I couldn’t care less when Gmail added those cute smiley, but the newly released themes go beyond cosmetics, they can actually increase your productivity. How? By helping you differentiate between multiple Gmail accounts.
I have branded (Google Apps, using my own domain) accounts for business and personal use, and a few generic @gmail.com types for subscriptions, lists, online purchases. It’s all neatly tied together by Gmail Manager, the excellent Firefox extension. Even then I sometimes find myself typing an email in the wrong account window. Here’s the solution: give all your Gmail accounts its own distinctive theme.
I don’t really care for the fancy themes, but at least the top row are all subtle, minimalist styles. Pick one for each of your accounts, you’ll get used to the colors fast and never mix up your accounts again.
Well.. almost. As usual, Google rolled out this new feature to the generic, @gmail.com accounts only. Google Apps users will have to wait – lets’ hope not too long.
Related articles:
- Spice up your inbox with colors and themes
- Gmail Gets Themes
- Gmail Themes. That’s Totally Ninja.
- Gmail Themes as Productivity Tools?
Google rolled out “Themes” for Gmail today, causing everyone to scramble to see if they had access.
http://www.iwebie.com/gmail-themes
Email get used for multiple things (e.g. work co-ordination, storage, etc). Hence it could have been interesting to see if theme could be used to give a better experience for a user based on his usage objective.