Gmail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime. They may change,break or disappear at any time.

If (when) a Labs feature breaks, and you’re having trouble loading your inbox, there’s an escape hatch. Use http://mail.google.com/mail/?labs=0.

Offline by the Offline teamMake Gmail go where the Internet doesn’t. Access your inbox through your browser and use Gmail’s familiar features when you’re offline. To get started, enable this lab and then click on the “Offline” link in the upper-right of your inbox.
YouTube previews in mail by Stanley C and Braden KShows a video preview whenever you receive a YouTube link in an email. You can watch the video right inline!
Picasa previews in mail by Dan, Stanley, Mark & UmeshShows photos previews whenever you receive a Picasa link in an email.
Flickr previews in mail by Dan PShows photos previews whenever you receive a Flickr link in an email.
Yelp previews in mail by Dong C, Braden K, and Raylene YShows previews of Yelp listings (rating, location, phone number, etc.) whenever you receive a Yelp link in an email.
Google Voice player in mail by Robert DLets you play voicemails left on your Google Voice account right from the email notification.
Google Docs previews in mail by Steven S, Jim M, Bob B, and Ted CShows previews of documents, spreadsheets and presentations directly in the email when you receive any link to a Google Doc. Also gives an option to open directly in Google Docs.
Message translation by DarrenUses Google Translate to translate messages you receive in other languages.
Back to Beta by DarrenSoothes the soul by putting the familiar beta sticker back on the Gmail logo.
Quick Links by Dan PAdds a box to the left column that gives you 1-click access to any bookmarkable URL in Gmail. You can use it for saving frequent searches, important individual messages, and more.
Superstars by Kai H & Julie WAdds additional star icons. After enabling this feature: (1) Go to the “General” Settings page to choose which superstars you wish to use. (2) Use either the keyboard shortcut (’s’) or click to rotate through your selected superstars. (3) Use the search operator “has:” to find all messages with your superstar (e.g. “has:red-bang”, “has:blue-star”). Learn the name of a superstar by hovering over its image in the “General” Settings page.
Pictures in chat by Dave CSee your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them.
Fixed width font by Keith CAdds an option to the reply dropdown menu that lets you view a message in fixed width font.
Custom keyboard shortcuts by Alan SLets you customize keyboard shortcut mappings. Adds a new Settings tab from which you can remap keys to various actions.
Mouse gestures by Erik AUse your mouse to navigate with gestures. Hold right-click and move the mouse left to go to a previous conversation, move it right to go to the next conversation, and move up to go back to the inbox view. Works best on Windows.
Signature tweaks by Keith C and Dave CPlaces your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the “–” line that appears before signatures.
Random Signature by Chad PRotates among random quotations for your email signature.
Sender Time Zone by Marcin BShould I reply to this mail or just call the guy? Ooops… it’s 1 am. Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb…
Custom date formats by Emil EAdds options to the general settings page allowing the date and time format to be changed independent of language. For example, you can use a 24-hour clock (14:57) or show dates with the day first (31/12/07).
Muzzle by Chad PConserves screen real estate by hiding your friends’ status messages.
Old Snakey by Dave CKick it old school with Old Snakey! Enable keyboard shortcuts and hit ‘&’ from the main page to play a game of snake.
Email Addict by Michael DLets you take a break from email and chat by blocking the screen for fifteen minutes and making you invisible in chat.
Right-side chat by Emily CMove the chat box to the right side of the inbox.
Hide Unread Counts by Matt MHides the unread counts for inbox, labels, etc.
Advanced IMAP Controls by Jamie NChoose which labels show up in IMAP, turn off message auto-expunging, or trash messages when they’re deleted from IMAP.
Canned Responses by Chad PEmail for the truly lazy. Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form. Also automatically send emails using filters.
Default ‘Reply to all’ by Mark KMake ‘Reply to all’ your default option for responding to emails.
Quote selected text Ryan AQuote the text you have selected when you reply to a message. (Now works with the mouse, too!)
Navbar drag and drop by Anatol PAllows you to reorder the items in your navbar using drag and drop.
Mail Goggles by Jon PGoogle strives to make the world’s information useful. Mail you send late night on the weekends may be useful but you may regret it the next morning. Solve some simple math problems and you’re good to go. Otherwise, get a good night’s sleep and try again in the morning. After enabling this feature, you can adjust the schedule in the “General” settings page.
Forgotten Attachment Detector by Jonathan KPrevents you from accidentally sending messages without the relevant attachments. Prompts you if you mention attaching a file, but forgot to do so.
Vacation Time! by DarickLets you specify starting and ending dates for the vacation autoresponder.
Custom Label Colors by Mark KLets you create your own combination of colors for labels. Instead of choosing one of the standard colors from the label dropdown menu, click on Add custom colors. Pick your combination of colors, hit Apply, and enjoy.
Mark as Read Button by Mark KTired of spending all that effort to click on the more actions menu every time you want to mark messages as read without reading them? Now just enable this lab and that is just a button click away!
Go to label by Bruce Dkeyboard shortcuts and hit ‘g’ then ‘l’ to display a popup for selecting a label to go to. Also works with Quick Links.
Inbox preview by Peter BShow a simple, static preview of the inbox while loading.
Multiple Inboxes by ViviAdd extra lists of emails in your inbox to see even more important email at once. The new lists of threads can be labels, your starred messages, drafts or any search you want, configurable under Settings.
Google Search by Adam and DrewDisplays Google search results inside your mail window, letting you quickly find things and use them when you’re writing an email.
Create a Document by Jeremie LE & David KAllows you to create a Google Document from an email conversation or a new blank document if your keyboard shortcuts are enabled by hitting ‘g’ then ‘w’.
Filter import/export by Luke B, Slava C, and the Data Liberation teamExport your mail filters as a file: back them up, share them, or save them before deleting so you can restore them later. Import one of these files to quickly add or restore filters. These options become available under Settings/Filters when you enable this Lab.
Text Messaging (SMS) in Chat by The SMS TeamAllows you to send and receive text messages (SMS) in Chat. US phones only for now.
Authentication icon for verified senders by E RDisplays a key icon next to authenticated messages from certain senders that spammers attempt to fake. Currently works for mail from PayPal and eBay only.
Send & Archive by Pal TAdds a button to the compose form that lets you send a reply message and archive the email conversation in a single action.
Undo Send by Yuzo FOops, hit “Send” too soon? Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.
Location in Signature by Marco BAppends your location to your signature. You must have your signature enabled. Please enable gears for higher accuracy.
Title Tweaks by Fedor KChanges order of elements in the browser title bar from “Gmail – Inbox (20) – jaysonconner@gmail.com” to “Inbox (20) – jaysonconner@gmail.com – Gmail”. This way you are able (most of the time) to see if a new mail has arrived even if Gmail window is minimized.
Don’t forget Bob by Ari L, Naty L & Ron MOnce you pick some email recipients, Gmail suggests more people you might want to include based on the groups of people you email most often.
Got the wrong Bob? By Assaf B.D. & Naty LDoh, have you ever addressed an email too quickly, and included Bob (your boss) instead of Bob (your friend) by accident? If you’re emailing more than two people at once, Gmail will check if you meant to include Bob Smith rather than Bob Jones based on the groups of people you email most often.
Green Robot! by Chad YChat buddies show up as robot icons if they are currently using Android. Helpful to determine if you are chatting with someone on a computer or someone on an Android device.
Search Autocomplete by Ibrahim B, Chris P, and Andrew CProvides search suggestions for contacts and operators as you type in the search box.
Hide read labels. by Damian G & David de KThe visible labels in the navigation bar will be hidden under the ‘more’ menu when they don’t contain any unread conversations.
Inserting images by Kent TAllows you to insert images into a message body. You can upload and insert image files in your computer, or insert images by URLs. This lab will not work if you have offline enabled.
Extra Emoji by Yuzo FCompose messages with a richer set of emoji characters.
Hide Labels from Subjects by Christopher SWorking on a netbook with a small screen? Labels next to mail in your inbox take up valuable space. Hide them, and you’ll be able to see the subjects of your emails themselves.
Google Calendar gadget by Ben K and Garry BAdds a box in the left column which shows your Google Calendar. See upcoming events, locations, and details.
Google Docs gadget by Claudia C and Ted CAdds a box in the left column which displays your Google Docs. Shows recent docs, starred docs, and has fast search.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!

