Setting Gmail as Your Default Mail Client

One of my pet peeves when surfing the web is “Contact us” links that are actually email hotlinks (as opposed to links for an actual “Contact us” web page). I cannot tell how annoying it is when I click a link expecting one thing to happen, then something else happens. That is one of the clear signs of poor web site design. The reason I find it frustrating is because I use Gmail as my email client. So when I click an email link, my desktop email program launches. I then have to wait for Mac Mail to finish loading so I can quit out of it. What pain.

But not anymore! I finally found out how to set it up so that whenever I click an email link, Gmail will launch. It’s totally simple:

1. Download and install the Gmail toolbar notifier (note: it’s in beta)
2. Once installed, launch it
3. Go to preferences then click on the Gmail tab
4. Select the “Enable Gmail notification” check box.
5. In the “Compose mail in:” drop down menu, select Gmail
6. Close the preferences window.

That’s it.

Whenever you click on a link that launches your mail client (whether that link is online or built into a program you’re running) a new tab will open with a Gmail compose mail window.  From the tool bar, you can see how many unread message you have in your inbox, and if you click on the Gmail notifier icon in the toolbar, you can see the opening sentences for your next set of emails.

If you don’t want to be disturbed by email notification beeps, go back into preferences then deselect the “Enable Gmail notification” check box.

The notifier can also be used for upcoming calendar notifications too.

This is just another reason why I’m such a Google fanatic.