
Apparently a lucky few Gmail users had a “Themes” tab pop up under settings. No longer do you have to suffer through the boring-if-functional standard Gmail interface for the 16 hours a day that you keep the page loaded. Try “Ninja” instead.
Thanks for the tip Dan.








don’t see it… must be for PC only
I see it….it looks uber-cool !!!
I see it, They are really cool. Kinda like iGoogle themes. Ninja is the best.
uber-cool would be adding themes to my pictures in my picinbox at http://www.picmember.com. Is it for PC’s only or is it a sneak preview on certain accounts?
nope i’m a mac and i have it. but only on one of my gmail accounts – not on the other two.
I have it on only one of my accounts as well. Unfortunately, it’s not my main account.
But I read somewhere today that all gmail accounts should have it by the end of the week.
Not all users have it… apparentely it’s being made available gradually to all users… so be patient It does not necessarily means is only fot pc!
I have a MAC and I was one of the people chosen so it is built for both platforms.
I really love NINGA!
I can’t find it
Typo in the title. Change it to “Ninja” from Nano.
This totally rocks..gadjets, themes, …Gmail is becoming complete
I hope not bloated.
Praveen
http://spraveen...o.blogspot.com/
Google is rolling out changes the right way…and making them optional rather then forcing them on you. But seriously can’t wait to implement some of these into my kind of stale at this point gmail…
I have never understood the reasoning for themeing, one of the reasons that Facebook is successful is because of their rigid design.
So I can only ask… what is the point?
I’ll explain it to you. What looks good to one person might not look good to another. People would like the option to change the way something looks. Allowing themes to be changed solves that problem.
Does that make sense?
Yes, I see what you are saying.
I love it when we all agree
Haha. This is def not a youtube thread.
By them adding the themes doesn’t mean the quality of gmail will decrease. These themes are controlled and even introduced to Facebook wouldn’t be the end of the world. However when there is free reign on themes (such as MySpace) then the usability goes down hill. Not sure if I will end up using one of these new themes or not, but I like the option.
But the differences is that you are the only one using your inbox. You can’t look into other people’s inbox. In Facebook you don’t only hang out in your home page but you also browse other people’s galleries, …
It just got added to my gmail and I love it. And I actually think it’d be really cool for Facebook to do something like this too. Not like myspace where I customize my page for others to see, but format it so that I’m able to see everyone elses pages with a particular theme – sunset, mountains, whatever.
Peter
http://www.thewebwar.com
@Peter Esptein, use Greasemonkey / Stylish (Firefox extensions) you can do just that
While its not a huge deal, some people (myself included) have fun making things “fresh”.
For us unlucky minions, please post links to the ‘theme’ section and links to the theme options so that we can ‘jumpstart’ it.
Thx
Try http://mail.goo...settings/themes
I’m guessing it won’t work, but that’s the themes settings tab url.
Just as you thought. It did not work (BTW, I’m on Minefield.)
That just redirects to the inbox on my computer too.
I noticed it when I logged in like 5 minutes ago. I don’t care for the themes but I like the updated look.
Themes on my iGoogle homepage just drag down my load time. That’s the same reason I wouldn’t use them on my gmail.
Am I the only person that uses Gmail as an Imap server and not for the UI? I mean its an good OK I guess for an AJAX thing, but no where near as good as Mail/Outlook etc.
Outlook. LOL.
Yeah outlook. I use outlook / entourage on the Mac via IMAP to talk to Gmail for personal use and Mail to talk to Gmail for our company mail. All my mail routes through gmail services, but I never go to the website.
Same for GChat. I use Audium. Desktop apps rule!
I get the whole idea behind web-based mail offerings, and I use a few as well. But I personally think the Gmail interface lags behind in so many ways, least of which is themes. Google knows it too, which is why they built Chrome. Chrome is intended to become the application shell for all Google Apps, in addition to a conduit to distribute Google malware much like Apple does with iTunes.
I’ve had a Gmail account since the very early days when it required an invite from the Google team, but I rarely use the Gmail web-interface, and themes won’t make any difference either.
By the way, any chance of Gmail and other Google apps leaving the BETA phase in 2009-2010?
Its a preference thing. I prefer the gmail interface. I like how it displays conversations, the way it labels things (although I wish for hierarchical labels, but there are greasemonkey scripts out there to do that).
Its easy to setup.. I.e., don’t have to have an email client installed, and configured… So I can use it anywhere.
