How to Replace Google Ads in Gmail with a Social Widget

Article by Marc Liron - Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience)

This handy little plug-in, being called a Social Widget by the creators, is currently only available for the FireFox

The Rapportive Gmail Plug-in in Action

This image below shows the Rapportive plug-in replacing the normal Google Ads in Gmail...

As you can see in the image above, the "Google Ads" are now not showing. Instead you can see the details of the email sender - Chris Lang.

This gives me an easy and instant access to information about him online.

I can even see his most recent Twitter posts, right within Gmail!

So where does this information come from?

Well the Rapportive plug-in is using the Social Database from Rapleaf: http://www.rapleaf.com 

Rapleaf's information is collected from a variety of social networks (FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) and other sites that publicly display YOUR information to anyone.

The information from each individual source can be seen by anyone online. Because these sites may not all contain the same information, Rapleaf determines the most likely correct value.

So, if you are ready to install this social plug-in for Gmail. Head on over to:

http://rapportive.com/install 

When you visit the URL, the page will automatically have detected the browser you are using and offered you the relevant plug-in to install.

After installation and rebooting the browser, logging into your Google Gmail account will invoke the plug-in.

(You will be asked to login to the Rapportive system so they can fetch the social data on your senders email address, this is only required once per Gmail login.)

One more point to mention. You will need to give permission to Google to allow Rapportive to gain access to your Google account (see image below.)