14 DAY TRIAL // Sometimes, great things come from the smallest of changes. If you believe that, then you might like to try out the latest addition to the Gmail Labs repository. A small interface tweak that may come a long way in terms of usability, this new Labs gadget moves the icon bar in the inbox to the left of the message titles. Normally, these helpful icons would sit all the way to the right, next to the time stamps on the conversation threads.
“The icon column in Gmail helps to easily distinguish the various types of items in your inbox (e.g. messages with attachments, chats, calendar invitations, Buzz posts, and more). It's usually all the way over on the right of the screen, but with screen sizes becoming increasingly wider, I chose to make a very modest addition to Gmail Labs to try and give these icons greater visibility,” Greg Bullock, software engineer at Google and the creator of the new Labs gadget, wrote.
“I found it much more useful to have this column situated on the far left of my inbox -- and it turns out that many of my colleagues did too... It’s not big and it’s not clever but hopefully this lab might just be helpful for you too; it's the little things in life after all,” he added.
Well, you’ve heard the author, “It’s the little things,” but just because it’s a small tweak, it doesn’t mean it won’t have a big impact. The new feature seems one of those things that, once you have them, you wonder how you ever lived without them. Having the attachment/chat/buzz icons on the left next to the star icons makes a lot of sense and will make it easier to see what every message is with just a glance.
If you want to try out the ‘Move Icons Column’ feature, go to the Labs tab in the Gmail Settings, or click the small Labs icon on the top right if you see one, and scroll down until you find it. Choose ‘Enable,’ click ‘save’ and there you go.
