New Google Feature?
A couple weeks ago I noticed the gmail widget on my Google home page was adding check boxes to the side of each email that was displayed:

The check boxes were inconsistent - I could refresh the page and they would be gone, and then back again. I haven’t seen them since that one day a couple weeks ago. I’m hoping they’re adding some features to the gmail widget, like the ability to multi-select messages and delete them, or mark them as read.