Google has given Chrome users a special desktop notification feature. The browser can optionally pop up HTML5-based notices for new Gmail messages or Gtalk chat, independently of the browser window. The feature is OS-independent and only requires an active tab with Gmail open to work.
The feature can be switched on in Gmail’s settings and allows switching on notifications for either format on its own. For e-mail, users also have the option of setting the notifications to only appear for important messages in the prioirty inbox mode. Google eventually hopes to make such notifications a standard across all web browsers in an upcoming HTML spec but hasn’t said how close it might be.
