Gmail Tasks, now found under the “Labs” setting tab, lets you click to add any reminder to yourself, then check off items as you finish them.

The function is also built into messaging. Once you activate tasks, you can select any e-mail, then select “Add to Tasks” under the “More Actions” menu to directly move the entire message into a Tasks item.

The Tasks lists can also be popped in and out of the main Gmail browser window, much like the way the Chat option works.

Gmail Tasks is certainly nothing groundbreaking, but it’s a nice functionality that had long been missing from the service. For people who have replaced their standalone e-mail clients with Gmail (or who might be considering a switch to a Web-based platform), its addition will no doubt sweeten the deal.

The Inquisitr’s Steven Hodson has some concerns, though, about how Tasks’ debut could affect smaller applications such as Remember The Milk (RTM) that had offered similar functionality with Gmail integration. You can read his thoughts here.

Related posts:

1. Google Adds Message Translation Into Gmail Labs
2. Google adds video to Gmail Chat
3. Gmail (Finally) Adds Inline Image Support

First, the new release: Chrome version 0.3.154.9 is expected to go out to users automatically within the “next few days,” according to a blog posted last night. It implements a substantial security fix, as well as improved Flash and Silverlight performance, touchpad scrolling support, and some changes to the interface.

Now, the counterintuitive effect: Chrome seems, at this point, to be helping the other browsers on the market. After its initial draw, recent reports show Chrome’s numbers dropping and the number of users on other browsers climbing. Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner sees it as a direct effect. In an interview with GigaOM published today, von Tetzchner said the publicity surrounded Chrome essentially gave him free exposure to an audience who didn’t know his product existed.

“The effect of Chrome so far has been 20 percent more downloads every day,” he told GigaOM. “It’s fairly logical when you think about it, because the biggest hurdle we have is all those people that don’t realize there’s an alternative in the market. Now, with the launch of Chrome there’s focus on the choice of browsers in the market.”

So what’s in the cards for Chrome’s future? Our Inquisitr poll last month asked you what you thought.

• 39 percent of you believe Chrome will stick around and carve out its share of the market.
• 29 percent said it will stick around but never see widespread success.
• 32 percent said it will eventually fade into Google Lab oblivion.

To be fair, Google’s first foray into the browser world is still in beta, so we may be jumping to early judgments on its ultimate success. Then again, Gmail’s still in beta, too, and it’s doing just fine. Chrome came into a market with several popular and relatively advanced browsers, so finding a sizable userbase willing to abandon Firefox, Safari, or Opera may prove extra challenging for Google. So far, though, the team is showing no signs of giving up yet. Let’s see if their efforts pay off, or if — as a third of you predicted — Chrome vanishes into the final resting spot of so many Google projects past.

Related posts:

1. Chrome numbers continues to climb
2. Surprise: Chrome’s Users Coming From IE
3. Chrome Starting to Lose Steam

The good news: despite a TechCrunch report suggesting that Gmail Labs was georetarded to the United States and United Kingdom, I’m seeing labs here in Australia.

Gmail labs offers a variety of optional extras, including layout tweaks, shortcuts and even a game titled “Old Snakey.” Taken alone it’s a traditional Google Labs style offering: throw some things up, get some feedback, run with the popular ones as standard eventually, and I have no issues about the model what so ever. But..well…it’s just not exciting. Nothing in Gmail Labs is a radical change from what Google is offering on Gmail now and all the options are window dressings, nothing more. And of course they still haven’t enabled drag and drop, the one feature that would further turn Gmail into a killer business/ enterprise mail app.

My recommendation: don’t spend more that 5 minutes playing with this. Gmail Labs is accessible via the Settings Menu within Gmail.

Related posts:

1. Gmail Adds New Custom Title Bar Labs Feature
2. Google Adds Message Translation Into Gmail Labs
3. GTFO: Five years on, Google finally adds drag and drop to Gmail