Gmail Checker Plus makes rapid email checking easy

Google Chrome Extensions are incredibly helpful for the user who is multitasking multitasks. However, in my mind, one extension has certainly earned it's own post - Google Mail Checker Plus.

The extension displays the number of unread messages in your inbox using an icon which appears on the top right if your Chrome browser. That's one feature. 

However, the best feature is that once you select the Gmail icon, your mail tab will comes into view. So for instance, when you're working in up to ten tabs and you just want to find your Gmail tab, you can simply select the icon and your inbox appears. 

Below is a video review of Google Mail Checker Plus.

Features:
• Mail preview window, read mail without leaving the current tab
• Delete, archive, spam, star and mark as read functionality
• Desktop and sound notifications when new mail arrives
• Support for multiple Google and Google Apps accounts
• Mailto-links open in your Gmail or Google Apps Mail account
• Monitor all your labels or priority inbox
• Translated to over 60 languages!
• More than 10 different icon sets, choose your favorite!

• Help and support at official forum: http://chrome.desc.se/forum/

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-Five social media extensions for Google Chrome-Four more Google Chrome Extensions

Google Buzz: Twitter-Killer or another Google flop?

When rumors hit the Twitterverse that Google had created a social network of it own, bloggers were quick to dub the network a "Twitter-Killer." Twitter was shaking in its nest....false!

What Google would later call Google Buzz is now no Twitter killer. In fact, most users would agree that without the ability to sync their accounts directly to Twitter (and Facebook) Google Buzz would be little more than an expanded version of Gchat.

But the real question is, would Google Buzz even have any real value if not for Twitter? My response, barely. Without Twitter and Facebook, there is really no need to use Google Buzz because, at least in my case, Buzz is only a means of organizing a Twitter into a more personalized feed.

What do I mean by this? Twitter users often need to follow over 500 people to get a following of over 800. In trying to build a following, most users have to give up a quality group of users to follow. However, with Google Buzz, users can revert back to that smaller group of friends to follow. This is where Buzz can excel.

In other business, Buzz is a middle ground between Twitter's restricted 140 characters and Facebooks unfiltered clutter. It is a place for Google account users to post all forms of media including photos, videos and text content (like Twitter) without archiving the content in a personal profile (Facebook archives wall photo and video content).

But if there wasn't the added conversational content taken from the two other network giants, users may have eventually seen Buzz as another network that couldn't "catch-on" and the "twitter-killer" would get rolled up and thrown in the waste basket beside it's compadres Google Wave and Orkut.

The Birds and the Bees make the perfect team:

In my opinion, Buzz is actually one of Google best tries at creating a social network thus far. The fact is that Buzz, being that users can access it direct from their Gmail accounts, has accomplished what Twitter, so far, has not. Google has created a network as accessible (and visible) throughout the day as email.

So don't expect to see Buzz pushing up daisies anytime soon. My guess is that eventually it may find a way to surpass Twitter in accessibility and usage. That will take a long time but if anyone could do it, it would be Google.