Does it really matter?
• Mouse Gestures: I personally think controlling your email with flicks of your mouse cursor is rather stupid. It is quicker to just click the buttons or use keyboard shortcuts.
• Random Signature: Trashes your email with random quotes. Waste of bandwidth.
• Custom Date Formats: Perhaps some will find this one useful (editing the format of the dates), but I find it rather useless.
• Old Snakey: Literally plays a game of snake on your screen. Perhaps the dumbest feature of Gmail yet.
• Email Addict: Basically interrupts you at some interval and makes you get up and take a break. Dumb.

There are others I haven’t mentioned that hold some promise, but aren’t quite there. For example, the Custom Label Colors one should highlight the entire subject line, not just the label.

At the end of the day, I am a huge fan of Gmail. But, this geek is still waiting for that to-do list.

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