Google Releases New Themes for Gmail and Google Calendar

Dear people living under rocks this past week: If you haven’t noticed, Google has decided to tackle bold new things recently, with widespread success. First, they came out with Google+, a type of digital, communal gathering site that allows one to keep up with friends and collaborate with them (Which I am sure that Techerator will summarize into article form). And that was pretty cool.

But then, they did something even cooler and bolder than diving into the social networking realm: they updated Gmail with new themes and revamped Google Calendar! Isn’t that amazing! These new changes are a direct result of the Google+ launch in order to make Google’s products look more streamlined and uniform, as well as continuing the progress towards cleaner aesthetics.

The new look for Google Calendar will be turned on automatically, but you’ll have to activate the new Gmail themes yourself through the use of special new “Preview” themes. Gmail themes can be found by clicking the settings icon in the top right corner of your Gmail account (by your email name), selecting “Mail Settings”, and then going to the “Themes” tab. You can then select either “Preview” or “Preview (Dense)”, the latter having less padding between each item in your inbox.

And for those of you still living under rocks without a Google account, here’s a few pictures to show off the neatness.

Before:

Old Gmail

Old Google Calendar

Don't judge a man by his calendar

After:

New Gmail

Clean, clear, and shiny. Divine email inspiration.

New Google Calendar

Now with 10% more minutes per day (results not typical)

I’d say that Google cleans up quite nicely for its couple hundred million users. And that’s something you can truly leave the rock behind for.

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Kevin Ivanca

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Comments

3 responses to “Google Releases New Themes for Gmail and Google Calendar”

  1. Evan Wondrasek Avatar
    Evan Wondrasek

    It looks like you and I were both using the same theme on old Gmail, “Shiny”. I loved that theme, but the new themes are so much cleaner. Now if only they had a version that was less white…

  2. Socializing Business · Het grote potentieel van Google+

    […] blijkt duidelijk uit recente berichten. Zo krijgen Picasa en Blogger een nieuw jasje en krijgen GMAIL & Google Agenda ook een nieuw design. Ook is Google Docs nu al beschikbaar in een nieuwe stijl. Dit alles kan een voorbode zijn van […]

  3. Regina Clarke7 Avatar
    Regina Clarke7

    Some lovely themes in gmail are gone. What is left is dismal and very limited choices that are almost colorless by comparison to the past in gmail. igoogle has good stuff, but not gmail. The planets used to be vivid solar system background–selections now look like someone used to camouflage, not color, so dulled. Extremely disappointing how few landscape and space options are there. The cartoons and drawings are so childish. Very disappointing. I plan to change out of google gmail now in 2012.

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