Make Gmail Web Clips Work For You

January 11, 2008 by Reah Guevarra
Filed under: Gmail

Since the time I started using Gmail, I have been ignoring the links above my inbox. I thought they were uninteresting paid links. It’s only when I clicked the Web Clips tab in my Gmail ‘Settings’ that I realized I can stop this blue box appearing by unchecking the box for ‘Show my web clips above the inbox’.

However, after browsing the contents of the web clips tab, I decided not to remove it. Because I found out that the links appearing in that box is in my control. Web Clips can actually show “news headlines, blog posts, RSS and Atom feeds, and relevant sponsored links” I want.

If you are also ignoring these web clips, I suggest you take a second look. All you need to do is add/remove clips in the following categories: News, Business, Lifestyle, Sports, Tech, and Fun. You can even preview example of links from a certain site to help you in your decision.

In my case, I chose clips in the News category. So, whenever I open my Gmail and scroll my web clips, I can check news from BBC, CNN, or Time. If a news clip seemed interesting, I will just click the link so I can read the whole story. The clip will also display how long the story has been published.

Aside from articles from different websites, you can also choose clips that show quotations, recipes, or trivias. These can be added in the ‘Fun’ category.

If nothing interests you, you can add custom feeds to web clips. Just enter the url in the field under ‘Search by topic or URL.’ Then you can click add after Gmail locates the feed.

It is like subscribing to a feed through Google Reader, but this time, web clips will only show you links, and you need to click the link to read the post from that blog or website. But at least, if you don’t have enough time accessing Google Reader but you have more time in Gmail, subscribing to feeds through web clips can be beneficial for you.

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