In such scenario, desktop notifiers present themselves as a more reliable and expedient solution. They promise to keep you updated on new mails and remind about latest events through pop-up bubbles. Staying with that, let us see how we can enable desktop notifications for Gmail and Google Calendar. The best way would be to use Chrome’s built-in notification package. And you would need to do three things in order to configure the setup. First, activate reception of notification on Chrome interface. Click on the Wrench icon on the top right and navigate to Options > Under the Hood > Content Settings. Scroll down till you identify the Notifications section. Here, check the option saying Ask me when a site wants to show desktop notifications. Second, log on to Gmail and navigate to Settings. Under the General tab scroll for Desktop Notifications and check the type and criteria for pop-ups you would like to receive. I have them turned off for chat and on for new emails. You priority may demand different settings. When you save the settings your browser will ask if you want to allow mail.google.com to show desktop notifications (allow it). Third, navigate to Calendar service and for any of your calendar go to Calendar Settings. Click on the Notifications link and choose the type of notifications you would like to receive. Most important combination here is Pop-up 10 minutes (which you may change). Again, allow mail.google.com to show desktop notifications. Setup is done from your end. Next time you receive any mail or have an event or appointment (as in your calendar) coming up, you will be notified for the same. Users of other browsers, worry not we have a couple of tools and add-ons to help with similar stuff. Gmail Notifier is a wonderful desktop client for Gmail that helps you configure multiple account logins and alerts you for new mails (shows mail headers), indicates attachments, maintains unread counter and much more. Same is provided for calendars via Gmail Notifier Pro.
If you are interested in just notifications then you may try Firefox add-ons like Tab Notifier and X Notifier. Tab Notifier shows messages whenever the title of a tab changes even if it is not in focus. Besides Gmail you may configure it for social network websites. X Notifier is a purely email service and caters to Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo. It lacks the instantaneous nature and checks for mails in periodic intervals as specified by you.
Conclusion
These tricks and methods will relieve you from the pain of having your email and calendar open in a browser window and checking them manually at regular intervals. They serve a wonderful purpose and we have tried to cover the best possible ways to do so. Know of more such tricks and simpler tools? We would love to see them in our comments section.
