About four years ago, I shared a tip on using Gmail with Google Deskbar's minibrowser (DeskBAR not DeskTOP). Basically, you could get a small browser window right in your taskbar that would go away when you're done with it. The power of it came from the ability to set up keyboard shortcuts to quickly make it where you want to go on the web: Gmail, Search or whatever you could imagine Unfortunately, Google abandoned Google Deskbar soon after.

You can still download Deskbar at PC World if you want, but it's no longer supported by Google. Luckily, it turns out that some Deskbar fans have developed their own version of the software: Googol Deskbar! Let me know if you give it a run and if it's something you find useful. Or not as much.