On the left hand column of Gmail I see my mailbox. Below the list of all my mailboxes, I get a section for "Chat" which lists my recent contacts, and below that, a section for "Invite a Friend".
I'd like to eliminate these. I can press '-' button to collapse them, but they remain visible and I think they reappear uncollapsed the next time you return to Gmail.
Is there a way to permanently delete these items, which I do not want to use, and do not want cluttering up my interface to Gmail?
The best way of doing this is through add-ons or extensions. Take a look at Better Gmail 2 for firefox or Better Gmail for Chrome. These allow you to hide the chat and invite a friend blocks completely. They also can remove some other elements, and tweak some other ui elements as well.
Click the ellipsis ("...") at the bottom left of the screen. It toggles the display of "gadgets" like chat.
Not in the GMail Settings or Labs, but you could install Greasemonkey with this userscript.
You can remove the chat box by clicking "turn off chat" at the bottom of the page.
