Better Gmail 2 extension adds sweet features to Gmail

Has it really been 24 days or so that I've been living inside a web browser? Luckily there's plenty of air in here. ;) I'm not ready to rejoin the client application world just yet, so I wanted to share a fantastic extension for Firefox that has noticeably improved my Gmail experience. It's called Better Gmail 2 and it's actually a compendium (ohh! word of the day!) of functions that was put together by Gina Trapani of Lifehacker fame. I don't use all of the features (yet), but some of key, useful ones I've enabled include:

• Forcing the more secure, encrypted connection for Gmail. A must for mobile device users hopping from hotspot to hotspot.
• Mail composotion in Gmail when clicking a mailto: link. No need for Outlook to pop open everytime right? Come to think of it, I might free up some space and remove Outlook. Yup, crazy silly, I know.
• Show attachment icons... it's nice to see a little JPG or PDF icon instead a paper clip.
• Hiding my Spam Count and Invites Box. Seriously, do I NEED more pressure in my life? I don't think so.
• Changing the Gmail Labels into "Folders" by showing a hierarchy. Yes, it's just a visual change but when you're used to folders and sub-folder organization, you want to see folders and sub-folder organization.
• HTML signatures. Just because I love to send my cartoon head over to places around the world. Seriously, there's plenty of good usage for an HTML sig... your company website, Skype name, etc...

Gina gave the extension an update earlier this month, so it works fine with Firefox 3. There are plenty more nuggets of productivity in there, but I don't want to spoil all of the exploration for you. If you're a regular user of Gmail on Firefox, I highly recommend the 199 KB download.

Comments

[Frustrated Consumer]

I'm far too paranoid to use an add on like this.

How do I know that it's not harvesting names from my account?
Or stealing my logon?

I guess that's true for any add-on (I only use 1 or 2) but still...isn't this a bit too risky?

I suppose if I knew enough coding to read what it's doing, I'd be more comfortable...

[sbtablet]

Frustrated,

You have to consider the source. Gina Trapani is much too busy running LifeHacker to be busy skimming your contacts list.

I don't program either, but GreaseMonkey scripts are not long or hard to look at. The source code is readily available and it's on the Mozilla site. Those add-ons are checked for malware.