YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and Yelp previews are in Gmail

Sometimes, we just want to save time by choosing which links in our emails are worth clicking or not. It really isn’t a pleasant feeling if you’re in a hurry to do something, then somebody sends you an email that says “REALLY IMPORTANT EMAIL PLS READ TNX”; thinking that if this is really important, maybe you can spare a minute or two reading the email and clicking the link in it. Who knows, maybe it can save a life or something.

So you click the YouTube link contained in the email, expecting something really important, and voila, you’ve been Rickrolled!

Or maybe you’re just lazy to open a new tab. Either way, Gmail has found a way to save you time (or extra effort). You see, Gmail currently automatically detects package tracking information, addresses, and event information and shows quick links to delivery status, maps and directions, and Google Calendar. So why couldn’t Gmail automatically detect links in emails and show videos, photos, and ratings right inside these messages as well?

And no, Gmail Labs has made some cool new features that will do just that. For instance, there’s this great YouTube preview feature out right now:

It’s pretty obvious what it does. Once you enable YouTube previews, a YouTube link will instead show up as an embedded video within the email. I think this is totally wicked.

Other features they have would be for Picasa. Instead of having to click on a Picasa album link to see the photos it contains, you can see photos right in the message itself:

Flickr users, don’t despair. The Gmail Labs team haven’t forgotten you, and they’ve included Flickr previews in there as well. How’s that for awesomeness?

And whenever you receive a Yelp link in an email, Yelp previews show you ratings, phone numbers, and other listing information right there:

If you wanna try this new feature out, just log on to your Gmail account and go to Settings, then look for the Labs tab. Or you can click here.