Gmail Gets Colorful
November 19th, 2008 (8:00pm) Scott Blitstein 6 Comments
Gmail, long a favorite of the Web Worker, has seen its share of upgrades and enhancements over the years, but the overall interface has generally remained static. That’s about to change as the official Gmail Blog announced the addition of color and theme options to jazz up your Gmail inbox.
While there are extensions and scripts available to customize the appearance, these are the first official theme options available. They are rolling the functionality out over the next couple of days but from the previews they look to be very well done.
This update may not make you more productive, and I would really prefer a massive update to the Contacts functionality, but if you spend as much time in your email as I do a change like this is almost like a fresh coat of paint on the walls.
The new theme options are available in the Gmail Settings area. They haven’t been activated in my account yet – be sure to let us know when they hit yours?
6 Comments Post your own comment
Steve says: November 19th, 2008 11:37pm
FYI: Some of the themes, or at least “mountain,” the one I’m using, seem to change depending on time of day. They ask to confirm your location when you first set the theme.
As the sun’s been getting lower in the sky for about the past hour here in Korea, I’m pretty sure my theme has gotten noticeably darker.
TechGerm says: November 20th, 2008 1:27am
That looks sexy, but i dont know productive it will be. I already used http://userstyles.org/ in the past to style gmail, and although it looked great, it was a bit distracting
slavko says: November 20th, 2008 5:04am
They look about as good as the igoogle themes…which is not good. How hard is it to get a clean, professional looking theme? I dont want pictures or dark backgrounds with light color font. Geeez.
The Babysitter says: November 20th, 2008 10:20am
I was able to get them, right when I signed on to g-mail yesterday, a little pop up came up and asked me if I wanted to change my theme, I clicked on it and chose a theme.
and the one I picked also changes by time of day so it asks you to put in your zip code.
deb says: November 20th, 2008 10:55am
I love that some of the themes change over time. I’m completely enamored of the “Tea House” theme; the little fox at the bottom of the screen moves to different locations occasionally. First he was sitting at the table, then he was off to the side of the house (and eating a bowl of soup that’s not there anymore), and now he’s hanging out near the birdbath. If anything, my frequent “fox location checks” will make me even less productive. But happier! Yes, I’m easily amused. Thanks, Gmail!
Scott Blitstein says: November 20th, 2008 12:36pm
I got mine this afternoon. I’m not a big fan of dark pages so a couple of them I just dismissed immediately, but some are really well done. It’s a nice change for a while if nothing else.
Thanks for all of your comments.
SB