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.

But I’m one of the many Firefox addicts who just can’t seem to use any other browser or there are people running Linux or Mac for whom Chrome has not yet been released. So can’t we guys have our Firefox wearing those Chrome like looks? Well actually you can skin your Firefox with Chromifox.

Chromifox is a bright and soft blue theme for Firefox 3, inspired by the appearance of the Google Chrome web browser. You can use it on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Download Chromifox.

Note: You need to have Firefox 3 to use this theme.

Instructions to install a theme:
1. Download the theme you want to install.
2. Copy it to a USB device.
3. Make a folder in the device named as ‘PS3 ‘. (All CAPS required)
4. In the ‘PS3′ folder, make another folder named as ‘THEME ‘. (All CAPS required)
5. Move the theme file into this folder.
6. Plug the USB device into your PS3.
7. Go to the themes option.
8. Click on install and select the USB device.
9. Enjoy your new theme!

There are a whole lot of themes available on the internet. Here are a few cool ones:

> This Is Living

> PlayB3yond

> GT5 Theme

> Sfere

> Apple Mac OS X Leopard v2.0

Which of these did you like the most? Or is there any other theme which you like and is not included in the list? Tell us in your comments.

But Firefox 3 on Ubuntu looks a bit out of fashion. It comes with vaguely cartoonish orange arrows, which make it disappointing when compared to the Windows version.

If you are using Firefox on Ubuntu and want those Windows like Back and Forward buttons, you can get the Strata Human Firefox theme . This theme will give Firefox large buttons with a perfectly-matched orange-brown colour combination.

If you are a Windows user, then also you can also install this theme if you like the Ubuntu Human look.

Strata Human 1.0

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!

I recently logged into my Orkut account and accepted a friend request that I had received. Upon accepting the request I gave that person’s profile a visit but there was something unusual about that profile.

The profile had a totally different look which contrasted the default Orkut look. The above screenshot is what the profile looked like. While I explored the profile a bit, I came across a ‘get this theme‘ link on the top. Upon clicking that link, I got directed to a themes page which had some themes displayed. There were 12 themes on that page and among those, 7 were ready to be chosen and others had the coming soon tag. Beach, Country side, Spring time, Winter, JR – the friendly giant were some of the themes available. All of these carried a good design and were a nice replacement for the default interface.

But I couldn’t understand this theme-thing completely. While these worked perfectly with one profile, I couldn’t get them to change another profile’s look. When I visited my skinned profile from another account, I couldn’t see any change and neither could I find any ‘get this theme’ link. Contrary to this, my skinned profile showed everything correctly and was carrying the theme pretty well.

Maybe the Orkut team is upto adding this feature to user profiles but it’s not ready yet. I don’t know wether this feature is available to some users or users of any specific country like happened in the case of ‘Orkut Applications’, which were initially available to people residing in Estonia. Some people might have experienced this thing but it’s surely not available publicly. Did you encounter something of this sort ?