Gmail Adds Docs and Calendar to Left-Nav

Following last week’s barrage of Gmail updates from Google, the search giant this week brings us another project from Gmail Labs which might actually prove to be quite useful.

As of late many users have been requesting that the Gmail team find a way to incorporate Google Docs and Calendar into the left-nav tool bar along with Chat and Labels so they could easily access their information on the Google apps without leaving Gmail.

Google announced today (via its blog) that the Gmail team had recently gotten together with some of the engineers in charge of Calender and Docs and added both applications to the left-nav, allowing users to monitor their calendars and keep an eye on upcoming appointments, as well as showing them recently accessed Google Docs and enabling them to quickly and easily search their documents without opening new tabs. The new tool will also mean users are reminded of upcoming appointments, a welcome addition for anyone who uses Google Calendars.

That aside, the company also announced a third Lab, which allows users to add any gadget to the left-nav by pasting in the URL of its XML spec file, however Gmail Engineer, Dan Pupius writes that this tool is a sandbox mainly aimed at developers who want to play around with gadgets in Gmail and says that the “iframe-style Gadgets we’re using today” can sometime slow down the page.

Last week saw the release of Gmail Mobile 2.0, updates for emoticons and the addition of Canned Responses to Gmail Labs. To read about last weeks updates, click here.