a gmail question

I've a question about the gmail interface that is really starting to bug me: In the standard web interface you get a navigation/menu bar at top of the page leading to other google services. However for me its look isn't consitent. Sometimes it looks like in this screenshot, with the link to the google reader hidden in the "more" menu, which is somewhat inconvenient because besides the mail itself the reader is one of the services I actually use, unlike the calendar for example.

I still could live with that if it was just the standard organization, however sometimes it tantalizes me with a more useful arrangement, and the menu looks like in this screenshot, with the link plainly in sight, not hidden beneath the "more". I have no idea when or for what reasons gmail chooses to display one or the other. I have tried to reproduce the different menus by logging into gmail first, or logging into the reader first, by having both open at the same time, but it seems random. And nowhere in the settings have I found anything to choose how the menu is displayed.

Why does gmail do this, and how do I get it to display the menu like in the second screenshot permanently?