Add Functionality to Gmail & Calendar with Google Labs

Google Labs are experimental features that you can add to Gmail and Google Calendar to customize and enhance your inbox and calendar. To help you get started, we've put together a list of the labs we think you'll find useful. Labs are pretty stable but It's important to remember, though, that a lab can become unstable, stop working, or disappear at any time.

Enable Labs

You can enable or disable a lab whenever you like. Here's how:

In Gmail or Google Calendar, click the Gear icon and select Settings.
Go to the Labs tab.
For each lab you want to use, click Enable. If you want to stop using a lab, click Disable.
Click Save Changes at the top or bottom of the page.

Recommended Gmail Labs

	Apps Search Extends your Gmail search to include Google Docs and Google Sites. Apps Search finds the most relevant results in Docs and Sites and shows them below your Gmail search results.
	Canned Responses Email for the truly lazy. Save and then send your common messages using a button next to the compose form. Also automatically send emails using filters.
	Google Calendar gadget Adds a box in the left column which shows your Google Calendar. See upcoming events, locations, and details.
	Preview Pane Provides a preview pane to read mail right next to your list of conversations, making mail reading faster and adding more context. Looks more like Outlook or Apple Mail
	Google Docs previews in mail Shows previews of documents, spreadsheets and presentations directly in the email when you receive any link to a Google Doc. Also gives an option to open directly in Google Docs.
	Inserting images Allows you to insert images into a message body. You can upload and insert image files in your computer, or insert images by URLs.
	Message Sneak Peek Peek into a conversation without opening it by right-clicking a message in your inbox.
	Signature tweaks Places your signature before the quoted text in a reply, and removes the "--" line that appears before signatures.
	Undo Send Oops, hit Send too soon? Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button.

Recommended Calendar Labs

	Event flair Bring life to your calendar and organize your events with icons for things like flights, vacations, parties, and meals -- or use different color stars to categorize your events. After you enable this feature, click on an event and look for the "Calendar flair" gadget to activate. Note: Icons added to events you organized will be visible to all attendees.
	Free or busy See which of your coworkers are free or busy right now. Requires that coworkers share their Google Calendars with you.
	Jump to date Quickly navigate to dates in the distant future or past (actual time travel not yet supported).
	Next meeting See what's coming up next in your calendar.
*	Smart Rescheduler Helps you reschedule an event by analyzing attendees' schedules, evaluating conflicts, obtaining conference rooms and proposing the best meeting times. It's like magic.
	World clock Keep track of the time around the world. Plus: When you click an event, you'll see the start time in each timezone as well.
	Year view Planning ahead and want to see the whole year at once? Adds a Year View gadget to right of your calendar.