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A browser just for Gmail


In a dual gesture of both kicking Mail.app to the curb and flexing the power of Xcode, Michael McCracken has built his own streamlined browser just for using Gmail. Quirky browser behaviors and avoiding the distractions that come from multiple browser windows and bookmark bars prompted this 10-line coding experiment.

The resulting WebMail.app is exactly what Michael set out to create: a very slim Gmail viewer (you don't even get an address bar) based on WebKit. It works well, though there are quirks when having to do anything browser-related with it. Clicking a link in a message, for example, creates a new window in WebMail.app, not your default browser. Minor quirks aside, if you're in the same boat as Michael and you want a browser window just for using Gmail so you can retain things like your labels and alternate-email address abilities, this might be right up your alley.

Personally, I'm very tempted to use this since I too have joined the ranks of kicking Mail.app to the curb (running it only on occasion to download and archive my email). However, some of the Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail that I've been using in Firefox have become indispensable to how I work with Gmail; being able to move between labels, trash messages and even label messages all with a couple strokes of the keyboard rivals even desktop email app functionality. It would be great to see someone run with WebMail.app (Michael bundles the source in his download) and add some javascript ninja coding to combine the beauty of WebKit with the functionality of those Gmail script abilities to create one rockin' Gmail app.

*sigh* A Gmail-using blogger can dream, can't he?

[via Hawk Wings]

In a dual gesture of both kicking Mail.app to the curb and flexing the power of Xcode, Michael McCracken has built his own streamlined...
 

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Thomas Bonk

Does anybody know whether there is an application like NetJaxer (http://www.netjaxer.com) available for Mac OS X?

May 15 2006 at 6:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Chartier

#20: "Have you tried Mail Tags and Mail Act-On for Mail.app?"

Certainly, I think those are fantastic plugins for Mail. I actually think it's strange the software makers haven't started incorporating the tagging paradigm into more applications. Can you imagine how much cooler iPhoto would be if you could easily tag your photos instead of using clunky keywords?

But Mail has still just been too flaky for me. I've spent a lot of time reading forum posts and googling for support techniques, like optimizing databases and all that good stuff. Still, a few weeks later, maybe a month, and Mail starts misbehaving, messages begin disappearing, etc.

With the Greasemonkey scripts I mentioned in my post though, Gmail still just works out a lot better for me. I can tag and move messages with simple keyboard shortcuts - no mouse necessary. That's a dream come true in my book.

May 14 2006 at 2:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jack

> that's how my Camino is already setup.

Ditto, only with multiple tabs for Gmail, Google Calendar and a local page that displays my todo lists and notes.

> Those are SOOO easy to make, it is unbelievable.

See 'MyOneLineOfCodeBrowser using Cocoa and WebKit' for details:

http://cocoadevcentral.com/articles/000077.php

May 14 2006 at 12:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Roger Eberhart

Have you tried Mail Tags and Mail Act-On for Mail.app?

May 14 2006 at 10:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nikolas Coukouma

1) Open a new window in firefox
2) Load GMail in it
3) Hit View - Status Bar to hide the status bar
4) Hit View - Toolbars - Navigation Toolbar
5) Hit View - Toolbars - Bookmarks Toolbar

6) Enjoy your GMail window
7) Send e-mail to friends about it
8) Hit refresh
9) ...
10) Profit!

May 14 2006 at 6:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan

Johnny: Mail.app has a View > Organize by Thread option.

The only problem with this approach (and I understand why it can't be perfect) is that the only way Mail.app has to group messages is by their subject. I happen to have a lot of unrelated "Hi" and "Hey" and "Hello" and "Thoughts" personal emails that are mostly unrelated (and from different authors) and Mail.app groups them together incorrectly, while gmail via Safari keeps the right threads together.

Apart from that I absolutely love Mail.app though, and the ability to access email while away from the web (coming from a mobile user, as hotspots aren't exactly EVERYWHERE yet...) is killer, and gmail will never be able to offer that. Need I say Smart Mailboxes???

May 14 2006 at 1:13 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
eric

Thunderbird is now Universal Binary, forget about Mail.app, imcompatible issues, stability issues, pure junk.

May 13 2006 at 11:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bobinnv

While I'm glad that many people seem to be satisfied with Mail.app, many are not (check out the Apple support forum for Mail sometime!) This dedicated browser is great as far as I'm concerned. It takes up less resources than Mail or a 'full' browser, like Camino, but gives you what you need for using Gmail.

Arguing about what mail program you like better is probably pointless. But if you prefer Gmail, this is a great way to access it.

May 13 2006 at 11:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Johnny

I guess I can see using a browser dedicated to Gmail if you're not going to use Mail.app and you don't want email interfering with your web browser. Seems a little weird, but certainly plausible and to each his own.

Why the harsh words on Mail, though? A 'gesture of...kicking [it] to the curb'? Certainly it's not because the Gmail interface is better looking than Mail's. Also, I love how Macs are so easy to use. Not the picture I get when thinking about switching to Firefox, adding Greasemonkey scripts, and memorizing new keystrokes just so I can 'rival even desktop email app functionality' (like the kind I already enjoy with Mail).

There's only one thing that keeps me accessing Gmail from a browser most of the time, and that's Gmail's conversation feature that groups forwarded and replied-to emails together in one subject line. Hopefully, Leopard's iteration of Mail with have something like this. If it does, you'll need a lot more than a custom-made browser to get me to stop using Apple Mail.

May 13 2006 at 10:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
userjack6880

I've been loving Mail.app... I didn't like it when I had Hotmail because it really didn't support it well, but now that I have a Gmail account (ok, a while ago), I've been using Mail.app because, frankly, I dislike the online Gmail interface. It's just not me. Also, I could give a crap about Gmail labels... and the calendar feature. I just see if I got new mail, have my lovely mail signatures, and use iCal (because I'm good like that... and I also keep my phone's calendar up-to-date...)

I haven't had any bugs except that I can't send mail using my personal webserver's pop account (it's an issue with my server, not mail.app).

May 13 2006 at 7:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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