Of all the goodies that Google has rolled out over the few years, you could make a strong argument that GMail has done better and had more of an impact than anything else to come out of the Googleplex.

After hitting the online e-mail scene at a time when Yahoo and Hotmail were well established, GMail has become one of the leading services, and led the way in pushing forward the envelope. Most notably was the decision right out of the gate to offer far more storage space than Yahoo or Hotmail.

GMail rolled out piece of goodness today with the introduction of themes and colors so you can “pimp” your account in a wide variety of ways. In the scheme of things, themes are a relatively minor feature but it’s just another example of how Google has done such a nice job at making GMail better. The new themes come in the wake of GMail unveiling voice and video chat earlier this month.

What’s interesting is that Google’s nurturing of GMail stands in contrasts with how some of its other products have been treated. Perhaps the most “abused” service is Blogger, which gathered dust for years after it was acquired from Pyra Labs in 2003. Meanwhile, new players such as TypePad and WordPress stormed into the market that Google could have dominated.

It does make you wonder why GMail has received so much love and attention. Perhaps it had a bigger champion within the GooglePlex.

More: Zoli Erdos has some thoughts on GMail’s new themes. He likes them because it’s a way for people with multiple GMail accounts to give each one a different color – a small but valuable feature. Mike Arrington also seems to like the new themes, judging by the headline: “Gmail Themes. That’s Totally Ninja”.

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