You can love Google or hate it, but the truth is that both Gmail and Chrome are terrific products, and possibly the best in their respective fields. This post presents TEN extensions for Chrome that make Gmail even better, and add novel and practical functions that Gmail’s creator’s never thought of!

The extensions are: Gmail Attachments To Drive, Attachment Icons for Gmail, Yesware, GMail Search, Gmail Signatures, Click-n-Drag Checkbox for Gmail, Gmelius, Smartr for Gmail, WiseStamp, and Screenleap for Gmail.

1. Gmail Attachments To Drive: save email attachments straight to Google Drive

The boundaries between local and online file storage are being blurred every single day, it seems, and this Chrome extension illustrates this very well. If you use Gmail and Google Drive both, “Gmail Attachment To Drive” will add the option to save any attachments you receive on Gmail straight to Google Drive.

2. Attachment Icons for Gmail: Add file type icons to Gmail attachments

This extension proves that brilliant ideas are often the simplest and most obvious. It changes the ‘generic’ attachment icon into the icon for whatever file type is attached to your emails.

If your email contains more than one filetype, ‘Attachment icons for Gmail’ will use only one of them, obviously.

3. Yesware: track whether your recipient opened your email

Ever wished you could know whether or not your recipients have opened the email you sent? With the Yesware Chrome extension, you have a way to track this. Yesware inserts a so-called tracking pixel with your email, which is a tiny 1×1 pixel image file that, when your sent email is opened, sends a message back to your Yesware extension reporting the fact.

The caveat is: your recipient needs to enable images from emails coming from you, or at least enable images for the email that you want to track — you might want to send them an actual image to open that would make this more likely to be the case.

Note: the free version of Yesware allows you to track up to 100 unique tracking events per month.

Yesware is more than an email tracking extension though; it is designed for salespeople who send a lot of standard-type emails, and will let you create frequently used email templates that you can fire up at will. It tends to take over your Gmail interface, but you do have the option to switch off the functions that you might not want (see screenshot on the right).

4. GMail Search: search Gmail from the address bar

Simply type “gs” and space, in the address bar (which apparently is also called the ‘omnibar’) and type in whatever keywords you want to search your gmail account for, and – hey presto! – you’re done.

5. Gmail Signatures: insert custom signatures into your emails on demand

Do you use Gmail address personally and professionally? Do you use multiple Gmail addresses? Are you involved in multiple projects where you might have different roles? If you answered yes to any of the above then you will appreciate this extension, which will let you insert different signatures into the bottom of your emails on demand.

Gmail Signatures couldn’t be simpler. Specify up to four different signatures (and style them with HTML), then insert the appropriate one into your email message using a dropdown menu. The four signatures can be different for each Gmail address you use.

Note: this extension also available for Firefox.

6. Click-n-Drag Checkbox for Gmail: click and drag to select multiple emails

This extension lets you select multiple emails by clicking an email then dragging your mouse. We’ve been using it for a while and can report that it’s not just a nice idea, but can be remarkably practical and helpful for organizing email.

7. Gmelius – Ad Remover and Better UI for Gmail: tweak and customize every single aspect of Gmail’s interface

This extension can remove not just ads from Gmail, but just about everything else, such as the chat and people widgets and everything else. You can sculpt your Gmail interface and make it very sparse indeed, if that is what you want.

Note: Gemelius also allows you to add icons to file attachments, just like “Attachment Icons for Gmail” mentioned above.

8. Smartr for Gmail: add a social sidebar to your Gmail interface

Smartr, from the same people that brought us Xobni, adds a sidebar to your Gmail that connects to any or all of your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yahoo accounts. It also indexes your email in order to match your Gmail contacts with their Twitter and Facebook activity.

Smartr will let you post on your own Twitter or Facebook accounts right from the sidebar within the gmail account. It also lets you search for contacts and check out their social activity.

9. WiseStamp: add your social activity to your Gmail signature

WiseStamp is another extension that customizes your email signature. It is not unlike ‘Gmail Signatures’ above in that it lets you create multiple signatures and switch between them. However, it is different in that it creates signatures with embedded social feeds and links, such as your RSS, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, or Facebook feeds, etc.

Note that you the free version of WiseStamp inserts a link to WiseStamp at the bottom of your signature (see screenshot above).

10. Screenleap for Gmail: share your screen instantly, right from Gmail

What if I told you you could press a single button in your Gmail interface to immediately send an email that enables you to share your screen with whoever you wants. That, in a nutsehll, is what Screenleap for gmail does.

Note that Screenleap shares your desktop, not just your browser or Ggmail interface (see below).

Via: freewaregenius.com