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Many dedicated Photoshop users can get substantial speed gains from their existing equipment by simply optimizing their computer and software so that it runs Photoshop more efficiently.

Here is a quick collection of speed-enhancing tips for getting the most efficient usage out of your software and computer:

Allocate a Scratch Disk
Photoshop uses RAM memory to run itself, store picture information, and to save undo and History State steps. Unless you are working with particularly small photo files it won’t take too many editing changes before the RAM is completely used up. At this point Photoshop cleverly uses a portion of hard drive space as “fake” RAM. This is not a new idea. Most operating systems use the same approach (called Virtual Memory) to ensure that enough memory is available for running essential programs. Photoshop calls this extra memory a “Scratch Disk”, and correctly setting up the disk will provide immediate speed and efficient benefits.

To set your Scratch Disk, select Edit>Preferences>Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks. Then choose a drive that has the most free space from those listed in the pop-up menu. If you have other drives listed you can also allocate these as extra Scratch Disks. Photoshop will make use of the drive listed first until it is full and then move to the next drive, even if more memory is needed. Most imaging professionals who regularly work with large files install a specific “fast access” drive just to be used as a Scratch Disk by Photoshop.

Set RAM percentage
Photoshop shares the RAM on your computer with the operating system (Windows or Mac OS X) and any other programs running at the same time. The percentage designated in the Photoshop Memory & Image Cache preferences determines the upper amount of RAM memory that can be used by Photoshop. Most new users push this setting as high as possible, some as much as 90 percent, thinking that this will speed up the processing of their files.

