GeekSugar

Time For a Refresh! 5 New Gmail Themes

Kristen Hawley — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:30:59 PST

Last week, Google unveiled five new themes for Gmail, including two can't-be-simpler Basic Black and Basic White along with three additional themes that offer a little more excitement.

First up, the Android theme features a cute graphic of the green Google character, using colors and patterns that match Android's interface. Tree Tops is a nature-inspired theme featuring a fresh image of (you guessed it) trees, and finally, Marker is a fun, whimsical, and certainly not buttoned-up theme that looks a lot like it was drawn by hand and colored in with bold markers.

There are now 39 different Gmail themes, not including the option to choose your own color scheme.

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Ways to Beautify Your Google Pages!

GeekSugar — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:15:53 PDT

Whether you use iGoogle, Gmail, or Google Chrome, Google has made it easy to make your online tools stand out from the rest, thanks to its wide selection of decorative themes. Haven't had the chance to check 'em all out? Well here's a roundup of my fave Google themes to help spruce up your web pages.

Fun iGoogle Themes	Where to Find iGoogle Themes	Picking Your Own Gmail Colors
Create Your Own iGoogle Theme	Trendy Gmail Themes	Pretty Google Chrome Themes

Gmail Themes: Now You Can Pick Your Own Colors

GeekSugar — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:27:36 PST

Remember how psyched we all were when Gmail recently let you change your theme? The only thing that was missing, it seemed, was the ability to just do simple custom colors. Well, four months later, you can now do just that.

You'll find the color editor with the Gmail themes; select it, and you can pick a color for just about everything. Mix and match, coordinate, go nuts. I went for a lovely Spring palette so my email can lift me out of my Winter doldrums.

Gmail Gets Trendy New Themes!

GeekSugar — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:11:29 PST

You know the pleasure you get when you add a colorful new theme to your iGoogle page? OK, multiply that by 1,000, and I give you the sleek new themes for Gmail. Just launched today, there are already 30 different themes to choose from - ranging from nature themes to shiny and chrome-style themes. Google has given Gmail a little makeover with crisper and cleaner lines (it reminds me of Google reader). To spice up your email, go to the themes section in settings and you should see the new themes. And if you don't see them, keep checking back and they should appear sometime within the next few days!

The Pros and Cons of Google+

Kristy Korcz — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 08:07:53 PDT

Google revealed Google+ to the world last week, and the new social network quickly became the talk of the Internet. Though most agree that it's not yet a Facebook killer, there are some interesting and noteworthy features included within its white walls. We've been getting to know the pros and cons of Google+ more intimately over the long holiday weekend, so check out our rundown below and don't forget to add your thoughts in the comments!

Pros

Sleek design - Google+ is super easy to navigate thanks to a simple design. Sure, it kinda resembles Facebook with its main news stream and sidebars of information, and it would be cool to customize what you see with Google+ themes, but as is, it's very easy on the eyes.
Drag and drop in Circles - Adding friends and contacts into different Circles is incredibly easy thanks to the drag and drop nature of the feature, and we love how easy it is to share updates and news with just one group of Circles, or all of them.
Huddle - Group texting goes Google with the mobile Huddle feature that lets you message with a Circle of friends, or just a few. If you're not mobile with Google+, you can still use GroupMe and get the same feel.
Integration with +1 - There's finally a reason to +1 things since it not only acts as a bookmarking feature, but allows friends and Circles to see things you like from around the web (under the Buzz tab).
Sparks - Sparks isn't a RSS feed, but it does grab news stories, blog posts, and articles from around the Internet on subjects you're interested in. As I use my Google Reader mainly for work reasons, now I can use Sparks to catch up on my interests during my downtime.
Auto uploads for photos and videos - All of your photos and videos captured on the Google + mobile app are automatically uploaded and stored in your account. Good news is you can customize your settings to choose when and who to share them with at a later time. Auto uploading sounds scary, but Google has made it easy to customize the mobile settings.
The quick share box - When you're inside Google+ or other Google properties (like Picasa, Reader, Gmail, and Documents), you can quickly share info or a link with your Circles by clicking on the "Share. . ." box on the upper-right hand corner of your browser.
No game requests! - A simple joy of using Google+ is the absence of Farmville requests showing up in my inbox and news stream. I'll take that for as long as I can get it.

Check out the list of Google+ cons after the jump.