Add domain and icon to Gmail's email listings

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 11, 2018
Email, Gmail
|
12

Gmail Sender Icons is a browser extension for the Google Chrome web browser that adds domain information and icons to Gmail's email listings.

Gmail does not display any information about the sender of the email except for the selected name. The name is no good indicator, however, as it can be selected freely by the sender of the email.

You can move the mouse cursor over individual emails in the email listing to get additional information about that email in a popup. Gmail displays the email address that was used to sent the email in that popup and also whether the sender is in your list of contacts.

Gmail Sender Icons

gmail sender icons

Gmail Sender Icons is a relatively simply extension for Google Chrome. It adds the domain the email was sent from and the icon (favicon) of the domain to email listings on Gmail; this enables you to see on first glance from where the email was (supposedly) sent.

The extension adds the domain name and the icon to all email listings on Gmail. You find the new information in all inbox folders, in the spam folder, and even in the sent folder. The sent folder listing displays the domain and icon of the recipient of the email, however.

So, how does it work?

The Gmail add-on extracts the email address of the sender, parses the website domain from the address and pulls the favicon image (often same as the logo) of the domain. It then appends the logo image and the company’s domain as a label to the message subject thus making it easy for you quickly identify the message sender.

The developer of the extension, Amit Agarwal who runs Digital Inspiration, states that no data leaves the browser when the extension is active and installed.

Closing Words

Gmail Sender Icons is a useful extension for Gmail users who use the web interface of the email service regularly or at least sporadically. The extension displays the domain name and the icon of the domain in Gmail listings which may speed up certain operations. It may improve the detection of spam that slipped by or confirm to you that an email appears legitimate on first inspection.

The extension is only available for Google Chrome currently. It may work in other Chromium-based web browsers and even Firefox as well.

Now You: Which email service do you use, and why?

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Comments

  1. john difool said on April 13, 2019 at 9:47 am
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  2. Pierre said on June 14, 2018 at 11:22 am
    Reply

    Nice but it takes an extension more and unuseful traffic on the network

  3. chesscanoe said on June 11, 2018 at 1:48 pm
    Reply

    I like Gmail Sender Icons using Gmail under Chrome. I have Gmail customized to show just 4 emails per 1920×1080 screen so I can read it without Magnifier. Each email takes 3 of the 12 available lines to show Sender, Subject, and Icons+Labels respectfully. Very easy to read.

  4. Paul(us) said on June 11, 2018 at 10:49 am
    Reply

    Martin, (Or anybody else needless to say) A bit (or even quit) related subject wise Is an old wondering of me namely:
    How many extensions (, WebExtensions,) scripts, and themes you can load in your (Only Firefox and Google Chrome) browser before it gets noticeably sluggish?
    Normally I am having around 20 extensions (Web extensions) in Chrome and Firefox but I have never noticed any significant sluggish behavior, up to now!
    But I want to extend significantly the installed extensions (WebExtensions) number so I am wondering what I wise to consider as a minimum and maximum possible before there is a noticeable (irritating) lose of startup and handling.

    This question of main on which I have tried to read up but unfortunately (up to now I hope) I never found any satisfying clarification.

    1. klaas said on June 11, 2018 at 1:15 pm
      Reply

      If your browser gets sluggish with too many extensions, you could consider using userscripts. Some extension functionalities can be replaced by userscripts, even if they don’t carry the same name or have the same developer. Iridium, which Martin discussed here last week, is an exception in that sense in that the developer made an extension and a script.

      Anyway, scripts can be installed on the extension Greasemonkey or Violent Monkey. Those scripts are a lot less resource-hungry.

      1. Paul(us) said on June 11, 2018 at 8:54 pm
        Reply

        Thanks, Martin and Klaas for helping me with the possible upcoming memory problem.
        This because I have (only) an 8 GB memory (more on the moment is not possible because of the monitor configuration being next to two computer monitors also a tv flat screen) and the motherboard I right now have to use.

        And Klaas thanks for reminding me again of Greasemonkey from which I always found that their problem and still is for me personly that I have to go thru hours of shifting up to I found something which is almost what I really wanted. And maybe there is what I really need but I was at that time completely discouraged after hours of shifting that I gave it up completely.
        When anybody knows a way where you can easily and also quickly find what you need please let me now.

        I have also tried https://tampermonkey.net/ and https://alternativeto.net/software/violent-monkey/

        But or its https://userscripts-mirror.org/ , https://greasyfork.org/en or https://openuserjs.org/
        with all, I have problems locating the specific script that I want.
        Do you know the best guide (Web page, pdf, epub, etc..) to help you locate those script that I am really looking for?
        More (and also better) userscript website also more than welcome.

      2. klaas said on June 12, 2018 at 3:27 pm
        Reply

        @Paul(us): I am not aware of the kind of resource you are looking for. I personally found a few scripts by sifting through the lists. I have 20 extensions and have not noticed any slowdown of my browser (Waterfox), incl. Violent Monkey with 14 userscripts. And that covers all my needs.

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on June 11, 2018 at 11:08 am
      Reply

      Paulus, it depends on the extensions. I suggest you monitor RAM usage and add extensions one-by-one to make sure they don’t push memory use too much.

  5. ilev said on June 11, 2018 at 8:26 am
    Reply

    Love it.
    Thanks.

  6. LogicDaemon said on June 11, 2018 at 7:58 am
    Reply

    This is bad idea.

    1. You can’t trust name, that is true. But you also can’t trust address for the same reason. And icon is selected from the address. Thus, you can’t trust the icon.

    2. You can trust domain when it’s verified with DKIM (I’m using DKIM Verifier https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/dkim-verifier/).
    But you still can’t trust the icon, because if sender wants to deceive you and made similarly-looking domain to send the mail, nothing will stop him from putting there original icon and setting up DKIM correctly.

    Better way to get some picture avoid phishing is to add contacts to addressbook and put icon of your choice as their picture. Sender may still be faked, but usually, if DKIM verification fails, gmail puts the message to spam.

    It’s safer to verify DKIM before clicking any link in a email, but I don’t know an easy way do that inside Gmail web interface, so it’s not feasible :(

    Still it’s better to verify DKIM of sender before doing something sensitive, like sending your password or some documents scans.

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on June 11, 2018 at 9:57 am
      Reply

      I agree that you should not trust the domain or icon blindly, but what about the case where you can dismiss an email because of a domain mismatch? Say, the email claims it comes from PayPal but the domain is paypa1 dot something instead?

      1. Anonymous said on June 12, 2018 at 5:48 am
        Reply

        In that case they will go to spam folder and if you open the email Google will alert you about phising attempt.

        One of the reason why web gmail is better than desktop email client.

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