Wow, those look lovely! I can’t wait until they appear in my Gmail. Thanks for the tip!
Can’t see them yet, but hopefully soon! Thanks TC for the tip.
I hope so too. Thanks TC for the tip!
Companies seem to ignore the single largest online advertising venue available: their own regular external emails. Why not use these emails to market the senders company?
You have a website.
You send emails.
Why not multiply your sales-staff by “wrapping” the regular email in an interactive letterhead?
No other marketing or advertising medium is as targeted as an email between people that know each other (as opposed to mass emails). These emails are always read and typically kept.
Most email clients won’t render the “interactive letterhead”, and a lot of people would rather cut to the chase instead of searching within your email to read what the message is.
about time we get some letterheads. Imagine if we had wraps for businesses so they would have an interactive letterhead to promote their own company with every employee email – hm….
when they’re back online – hopefully soon – http://www.globexdesigns.com/ you can find an extraordinary FF extension here, which redesigns gmail a way, you will probably throw away gmail themes, even if you can’t see them yet
I was about to recommend Google Redesigned from GlobexDesigns as well. I’ve been using it for a couple of months and even had people at work stop as they walked past to ask what it was…
The should put Gmail Redesigned by Globex as an option. I would love it so much (if I had the themes tab…)
This will be great for branding Google Apps further.
Two thumbs up!
Go gmailllllllllllllllllllllll
i want.
why not wrap regular business emails in an interactive letterhead?
yay.
So I’m not the only one that submitted this. Good. It’s a very fresh design – clean and easy on the eye.
not working for ME.. I’M PISSEED.. I’ve been a LOYAL user since Apr 2004..
WhyTF didn’t i get this… THIS SUX
It’s probably just a random selection, not based on how long you’ve been using it.
Calm down anyway, you’ll get it soon enough. It’s hardly the end of the world.
I don’t even see the “Labs” tab
Are you using the “full” version?
https://mail.go....com/mail/?ui=2
Yay for this feature
As usual, it’s only available on my @gmail account, but not on google apps email – i.e. gmail with my own domain
companies should have interactive letterheads.
wrapmail.com
Did you see that official gmail post about the topic has a-626kb-png-file!
lol, Google what’s wrong with you? You don’t have to use png everywhere…
@REH – I saw a company that does that, wrapmail, mailwrap, something like that
I got it! yes!
yo, George – those biz letterhead guys are wrapmail.com – server based and very slick
Lucky enough I bought that domain on time and I own it! http://www.gmailthemes.com
Michael let me know if you want to buy it lol.
Sounds cool. There are 30 themes, but just few of them rocks!
Great. Now how ’bout Google implementing some features in Gmail that the users actually want or need, such as being able to sort mails by subject or sender?
That already exists!!! Use the Filters and create labels…. that’s it!!!
i was just slightly disturbed that my theme changed on me automatically (from the old ‘classic’ to the new ‘default’)…
I am loving it …. Tea House and Bus Stop look cool.
Not fair, a girl at work has it, but I don’t
There are Ninjas attacking my email!!!!!
GMail, next time, try to deliver these kind of critical updates before they show up on TechCrunch. Totally annoying and jealous for not being able to see it in my inbox yet.
I bet someone will hack Gmail to automatically change themes due to season, time, alcohol level and mood swings in Gtalk status
I got upgraded around noon today. The only odd thing is, I’ve got the default look, but no themes tab so i’m stuck with it and can’t customize it.
Correction. If you’ve been auto-updated but have not signed out and signed back in the skin will be updated, but you won’t pick up the added options.
Quick sign in/out fixed it.
Great work Gmail. Designer sites are where its at. Now if only http://www.picmember.com would add themes to my picinbox. Life would be perfect.
I love the way it looks, won’t switch
I got his on my gmail account. really nice
Its so cool. I currently have mine set to Ninja. There are other themes that, if you tell them where you live, change throughout the day.
It is important to be “pretty” too
Just a standard service won’t cut it anymore, eh?
Nice little promotion, anyways… Google is on a roll
Mike
My other acc has it but i don’t have it in this acc
These themes are great…such a nice change from the standard blue … not that i didn’t like it. Should have the option for a random theme to be displayed every time you login.
But loving the Ninja theme!
Really cool
, but I’m so unlucky to get Themes Tab by now
I’d like to be able to make a theme of my own!
I came back to my computer and…Gmail had this lame blue theme. huh? So I click…and soon I too am Ninja! I settled on the mountain. Nice move Goog. Now let me make my own.