Most free web services rely on ads to support their sites, and email is not an exception. As much as we love free email service, sometimes ads can be a minor nuisance. If you’re always distracted with advertisements in Gmail, or just want to get rid of the visual noise, this handy Firefox add-on can help with that.
Gmelius is a FireFox extension that enables you to strip the Gmail interface of distractions, including ads. The result is a clean, customized email experience that lets you focus more on your Inbox. Gmelius is free to use and is compatible with FireFox versions 10 to 14.
Downloading and enabling the extension should automatically remove ads from your Gmail account. If you don’t see the changes, you may have to restart FireFox and try again. You can also go to the browser settings and check if the extension is enabled. The Options screen of Gmelius not only shows ad-removing features, but other elements you can hide such as headers and footers.
Below is a comparison of an email before and after installing the add-on:
Before:
After:
As shown above, the ads to the right disappear after enabling Gmelius. Aside from a cleaner look, the page also loads faster than usual. The screen looks less cluttered and gets a more appealing, zen-like user interface.
To ensure that ads are removed, simply go to the Options page of the add-on and see that “Remove Ads from Gmail” is checked. Other options are also available from this page and you only need to tick the boxes according to your preference. There are lots of options, so you’ll have to take time reading through and making sure you understand what gets changed or removed.
You can also remove the Chat sidebar (located to the left of the screen), footer and the pop-up that says “No new mail message”. Before installing this extension, the Chat window usually takes longer to load after everything else – which was a bit of a hassle if I’m in a hurry. However, disabling these elements should make loading times quicker.
For easier navigation, you can click on the black top bar to scroll up to the top of the page, just like Google +. Simply click on the top bar and watch as your Inbox scrolls to the first item on the list. This may not matter for most who rely on their mouse’s scrolling wheel, but clicking once on a bar sure beats scrolling up several times.
Other options include:
- Make the Google logo clickable to link to main view
- Change icons for email attachments
- Change highlight color
- Remove contacts and their status in the Chat box
- Move labels to the right side
With these added features, Gmelius is not only an ad-remover, but a complete Gmail makeover tool for more advanced users. At the same time, this extension allows for user-friendly controls even less savvy users can execute.
Sometimes less is more, and with Gmelius, this holds very true. For a more detailed overview of its features, visit their official website.
