Google now lets you drag attachments into Gmail from Explorer folders. (Courtesy Gmail Blog)

In the same week we see Google report crazy high earnings (they now have $26 Billion in cash), we’re reminded exactly WHY the company continues to impress. I follow the Gmail blog daily and yesterday they released support for dragging and dropping files from the file system, AKA Windows Explorer, directly into Gmail messages.

The user clicks “Compose message” and once within the message composition screen, they can drag a file from their Desktop or a folder into the web page, just like they would on MS Outlook, Apple’s Mail, or any other desktop mail client. It looks like Google’s really focusing on practical uses of HTML 5, the new standard for the programming language that makes the World Wide Web possible.

HTML 5 will allow users to treat web pages a lot more like they would regular Windows or OS X applications. Features like dragging and dropping files, as well as perform complex actions on a web page without having to refresh. The drag and drop seen here will work on Google’s Chrome browser (which you can download here), as well as Firefox 3.6 (which you can download here).

Save yourself some time– stop browsing for file attachments when you send Gmail. Drag and drop them instead.