Kill the "Use this link to open Tasks" pop-up in Gmail

By Leon Bailey on Fri 20 February 2009

Gmail user? Fed up with the "Use this link to open Tasks" box that pops up in the navigation pane every time you start a new Gmail browser session? Yep, us too.

In fact, it’s a new bug that’s a result of the offline mode Google recently bolted on to Gmail. So, if you haven’t enabled offline mode, then you won’t have seen this problem. Consider yourself lucky. On the other hand, it might be driving you slightly potty. But fear not, for we have the cure. Well, sort of. Read on after the cut.

Actually, it’s not our remedy but Google’s. And by the search sire’s own admission, it’s not really a cure at all but a handful of workarounds to tide you over until Google’s engineers figure out a proper fix.

You see, the Tasks tooltip was designed to appear just once but, with offline mode enabled, Gmail is fooled into thinking that you’ve not seen it. So, it pops up. And pops up again. And again – every time you start a new Gmail session, in fact. Grrr.

So Google’s first suggested is to, er, disable offline mode (under Settings/Offline). Yep, that works. But it also ruins the seamless nature of Gmail’s offline mode.

Google’s next idea is to avoid reloading your Gmail session. No, we’re not being facetious – that’s what Google recommends. But okay, that works too.

The final suggestion – and perhaps the most useful – is to disable Tasks in Gmail itself (Settings/Labs) and instead use it as a sidebar widget/gadget in Firefox. That works, keeps Tasks a tasking and kills the annoying Tasks pop up in the Gmail window. How? Google links to a step-by-step published by Lifehacker – which you’ll find right here.

There, we've done our good deed for the day.

[Google Groups]