For the longest time, a huge thing that has irked us about Gmail was the inability to quickly see how many unread messages were in our inbox.
Title tweaks were added to Gmail Labs about two years ago, but that doesn't do much good if you have several tabs open. And the Google Notifier has been around for much longer than that, but doesn't update in real time.
Finally, two new Gmail features will let you immediately track your inbox count.
The first is the Unread Message Icon, which displays a counter next to the Gmail envelope in your tab. You can enable the feature under Labs settings (click the green formula bottle at the top of your window). It will work with any browser.
The second feature is only for Chrome users. It's an HTML 5 desktop notification system that displays pop ups for new e-mails, instant messages, and priority mail. To enable the feature, click the settings tab and scroll down to Desktop Notifications. There you'll see options to receive pop ups for new e-mails and chats.
Google says it is working on desktop notifications for other browsers that support HTML 5 too.
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On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.
