There’s a small grey box rendered in an iFrame in the top left hand corner of Gmail, and TechCrunchIT is trying to figure out what it is. The icon is a ten by ten pixel graphic with a diagonal line across it, with one half in black and the other in gray. It isn’t an inline image, as you can not highlite it or select it in your browser, nor right-click on it. There is also no reference to the image within the style sheet for Gmail.
So what is it? Since it’s being rendered in an iFrame it’s difficult to say. We’ve been emailing back and forth with Google since Wednesday but so far they haven’t said what it is. What’s your best conspiracy theory? The most elaborate/entertaining or most accurate comment (on TechCrunchIT) gets a free TechCrunch Tshirt.
Dare I say it’s a style sheet error (what Google make an error?)
It does not appear in IE7!
There is a long chain at GOogle discussing it …. (I will not regurgitate it)
Maybe they are trying to make gmail look like a normal paper page.
There are about 4 iframes in the upper left hand corner. One is for the noise that Gtalk makes, one is for some javascript code that they use, one is for tracking history and the last is the canvas that displays everything. No big mystery except why they are allowing them to be visible at all.
Get over it you geeks!
It’s google, they going to reveal something that makes everyone go WOW!
Who knows? Seriously, might be part of their new beta experiments? Or they just messin’ with you.
CSS error I believe. On IE6 I can’t find it.
It is GUI style element to make the look of the window more pleasant to the eyes. Very similar thing is in Mac OS and it makes the feeling of a more user friendly window/screen.
Interestingly in my Safari browser this gray box nicely fits to the color scheme of the Safari…
yep i see it on FF. it does look like a blemish. maybe our behavior on gmail is being tracked.
It is a new secret project under development by Google. It is called the GPortal, an inter-dimensional space and time portal capable of allowing travel to spaces and dimensions within, throughout, and outside our time and existence.
At approximately 3:30 am yesterday, GPortal inexplicably activated itself, and G staff have since been unable to shut it off without destroying it. They believe GPortal has torn a small hole in our realm, possibly allowing for the intrusion of inter-dimensional capable beings into our reality. G is working to close this portal as soon as possible.
It’s Matt Cutt’s secret peephole to watch for spam.
frameborder=”0″
This property is not set on all iframes and it is causing that design issue
Not visible on Opera, but seen on FF. Did not check on IE. My guess, its left in error, but then knowing Google who knows. I am sure conspiracy theories will abound.
That is the peephole Google uses to watch us through for their studies. Duh.
Could it be a result from a common add-on that all of us are using on FF? An add-on related to the rendering of gmail page ? Have anyone tried it with fresh no add-ones FF ?
Obviously the backing is just starting to come off. If you put a little glue on it and hold it firmly in place for 15 minutes or so it will be fine. I find that a nice multi-purpose adhesive like Goroogle Glue works best.
Its an iframe that loads things in background while we are looking at our mails
. probably it is there for cross browser compatibilities…
it’s been there for quite some time though(many a times at different places)…
@jvedman – Yea, that is what I thought. Just a page curl.
Maybe you should have checked this AWESOME story out in other browsers before breaking this huge news to the world.
It’s not there in IE7, only half there in Safari, and all there in Firefox.
Hm.. coding error? WOW. Big deal.
I wonder if it is going to be a floating toolbar, so that it can be managed as a separate browser window, like how chat windows can be managed.
Google’s way of creating buzz. Just like the time they wouldn’t allow anyone to take pictures of their trade show booth.
Guys, use Firebug. The Frameborder=”0″ is the cause.
That property has to have a value = 0 in order to be invisible for the browse – in this case Firefox.
Michael, I’m waiting for my Techcrunch T-shirt.
@pixelbud, looks like a page curl to me too.. maybe a new gmail design is coming out soon.. so you can switch over to the new design by peeling of the current page
Possibly a Google Labs experiment. A Flash page-peel effect. Advertisement of a new product
I believe that Google is just making sure that during holiday / weekend time, when there is no many tech news, Michael can have prime entertaintment and unexpectable gather a large number of followers.
I’m just worrying that I’m actually in front row too.
God bless working Monday.
Once again Google successfully creates a …… BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!! BUZZ!!!
Get over with it guys!
It’s a tiny camera.
Larry’s watching, you should probably put some clothes on.
It’s a spy camera, requested by Viacom.
The size is exactly the same as the space between the “e” and “c” of TechCrunch. Spooky, I don’t believe in coincidence, we are being invaded by outter space people. Michael is one of them (please do not sue me I am only joking)
Checked it with Firebug and it’s just an Iframe with a single flash file in it: im/sound.swf
if you switch to their older version, it’s disappear.
It’s Viacom in your mail, spying for infringement.
It’s a radionic node emitting a buffered echostream sucking all information from your brain into the Google brain, making Google smarter, and us dumber.
Finally, Nick Carr is proven right.
google has been always successful in creating a buzz… this time too!
but i think this time its a mark up problem. something got to do with their iframe attributes.
Perhaps they want to make it look like a folded sheet. Just for style
Its an internal google contest. They will award prizes for the stupidest thing they can put out that still becomes blogworthy.
I don’t see it in IE 7 but in Safari, it’s grey(black) and white(grey).
I’m not an IT worker so I don’t know what it is technically. However, I don’t think it’s a mistake. Rather I’d like to believe that Google’s working something on it. Maybe some days later we’ll see something meaningful and useful (should be handy too) appearing that upper-left corner.
Thank you!
As i said before, it’s an iframe. I took a screenshot of the HTML containing it and the Iframe with increased width/height:
http://tamole.s...ound-iframe.gif
http://tamole.s...rame-bigger.gif
what Anatoly said. Exactly.
I think Jono has the best response, give him the t-shirt!
maybe they are testing their affliate pixel
google is preparing a pixel mass murder. This is just the beta, so it does not actually kill the pixel.
Microsoft has anounced, and Norton too, in a security warning, that this is the most important threat ever, worst than I.Love.You.
There gonna be a massive murder of pixel soon.
as part of the simulation, abusing of their search-market domination, there is also this simulated-for-how-long-dead pixel in google search, when looking for “dead pixel” http://www.goog...?q=dead%20pixel
watch out, nobody knows when it really begins (this is the new virus2.0 trick, always in beta)
Angela Bennett is a computer expert working for Google. This young and beautiful analyst is never far from a computer and modem. The only activity she has outside of computers is visiting her mother. A friend, whom she’s only spoken to over the net and phone, Dale Hessman a former Yahoo exec now working for an internet security firm, sent her a program with a weird glitch for her to de-bug. That night, he left to meet her and was killed in a plane crash. Angela discovers secret information on the disk she has received only hours before she leaves for vacation. Her life then turns into a nightmare, her records are erased from existence and she is given a new identity, one with a police record. She struggles to find out why this has happened and who has it in for her.
I think Sandra Bullock would be a good in this movie.
Welcome to the world of FISA
When the ancient Persians wove their beautiful, ornate rugs, they intentionally make a flaw in its perfection because nothing could/should be perfect.
The Google Blemish is simply Google’s way of reminding themselves that though they are Awesome, they shalt not desire perfection.
It can’t see it in IE6 but it’s there in FF2
Whatever it is, it’s in beta.
Come on guys! The scanning has started. http://www.theo...tent/node/40076
It’s a tear in the wallpaper that reveals Google’s true former self… Yahoo!
the future Offline button mode for Gmail!!!.
I think that the gmail lab has a game. Once you press the button, the grey box is filled with the content. (Old Snakey)