Gmail Notifier for Mac is broken.
2006-03-23 10:09:49
I stopped using the Mac Gmail notifier a while back, because it was acting strangely. They came out with an update today, so I tried it again. It's broken in a somewhat scary way. Here is my setup:
1. I have two gmail accounts: one is for my work email, one is for personal.
2. I keep FireFox (my default browser) logged in to my personal gmail.
3. I keep Safari logged in to my work gmail.
4. I set up gmail notifier to monitor my personal gmail.
But, surprise, when I use gmail notifier, it is looking in my work gmail. This is even though my account settings are telling it to use my home gmail. How could it possibly be getting my work gmail? I was suspicious that it was looking at Safari somehow. So I opened Safari, signed out of my work gmail, and now gmail notifier thinks I have no mail. Even though I do have unread mail in my account!
Based on this exhaustive 7-minute investigation, it appears that gmail notifier is looking into Safari cookies and is ignoring the account settings I told it. This is in spite of the fact that Safari is not my default browser.
Bummer.