Google added a themes feature today to their Gmail (Beta – whats that about huh?) service.
Well. I don’t like it just because it confused the hell out of me when I signed in to my account. Now, it’s not that I’m resistent to change by any measure… and definitely not design changes as most people who work with me will know.
It just seems however that when a company like Google – who were never big on flashy aesthetics – go to great lengths to introduce themes and skins to their products (iGoogle was first I think) perhaps they’re running out of useful features and practical stuff to add to their products.
Personally I would have preferred a new settings tab that allows me to remove some of the stuff in Gmail rather than add more clutter!
Is Google Reader next…
[Update: The pebbles theme is sweet though :-)]
Richard Muscat 
I was not able to imagine the negative side of this! I felt the themes are a welcome change from the otherwise minimalistic-no bells and whistles interface. I agree that the menu is a little whelming, but not to the extent of getting the user completely confused! In spite of being too colorful for a google product, the themes in gmail are simplistic and right in line with google designs. cheers.
I didn’t like them either, but then I saw that a bunch of them update with your local weather/temperature.
Like, it’s a picture of the outdoors, and it changes to represent local conditions. It’s amazing.
Yes that’s pretty impressive actually. They’re not too bad on the whole you know… I think I got up on the wrong side of the bed that morning :-)
After its search and advertising core businesses, one of Google’s hottest products is its Gmail service. One of the most widely used free email services on the internet; Google is constantly at work improving the service. Typically upgrades