Today’s modern browsers allow you to set up special notifications inside of Google Apps. If you’re the type of person who hates to stare at your inbox or calendar items, some of the following features might be useful to you. This is especially true when you are trying to better organize all of the information that is available to you!

Mail Notifications

Using mail notifications is a great way to get the subject as well as the first few lines of an email as it arrives in your inbox. Those of you who are familiar with Microsoft Exchange may find this feature useful. You can turn this type of notification on by going into your mail settings. From there, scroll down in the general tab area until you see Desktop Notifications.

Chat Notifications

One of the best features of Google Apps is the ability to chat with your colleagues right inside the browser. But what if you still have to do a lot of work within another application? When you turn chat notifications on, you’ll not only hear the fact that someone is chatting with you through the “ding” sound, you’ll actually be able to see who is writing a message to you. Enabling this feature can also be done in the main mail settings area under Desktop Notifications.

Google Mail Checker

Google Mail Checker is a cool little extension that resides in the Chrome browser. As it is only available in Chrome, you’l find it in the Chrome Web Store. You can install it in a snap by going here. Once you’ve installed it, the extension will sync up with your mail account and let you know when you get new mail, as well as keep count of how many new messages you have.

Google Calendar Checker

Do you have an addictive need to know when your next meeting is? Instead of constantly looking at your calendar for info, you can install Google Calendar Checker. It will let you know when you have your next meeting right down to the minute so that you can continue to work until the exact time, making sure that you’ll be at that important meeting.

Being able to stay up to date with notifications during the workday can sometimes be a challenge. But with the powerful combination of the latest web browser and the collaborative functions within Google Apps, you can keep up with the important information that’s needed to properly execute during the course of your day. Here’s hoping that one of these (or more) ends up being useful to you!