How do I change the sort order of items in Google's top navigation bar?

Question

I guess this certainly qualifies as a "first world problem", but recently the link to Google Reader disappeared from the top navigation bar across all my Google Account services (Gmail, Calendar, etc). Now the Google Reader link is an extra click away because it's under the "More" drop down:

I have seen some similar questions about adding custom shortcuts to the top bar using various browser extensions for Firefox or Chrome, but I don't want to do that. I was hoping there is a configuration setting somewhere that I'm just not finding.

Answer 1

Okay, so I searched for awhile until I found the best solution so far. Many of the posts I read so far didn't work for me. (Stop reading if you hate the new Google dropdown menu.)

Disclaimers:

• This method uses the new Google dropdown (many people hate it)
• I have only seen this work in Google Search, Gmail, Google Reader. So far not in iGoogle as it must have a different cookie

• Will only work in Chrome (I am using 16.0.912.63)

  1. Add new Google dropdown menu by changing your cookie: http://www.paulspoerry.com/2011/google-navigation-how-to-enable-the-new-navigation-now/ (Remember to change the TLD domain in the cookie if you use a different TLD from ".com" such as ".google.ca")
  2. Add "Big G Dropdown Sorter" Extension:
  3. Now go to gmail.com or google.com and click on top-left icon to access the menu. Drag and drop as you please!