Most people these days use email to communicate with a lot of people, which results in a regular stream of new e-mails. With Google Mail Checker you find out how many news emails you have by just looking at the top right corner of your browser window.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

Google Mail Checker tells you how many unread emails you have by placing a number on button (the form of the Gmail logo) and putting that button in the toolbar of Chrome. It does all the e-mail checking behind the scenes and does it very well. As an added bonus, clicking on the button allows you to open Gmail.

Pros

• Updates in semi-real-time, as you receive new notifications — even if you don’t have Gmail open
• Clicking on the icon takes you to Gmail

Cons

• Only shows new/unread email in the main inbox — not filtered folders, priority mail, etc.
• Can only be used for one e-mail account
• A page within Chrome has to be refreshed before the Gmail counter is refreshed (i.e. you have to be actively surfing the web for this to work)
• Sometimes does not launch Gmail
• Works for Gmail only; doesn’t support other e-mail accounts

Discussion

In today’s day and age of fast paced moving and constant switching, having a extension that will allow you to see if you have any new messages is a must. A few days ago we reviewed a similar addon for Firefox, and we figured that those using Chrome would want to have a similar extension. So enter Google Mail Checker.

This extension will update in “semi-real-time” and tell you how many new/unread e-mails you have, without the need to go to Gmail’s website. And if you want to go to your Gmail inbox, then all you have to do is to click on the Gmail symbol (the button) and your inbox is opened.

The biggest downside is, unlike the one for Firefox, this one does not pull down information in full real time. At least not like you would think of it. In order for the counter to refresh, any page that is open within Chrome needs to be refreshed. It does not matter which one; however a page does need to be refreshed. In other words, the counter will not update unless you are actively browsing the web.

Another downside are the occasional bugs: the first one being that Gmail won’t open sometimes when the button is clicked and, one time after closing Chrome, the Gmail counter was not there, and I had to re-download the extension.

The biggest change I would suggestion for this extension is to make it pull information in full real time. Yes it would use more data, however it would be a lot more efficient for the user and the data would not be that much.

Conclusion and download link

Overall this is another great and simple extension that allows you to see if you have any new messages without going to Gmail’s website. Even if you only check your emails once a day, you should definitely download this extension. We all know there is no reason to visit a site if there is nothing to do there, so why visit it if there are no new emails?

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 4.4.0

Requires: Chrome on any OS

Google Mail Checker on Chrome Web Store