How to put a picture in the Gmail email account

A neat way to personalize your Gmail email account is to upload a picture. Come to think of it, this customization benefits others more that you because this Gmail picture will be displayed beside your name in the contacts list on their email accounts or the Google Talk chat program.
Additionally, the same picture can also be embedded in any fancy email signature you make at Gmail. And it's not necesary to have your real photo on Gmail; put a business logo or an avatar if you so want.

Get your picture in Gmail

Please note that the instructions below have been worked out on the free Google Chrome web browser which you can download and install it for free (it's the best web browser according to me).
Important: Please make sure that you are on the standard newer Gmail webmail version to follow the steps seamlessly.

• Login at your Gmail email account.
• Switch to the newer webmail interface if you're on the basic HTML or older standard view. The link will be located at the bottom of the page in the footer.
• Load the "Settings" section and move to "My Picture" segment.
• Click "Select a picture".
• You can put a picture in your Gmail email account by uploading one from the computer, getting it from Picasa or providing a link to one which is already online. We'll go with the first option.
• Click the "Choose File" button.
  A window opens showing the contents of the default folder on your computer's hard disk. Move to the folder that has the picture you want to upload on Gmail.
• Select the file and click "Open" .
• Patiently wait for the file to be transferred to Gmail servers. Depending on the image size and the internet speed this can take anywhere from a couple of seconds to a minute.
• Once uploaded, the image is displayed with a superimposed selection box. Drag the corners and / or move the box to select the image area that you want to be displayed. This is akin to cropping the picture. Gmail also conveniently shows a preview.
• Once satisfied, click "Apply Changes" button [Slide 9] which will put the picture on your Gmail email account [Slide 10].

By the way, those conscious of privacy (in the times of Facebook??? ha ha), can also choose to have the image displayed only to the people they chat with.