Gmail Labs Offers Users Experimental Toys

Google's latest addition to Gmail will let users play with features that aren't quite ready for primetime - and decide what stays and what goes.

Gmail devotees anxious to get their hands on the latest and greatest that Google engineers have to offer will be happy to hear about the latest news out of Google: they’re providing a porthole to the inside. The newly created Gmail Labs will give Gmail users a chance to play with the experimental features before they get an official nod from Google, and give Gmail engineers to test their strangest creations on a willing public.

“Gmail Labs is a way for us to take lots of the ideas we wouldn’t normally pick and let you all (who use Gmail) decide whether they’re good or not,” Gmail product manager Keith Coleman wrote in an entry on the official Gmail blog. “The idea behind Labs is that any engineer can go to lunch, come up with a cool idea, code it up, and ship it as a Labs feature. To tens of millions of users. No design reviews, no product analysis, and to be honest, not that much testing.”

Existing Gmail users can find “Labs” options under the Settings tab in their accounts. Initial offerings include “Superstars,” which allows users to change the icons on contacts in chat, signature tweaks that bounce a signature up to before quoted text in a reply, and mouse gestures. There’s even a version of the classic Snake video game.