Google’s beloved Gmail has always been an attractive choice for third-party customizations. For people wanting to change the design, Gmail Redesigned skin has been a cool choice but now Google is officially looking after the interface customization part. You can now spice up your inbox with around 30 new themes.

To select a theme, click on the ‘Settings’ option and then go to the ‘Themes’ tab and choose a desired theme.

Let us know which theme you like the most through your comments.

Google has added support for video and voice capabilities for the chat function embedded in the Gmail interface. It’s a simple service and is easy to install and use and appears to be a very good addition to Gmail.

Unlike Skype’s paid service, Gmail Video and Voice cannot connect to the plain phone network. Some more optional features like a voice call recorder are also missing.

Gmail Video and Voice is a bit different from many current video chat products and uses a proprietary plug-in, not Flash. The small (2MB) download supports Firefox, IE, and Chrome on the PC, and Firefox on the Mac.

The existing Google Talk application which currently supports voice chat may get the video capability later.

Google has got the first release of its videophone pretty much right. It works, it’s easy, and if you’re a Gmail user, the service is right where you want it.

Gmail is surely one of the best e-mail services. Personally I love Gmail for it’s simplicity and features. The Gmail interface is pretty neat and clean. Despite this, you might get bored looking at the same interface day after day.

Well you can change the look of your account, thanks to Google Redesigned. Basically, Google Redesigned is a Firefox extension developed by Globex Designs. It skins your Gmail account and gives it a complete makeover just like the one shown above.

To change your Gmail account’s look, follow these steps:

Note: Google Redesigned is built for Mozilla based browsers (Firefox, Flock, IceWeasel, and such). The extension will not work with any other browser.

1. Download and install the Google Redesigned extension.
2. After the installation finishes, restart your browser.
3. Thats it! Everything has been set up. Just open Gmail and you’ll see the difference.

This extension also changes the interface of another Google service ie. Google Calendar.

After the install, you will also notice a small Google Redesigned icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. To check for new updates to styles manually you can click on the icon and press the “Check for Style Updates” button. From the menu you can also enable and disable the individual styles which are available.

This extension gives Gmail a pretty cool look. There is no harm in trying it as it’ll just be visible on the browser which has this extension installed. Hope you like it!

Google Lively is an online 3D social arena just like the popular Second Life virtual world. With Lively, you can set up your own online spaces: rooms, desert islands, grassy meadows and much more. You can change the clothing or form of your avatar. And of course you can chat, do backflips, shake hands, and give high-fives.

Just like Second Life, Lively also requires users to download and install a separate “client” software package that connects you to the online world but there’s a major difference between the two. For Lively, people can use Internet Explorer or Firefox to enter the virtual world. It’s integration with the ordinary Internet proves to be quite beneficial. You can bring in content like photos or videos hosted elsewhere on the Web. You can even embed your Lively world into your blog or on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace using the widgets Google has written.

Lively is different from Second Life in a number of ways. It doesn’t have any money and is designed to be easier to use, with a drag-and-drop interface. For now, it’s not programmable. Thus you can select clothes, furniture, hairstyles etc. only from the ones Google supplies to you.

Currently, Lively is available only on the Windows platform. A Mac OS X client is one thing that Google would surely bring out. Money and programmability are also the items the company is seriously considering.

Enter the Google Lively virtual world ..