Yesterday we told you about 3 new exciting features ^[1] where they integrated Google ^[2] Calendar and  Google Docs into Gmail ^[3], along with that, they also added a new feature where you can add a custom gadget to Gmail by providing the XML URL for it.

Here is a simple and step by step tutorial to add custom gadgets like Remember the Milk, weather or for that matter anything to your Gmail account.

Step 1: Activate the custom Gadget in Labs To start using of this nifty feature, you will first have to enable it. To do that, go to Settings > Labs and find Add any gadget by URLand activate it.

Step 2: Find XML URLs for the Gadgets To Add To Gmail Now that you have activate the feature, you will need to find the XML URLs for the gadgets you want to add, there are few places you can find gadgets, either in your Google IG home page or the Gadgets gallery.

If you want to add a existing Gadget from your Google IG ^[4] page to Gmail, go to your IG homepage and find the gadget you want to add, click on the arrow key in the gadget menu and from the dropdown menu click on About this Gadget

Once you click on the option you will be taken to a new page where you can see information about the gadget, the address bar on this page contains the link to the Gadget XML URL, copy the URL and store it somewhere temporarily.

Alternatively, you can also find gadgets in the Gadget directory ^[5], to get the gadget XML URL in the directory find the gadget you want to add to Gmail and click on the link to view the full description, once you are on the description page, copy the URL from the address bar like shown in the screenshot above.

Step 3: Adding The Gadget To Gmail Once you have got hold of the XML URL of the gadget it is time to add it to your Gmail account, to do that go to Settings > Gadgets and enter the URL into the text box provided.

Note: If the XML URL is missing the protocol (http://) please add it, like we have done in the example.

Click on the Add button to add the custom gadget to Gmail, once you have done that you will the gadget appear in the settings page, as well as the sidebar.

Once you follow these steps, you can start enjoying your favorite gadgets in Gmail, however you will not be able to edit or change settings for the gadgets you have added, which we think should be added in near future.

Another notable problem we saw, was the inability to see gadgets built by Google, for example we were able to add the Google Reader gadget through the settings page, but it did not display in the sidebar, so it could be that Google is working internally on integrating more Google Products like Google Reader into Gmail.