Dunno about you, but I’m starting to become really really bored with Gmail’s mail interface. Yeah sure, it’s simple and all that but, what if you want something new to look at?

And for that.. I give you Better Gmail.  It’s a Firefox extension (so yea, this will work for Firefox users only) that adds a couple of cool features on top of the what’s-available-features on Gmail – which includes being able to change the look.

What change, you ask? See here:

Like it? Yeah, I know, me too. Thing is, I didn’t discover this myself. I had to find out about it from this freelance programmer that the company hired to do the predictive dialer thingy (coz I don’t do that shit). During one of those days that he came to check out errors and bugs and stuff like that, I saw this page on his lappie tha the left unlocked:

Gmail interface

When he came back to the desk, he saw me looking at it, and I just blurted my question :

Me: What’s that? A new mail client? (pointing at his lappie’s screen)

Programmer: nope, it’s Gmail.

Me: What? Gmail? Gmail doesn’t look like that.. does it?

Programmer: hahaha it’s Better Gmail. a Firefox extension.

The mention of Better Gmail rang lots of bells. See, I stumbled upon another Firefox extension called Better Reader ages ago, which, aha! You guessed right.. adds some additional features to Google Reader – the RSS reader that I use every damn single day. I used it for quite some time, but for some reason I can’t remember, I disabled it. Disable is different with Uninstall in the world of Firefox you know.

So, I pressed Shift + x to call on Devo, the other super duper useful Firefox extension that I have, and did a quick search for Better Gmail and installed it immediately.

Installing it doesn’t automatically activate the style that’s pictured. You have to set it under the Options for Better Gmail. TO do that, go to Tools > Add Ons and then press the Options button under Better Gmail 2:

Once there, click the Skins tab and choose the Gmail Redesigned option:

Press OK and then refresh Gmail to see the change.

More piccies:

the bar

But of course, the best way to really see it is to try it for yourself. Was I able to convince you? If so, click here to download the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension.

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