Today, Google has released a new version of the Gmail Notifier for Mac, now called Google Notifier. The new version sports a new notification system, and now integrates with Google Calendar, hence the new name.

While the new features are certainly welcoming, I’m not completely thrilled with the way the features are implemented. First of all, Google Calendar has its own icon, which creates more menu bar clutter. Luckily, the icon can be removed, but that disables all notification support for Google Calendar. It would be nicer if Google combined both the Gmail and Calendar icons into one icon, or provided the option to still receive notifications with the icon disabled.

Next, I’m not too fond of the notification window. It’s big, it’s bulky, it doesn’t scale to its contents, and it just looks plain ugly. Thankfully, the notification window can be disabled. It’s not that I don’t want a visual notification; I just don’t want an ugly blob taking over my screen.

Hopefully, the person behind Gmail+Growl creates a new version for Google Notifier. Maybe once I get Gmail+Growl (Google+Growl?) installed I’ll feel better. It’s the notification issue which is bugging me the most right now. I’m sure I’ll eventually get used to the additional menu bar icon, but until I have a Growl notification, I won’t be happy.