Filed under: E-mail, Google, Web
Gmail rolls out tools to make labels easier
Here's the idea. Instead of clicking the "more actions" button to apply a label and then hitting the archive button to move a message out of your inbox, you'll be able to just hit a "Move to" button in the Gmail toolbar. If you want to add a label without removing the message from your inbox, you can just select the "Labels" drop down menu instead.
The new feature is expected to roll out for all users soon, but the new buttons haven't shown up for any of my Gmail accounts yet.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Aniruddh said 4:54PM on 2-03-2009
In my Gmail I'm able to see the new buttons.Look nice now its more easy to manage labels http://is.gd/ihaK
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Radical Dreamer said 4:57PM on 2-03-2009
I'd like to be able to create FOLDERS and not just labels. :-/
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Peter said 5:25PM on 2-03-2009
I am a filer and I thought I was going to have problems with labels, but they really are great. The big difference is that messages can have multiple labels but can only live in a single folder. The labels make it easier to find messages since you don't have to worry about "where" a message actually is.
Considering how infrequently you actually need to search for an old message it works out very well. Everybody thinks they are going to need to go back to old messages, but the reality is, you rarely do.
Radical Dreamer said 5:38PM on 2-03-2009
I KNOW what labels are. There's no need to introduce them to me.
Your "explanation" sounds more like an excuse to me.
Solving the lack of folders support by promoting labels.
The GMail team should add the possibility of having folders for those who dislike labels. It's way more important than this latest features, IMO.
job said 5:42PM on 2-03-2009
what is the advantage of folders over labels?
Radical Dreamer said 5:52PM on 2-03-2009
Well, lets start with the simple concept that I would like my incoming messages to be "auto tagged". I'd like to be able to define that all e-mails coming from X, Y and Z being auto tagged with a certain label.
This would replace the concept of having a rule which will sort my incoming e-mail into certain folders.
Moreover, I guess most people are just used to having folders.
As a JEE developer, I guess I could get used to it quite easily, but others, who might be "less technical" rarely use labels in my experience and rather have folders.
Peter said 6:11PM on 2-03-2009
"I'd like to be able to define that all e-mails coming from X, Y and Z being auto tagged with a certain label." - You can do that right now with labels.
You can auto label messages based on many criteria and you can even have them moved directly out of the Inbox so mailing lists and such don't clutter the Inbox.
Radical Dreamer said 6:28PM on 2-03-2009
OK. So I decided to checkout the labels features again and give it another chance (since honestly - I prefer folders ).
So just for the heck of it, I created a dummy label and then found out that I was wrong.
I can then create a filter which will label it automatically.
So still - why folders?
I guess it's more of a UI issue than functionality.
I'm going to do a more throughout research about folders vs. labels and post it here.
BTW, does downloadsquad has some kind of a forum? :-/
That could be helpful for debates.
Hany Hanna said 7:52AM on 2-04-2009
What's the difference?
supernova_hq said 8:36PM on 2-05-2009
Well, it's about time. So far I've been using my IMAP client to move email from folder to folder. Now once they get "folders" working properly (nested), then I will truly be happy :D
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dave said 5:42PM on 2-03-2009
When considering new email providers last year we tested out Google Apps as a solution. The labels system confused the majority of my users so it was a no go. It is possible they would have gotten used to it in time, but the benefit of that system wasn't worth the upheaval... at least in my assessment.
The ability to assign multiple labels to an email is nice (as opposed to just one folder) - but when asked if this was something they wish they could do, not a single employee responded yes. So I guess their needs are met by the 1 email, 1 folder system.
I do wonder if an interface like this had been available if it would have been better received.
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Matt S. said 8:28PM on 2-03-2009
I personally have never understood the argument against labels.. And that is because I personally cant find a difference between labels and folders except for the name and the ability to have more than one label per email. If gmail simply changed the name from label to folder NO ONE could tell a difference because they both do the exact same thing. Then people would say wow you can add a email to more than one folder, wow I can see alot of great applications for that feature.
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Butters said 8:52PM on 2-03-2009
Labels and folders are not that different. Think of it like this.
Labels allow you to put a message in more than one 'folder'.
So if your Grandma sends you an email with photos attached you can put that message in the 'Grandma' folder and the 'Photos'.
Simple isn't it.
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Jason said 10:43PM on 2-03-2009
"About 4 years after Google confused millions of people..."
What's confusing about it, again? The only thing I find confusing is that some people find the limitations of folders somehow comforting.
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Mysterius said 7:52AM on 2-04-2009
Agreed. I'm only confused by how others manage to remain confused about labels.
Would it really help that much if labels were rebranded as folders, e.g. Google Docs?
If so, perhaps some Gmail engineer should consider adding it as a UI experiment in Gmail Labs.
dave said 7:52AM on 2-04-2009
Maybe it is visual. But labels were not intuitive for me either when I first tried them.
In the case of the 50+ employees we tested GMail with, most of them didn't appreciate, or understand, the extra steps it took to achieve something that they were used to doing without much thought. Instead of drag and dropping, or otherwise moving, an email to the exact folder they wanted... they now had to label it, and then archive it.
Some people don't want to be bothered learning and adjusting to a new thing when the minor benefit it offers (multiple labels per email) is not not something they care about.
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Peter said 9:48AM on 2-04-2009
One of the reasons Microsoft encourages people to use folders is that Outlook has some technical limitations that cause serious performance problems when there are more than about 5000-10000 items in a single folder. And until the current version Outlook's search was poor (ok it sucked).
So to discourage people from letting everything build up in the Inbox, they told people to create folders. It also helped with the searching problem.
Gmail doesn't have either of those limitations, so true folders aren't really necessary. And searching in Gmail is fast and easy, so why should I waste my time "filing" my mail. On the remote chance I actually need to find an old message (which is rare), I just do a search and it finds it.
dave said 10:30AM on 2-04-2009
Interesting. Never knew the history there.
Outlook search does work flawlessly for me though. I don't see that as a pro or con in favor of either solution. They both work the same to me.
If anything, I appreciate being able to search for a word or phrase in JUST the specified folder. I am sure there is a way to limit searches to labels, but I haven't figured out how.
Peter said 10:03PM on 2-04-2009
To search within a label, click on "Show search options". There is a drop down box labeled Search. You can select a specific label to limit the search to.
Luke Gedeon said 2:36PM on 2-23-2009
The one remaining value of folders is the ability to drag things into them. If gmail would let people drag an email "into" a label and it would tag and archive it, the discussion would go away.
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