Unfortunately if this allocation is set too high, the operating system, as well as Photoshop, may need to move information from the fast RAM memory to the slower hard drive memory while processing. This action is called “page swapping” as the data is moved back and forth between the different memory spaces, and results in Photoshop actually running slower.

If you experience slower performance when raising the percentage of RAM allocated to Photoshop, try reducing the total amount to 50-60 percent for systems with up to 2GB, and 70 percent for computers with 4GB of RAM. Remember that you have to restart Photoshop after making any memory changes to ensure that these alterations will take effect.

Defragment your drives
As images and files are saved and resaved to disk they tend to become fragmented. This means that rather than the whole file being saved in one continuous space on the hard drive the information is broken into bits and stored in several locations (where ever there is empty disk space). Later, when the file is reopened, the document is reconstructed from each of the individual pieces. This file fragmentation slows down the opening and saving of files, as well as the running of programs such as Photoshop, if they were fragmented when initially installed. You can overcome this problem by regularly defragmenting the drives you use to store your images and load your programs.

To defragment a drive in Windows XP: Click Start>All Programs>Accessories> System Tools>Disk Defragmenter. Choose the drive to be defragmented and then select the Defragment button.

To defragment a drive in Mac OS X: Despite the fact that the latest version of Mac OS X contains automatic defragmentation of files smaller than 20MB, most Apple users prefer to defrag their drives with third-party utilities.

Minimize History States
The Photoshop History palette is a great feature, especially if you make mistakes as often as I do. Each successive edit is recorded as a step in the palette, enabling you to step back through the changes, gradually reversing your edits as you go. But this great feature does come at a cost. Each step uses memory resources and, when you make complex changes to large files, you can imagine how much memory is used to store a collection of steps.

Thankfully Adobe provides a setting in the Edit>Preferences>General dialog that can be used to alter the number of History States (or undo steps) stored by your system. By default it is set to 20, but if you find that Photoshop is running slowly after making a few editing changes then try reducing the number. Less History States does mean less opportunity to reverse editing changes, but this action frees up memory resources and can bring new life back to a slow running machine.

Reduce the number of open files
It may seem like stating the obvious, but the more pictures you have open in Photoshop the more of the total resources of the machine is taken up just maintaining each open file. When you add in the memory used to ensure undo or multiple History States for each file, it is not too hard to imagine that you will very quickly run out of RAM, forcing Photoshop to use the much slower Scratch Disk space. To speed up the processing, make sure that you only open (and keep open) files that are essential for your current editing task.

Run Photoshop by itself
A simple measure to speed up Photoshop is to make sure that no other programs are running at the same time. Seemingly simple utilities such as iTunes, Outlook, and Word all chew up memory and processor resources that could be used to drive Photoshop more efficiently. The golden rule is that if the program is not essential for the editing task then close the software. Click on the photo below to enlarge.

Alter the tile size
When Photoshop processes a photo it splits the picture into smaller image sections called tiles, and works on each in turn. By default the size of each of these tiles is 132KB. You can increase the amount of memory used for the processing of each tile by activating the Bigger Tiles plug-in.

To enable the Bigger Tiles plug-in: Close Photoshop and find the ~Bigger Tiles plug-in file in the following directories:
Mac OS: Applications/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Plug-Ins/Adobe Photoshop Only/Extensions/Bigger Tiles
Windows: Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Plug-Ins /Adobe Photoshop Only/Extensions/Bigger Tiles
Now rename the file and in the process remove the tilde (~) from the title. Restart Photoshop. Now if you assign from 261MB to 1GB of RAM in the Memory & Image Cache preference, the tile size increases to 260KB. Increasing the allocation to more than 1GB increases the tile size to 1MB. Larger tile sizes reduce the amount of time Photoshop takes to process an image, especially on computers with more than 1GB of RAM.

Scratch Disk vs. Virtual Memory
Both Photoshop and the Windows XP operating system use hard drive space as extra “fake” RAM. Adobe recommends that Photoshop Scratch Disks be positioned on a different drive to the one used by Windows for its Virtual Memory system. On most setups the Windows swap file is stored on the Startup or C drive. To help with overall Photoshop and Windows performance, ensure that you don’t position the Scratch Disk on the same drive. To set the location of your Scratch Disk select Edit>Preferences>Plug-Ins & Scratch Disks and choose the drive to use from the drop-down menu. Remember don’t select Startup or C drive unless you have no other choices.

Alter the Image Cache setting
Photoshop uses a special Image Cache to help redraw high-resolution images quickly. Instead of displaying all the information contained in these big files, Photoshop creates lower-resolution versions of the photo that are then used to update the screen quickly.

You can elect to store from 1-8 cached versions of the photo. A value of 1 disables the caching. Higher values store multiple versions of the file, which in turn produces faster screen redraws. The default setting is 4, but inputting higher numbers will help speed up the redraw process.

When a high cache number is set, it will take longer to open files as Photoshop creates the low-resolution versions of the photo at this point. To alter the Image Cache setting select Edit>Preferences> Memory & Image Cache and enter a value from 1-8 in the Cache Levels text box.

Any suggestions, ideas? Feel free to comment on this article!
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