Idea: Corporate Widget for e-mail

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I believe that widgets for the corporation are not quite there…meaning they are nice to look at but don’t really add value to day-to-day work.  I have been giving some thought to this topic and my obsession/addiction/problem of multi-tasking triggered me into an idea.  It is all based around e-mail (as a starter) andf or those of you who (like myself) always have multiple applications open all at once.

I sometimes find that the more I have open, the slower the my applications eventually become.  Being a bit of an e-mail junkie, whenever I get a new e-mail, I open up my e-mail program.  But, depending on the temperment of my machine, this sometimes takes a while.  The problem is that it takes me out of my application I am currently working in (Word, Excel, Internet Explorer), into another one.

So, what I would like to see is the ability to add an e-mail widget to any application I have on my desktop.  So, if I am in MS Word (or any application), I would like the ability to add a widget to the toolbar

Photo from Dave Duarte via Flickr

Thus, when I rceive a new e-mail, I can see it it the application I am working in – and I can open the e-mail message without leaving my application.

This would be helpful even to add this widget to my desktop…thus, not having to run my e-mail application when I am logged on.

Anyway, that is what I thought about over the Christmas holidays.