Users who prefer web-mail services like Gmail over their computer’s native email client have often had a hard time with email links on web pages. Clicking those links usually opens up your email client, and using them with a web-based mail service required copying the email address into your preferred mail service’s compose box.
Today, though, Google has announced that Chrome users can now open email links in Gmail. If you logged into your Gmail account in Chrome this morning you probably got a message that looked like this one:
If you click “Use Gmail” Chrome will now direct email links to Gmail instead of your native mail client. While other browsers have had the option of opening email links in web clients for awhile, Chrome relies on the user’s computer’s default mail setting. This update uses HTML5 technology to make it a little easier for Chrome users to use Gmail.