Google Labs bundles apps into Gmail

Yesterday, Google Labs announced new experimental features that can add other Google apps into the Gmail viewer.

The three new features found under Settings > Labs add new boxes in the left navigation panel in Gmail. One is a dedicated Google Calendar gadget that shows upcoming appointments and gives alerts when a schedule event occurs. Another is a gadget dedicated to Google Docs, which makes all of your documents searchable and accessible from within Gmail.

A developer sandbox type Lab is also available that allows any gadget to be pasted into the Gmail left-hand nav by pasting a URL pointing to an XML file. However, because that particular experiment is still young, not all gadgets are compatible with HTTPS, so users connecting thusly will have their gadgets served through HTTP.