The Gmail Notifier for Mac OS X alerts users when they have new and unread email through an icon on the computer's system tray. The icon also shows the subject of the email, the sender and a snippet from the body. The information is available without opening a browser.
Google, Mountain View, Calif., has been aggressive in releasing software that connects the desktop directly to the Web and its services, bypassing the need to launch rival Microsoft Inc.'s Internet Explorer or other Web browser. Other desktop applications include Google Earth, a search application that displays satellite-based views of places and lets people overlay road maps on top of the geography.
Other Gmail Notifier features include viewing messages without a browser and opening Gmail in a browser without logging in. Users of Google Talk for the Mac, the company's instant messaging client, don't need to install Notifier, since the IM application automatically delivers new mail notifications.
Greg Miller, the Google software engineer who built Notifier, said in the company's blog this week that the application was the company's first, but not the last, for the Mac.