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08.22.05
Preview Bubbles For Gmail
 By
Jason Lee Miller
As Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail gear up to offer preview panes for their mail services, Googleplex native Mihai Parparita, makes a shareware offering that enables the same feature on Gmail.
Parparita says in his online journal that he feels he owes "something to the general coder collective," and pays his debt by offering up useful applications. This week's offering is the "Gmail Conversation Preview Greasemonkey script.
The preview bubble concept was inspired by Google Map's bubble approach, as Parparita says traditional preview panes take up unnecessary space. Downloading and installing the script enables a mouse-over feature that shows the content of the message without actually having to open it up in a new window.
"Gmail offers a lightweight version of this already, by showing the first hundred or so characters of each message as a snippet next to the subject. While this is handy for one-liner emails, a full-blown preview pane is often more appropriate," wrote Parapita.
The journal entry has a detailed account of how the preview was developed for those who want the full details. Parapita ends with the disclaimer that this was his own development and the preview bubble download is not associated with Google in any way. Check it out at your own risk.
About the Author:
Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. |
