Fans of Google's Gmail service got a special treat when they logged in Friday -- the chance to dabble with new features before they leave the company's sandbox.
Google has launched a "Labs" section within its popular browser-based e-mail application. Gmail Labs, which debuted at 6pm PST Thursday evening and had eventually rolled out across all Gmail accounts by Friday morning, allows adventurous users access to new and experimental features for the mail app. Note: This post has been updated to include more details now that the service is live.
Gmail Labs offers access to a baker's dozen worth of cutting-edge enhancements created by Gmail's team of approximately 50 engineers on their "20 percent time" -- a perk that allows them to spend one-fifth of their work schedule on any engineering project they wish.
Once on Labs, the features can then be installed by Gmail users by clicking on a special "Labs" tab in their settings. The most popular features from Labs which meet Gmail's engineering criteria will be integrated into the project code and exposed to everyone.
An initial 13 features were included in Thursday's release. All were chosen by Google engineers based on interest. Among them:
- "Superstars" lets you customize the stars that appear next to certain e-mails.
- An e-mail lockout feature for people who spend/waste too much time on Gmail. It automatically locks them out for 15 minutes.
- Quick Links, which lets you save specific search queries or set up fast filters for specific views of your inbox.
- "Old Snakey," which launches the familiar Snake computer game when you type "&" -- totally useless, but why not? The engineers told Wired.com that unlike the other features in Labs, Old Snakey would probably never find its way into Gmail's final code.
- A few features were taken from Greasemonkey, a popular JavaScript-based scripting plug-in for Firefox.
- There's also an "escape hatch" if you want to turn Labs off.
- If you're still not seeing the "Labs" tab in your Gmail settings, Lifehacker has some advice on how to enable it manually.
Eventually, Gmail Labs will accept user contributions from the public once Google figures out a method for accepting code submissions. Until then, Labs entries will be submitted by Googlers only.
Wired.com reporter Betsy Schiffman contributed to this report. You can read her ongoing coverage of Google on the Epicenter blog.
See Also:
Better Gmail Extension Powers Up GMail's New Interface
Gmail Adds Official Greasemonkey Support
Coming Soon: A Faster Gmail With More Power User Features
Gmail Users Report Speed Boosts And Better Contact Management
