Late last night Google released some official widgets for Mac OS X Tiger. The new widgets include a Blogger widget for posting on a Blogger blog, a Gmail widget which displays your inbox, and a Search History widget which hooks into Google’s Search History. While there are already a plethora of Dashboard widgets created by third-parties, it’s certainly nice to see Google extend support of the Mac operating system.

Upon hearing this news I thought I would check out the Gmail widget, since I’m still waiting for a Universal version of the Gmail Notifier. The Gmail widgets performed just as intended, displaying all new emails in my Gmail inbox. Unlike other widgets which just display the count of unread messages, the Gmail widget actually gives an inbox-like preview, which is a welcome addition to a Gmail widget. The Gmail widget also has a number of options to play with, allowing you to filter out exactly what gets displayed in the widget. Overall, I’m very satisified with the widget except for one thing.

When clicking on an email in the widget’s inbox, the link opens up the message in your web browser of choice. However, the page that displays the email lacks controls of the email, like a reply or archive button. Essentially it’s just the view frame ripped out of the Gmail interface. However, the Mac widget isn’t the only one that does this. Google Talk and Google Desktop has been using the interface-less page for a while. While some people may enjoy the minimalist-like view of the email, I would rather be presented with a full inbox view of the message, so I can archive it when I’m done reading, ect.

Besides the Gmail widget, I haven’t really tried any of the other ones yet, but I assume they’ll work fine. If your a Mac user and use Google services, I’m sure you’ll be appreciating the new widgets just as much as I am. Now Google just has to release a Unviersal version of the Gmail Notifier and Google Earth, and I’ll be a happy Google/Intel Mac user.