Using Gmail as the default mail application in Mac OS X
A simple two step process (for Firefox users).
- Set Firefox to use Gmail as the default application for
mailto:links. - Tell Apple’s Mail application to use Firefox as your default mail reader: Open mail. Go to the “Mail” menu and select “Preferences”. Click the “General” icon/tab. Click the dropdown next to “Default email reader” and choose “Select…” from the list. Browse the Applications folder and pick “Firefox”.
Now, Firefox will send mailto: links to Gmail when you click them from within Firefox, and OS X will send mailto: links to Firefox when you click them from outside Firefox. I imagine something similar can be done with other browsers.
The other methods I found online both required an extra application running on your computer, which I didn’t want. Google’s official solution to the problem for Mac and Windows is Google Notifier, which does have some extra features. I also found many references to Gmailto, but it apparently doesn’t exist anymore.
