“See your friends’ profile pictures when you chat with them” Very Descriptive word by Dave C. from mail.google.com Found under New stuff in Labs! There’s a whole lot more to play with in Gmail Labs, a so called testing ground for experimental features. Take a look at some:

YouTube, Picasa, Flickr, and Yelp previews
Instead of just links, see previews of photos, videos, and reviews right in your email.

Undo send
Oops, hit “Send” too soon? Give yourself a grace period of a few seconds to cancel sending, then edit your message before sending again.

Tasks mobile
Take your to-do list everywhere you go. Just go to gmail.com/tasks from your mobile browser.

Offline
Make Gmail work even when you’re not connected to the internet.And of course Pictures in Chat, What face would you like to present to the world? Or person your chatting with This will benefit all Google Fanatic, You can choose almost any photo as your Google picture, to show up whenever another user rolls over your name in their inbox, Contacts,and NOW even in your CHAT BOX.

Click Settings on any Gmail page.

1.From the My picture section, click Select a picture. The Upload a picture window appears.

2.Click Browse and select the file you’d like to use. Make sure that it’s a JPG, GIF, or PNG file.

3.Click Open in the File Upload dialog.

4.With your mouse, click and drag any corner of the selection box to shrink or enlarge it.

5.Click Apply Changes. Don’t worry – any changes you’ve made to the photo won’t affect your original file. These changes will only appear in Gmail.

6.You can select whether you’d like all Gmail users to see your picture, or only those who you’ve allowed to chat with you, using the radio buttons next to your uploaded photo on your Settings page.

Visible to all Gmail users means anyone who you email, or who emails you, can see your picture visible only to people you can chat with includes users who have been given permission to see when you’re online and to chat with you. You can see a full list of these users from the All Contacts tab of your Contacts page. They’ll be listed with a colored ball next to their name.

Once you apply your picture, you’ll be able to view and change it from your Settings page, and other users will see your selection when they roll over your name in conversations or in their contact lists. It will also show up as your picture in Google Talk. Likewise, picture selections made in Google Talk will be reflected in your Gmail interface, though there might be a slight delay for the change to take effect.

BUT REMEMBER according to Gmail Support

Gmail Labs is a testing ground for experimental features that aren’t quite ready for primetime.