Gmail tweaks labels, kind of turns them into folders
Probably one of the biggest changes is that users will now be able to drag and drop messages into labels. In other words, you can sort your messages much the same way that you would add them to folders in almost any other webmail system.
Google is also removing the "right-side labels" feature from Gmail labs. The company says the new labels behavior makes it unnecessary. But try telling that to users who have gotten used to their labels hanging out in a sidebar on the right side of their screens.
The new features aren't showing up in my inbox yet, but Google has a way of rolling these kinds of changes out gradually to some groups of users before others. Have you noticed any changes to your Gmail interface? Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
TwistedGamez said 5:45PM on 7-01-2009
I have not gotten the updated feature yet, but i am lookin forward to it, i hope they do this well, and allow subfolders.
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Tired_ said 5:49PM on 7-01-2009
Very lame. They haven't rolled out the feature to gmail.ca, but they have disabled right-side labels for that domain. If the past is any indication, it could be months or never till .ca gets the new feature (I'm still waiting for email import), but we lose functionality immediately. WTF?
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Ansanter said 1:44PM on 7-02-2009
There is no such thing as gmail.ca. I am in Canada and I had the drag and drop labels as of last night. I hope you get yours soon.
Alix said 7:32AM on 7-12-2009
How did you get a gmail.ca address? I am in Canada and can only find .com ... I know one person said it doesn't exist but I am desperate right now!!
Tired_ said 7:32AM on 7-12-2009
Sorry, I was unclear. My Gmail address is .com but my location is set to Canada in the settings, which has in the past given me less features than the US version. I did get the new layout in a timely manner, this time. It was active about 12 hours after I posted.
amdou said 6:10PM on 7-01-2009
i want it on right side :( http://tr.im/qwTf
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Demodave said 8:54PM on 7-01-2009
GMail still has the interface of a webmail program designed in 2002. Blah. I'm still sticking with Yahoo's email.
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jsmorley said 8:54PM on 7-01-2009
I like it... It does let you use labels, which are really "tag" as either the tag paradigm or as folders...
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Matt S. said 9:03PM on 7-01-2009
I've said this on many occasions over the years. I have never really seen the difference between Gmail's version of labels and folders, besides the name. Their labels can do everything a folder can. It can hold specific emails separately, one email can be in multiple labels at one time if you so choose it to be. I dont really see what else it could do but if I am missing something a label is probably doing that as well..
But no I dont have these features yet..
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Licotto said 1:30PM on 7-02-2009
a FOLDER only allows you to move that email to THAT folder...a label allows you to LABEL an email with MULTIPLE labels without having to create multiple copies to place in separate folders.
Matt S. said 3:27PM on 7-02-2009
Like I said below, I mentioned that one difference as a positive aspect of having labels instead of folders. That you can IF YOU CHOOSE, have one email have more than one label. So beside that advantage of using labels over folders, theres no difference.
mesuth said 10:46PM on 7-01-2009
There must be an option to show labels with unread messages before the remaining labels.
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Kevin said 10:52PM on 7-01-2009
I like it a lot, but they need to make it so you can click any part of the email and be able to drag it over. Having to click that tiny stub on the end is a pain.
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kojo87 said 10:52PM on 7-01-2009
i find this obnoxious and useless. but i don't use labels
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atticus said 8:08AM on 7-02-2009
Dear Gmail: Make it go away. Please. Or at least put it back on the right side. I don't use chat, so putting chat on the right side does not happily balance out my gmail, as you think it will. No love, Atticus.
No, really, this is annoying, and I know labs can up and disappear at a moment's notice, but were they receiving terrible feedback on it or something? My feedback was 'this is amazing! Don't ever change this or I will be really upset!'. And now? Now I'm really upset! The ONLY nice thing about this is now I can hide some 'system' labels, like Spam and Drafts and All Mail. But still. My screen! It is unbalanced! This is going to upset me for days!
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Ian said 8:08AM on 7-02-2009
I got the feature today and hate it. It killed my Rich Text formatting for my emails. I can only compose in plain text now. I need to find a way to turn it off.
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Ian said 12:05AM on 7-03-2009
Ooops! The problem was caused by the Integrated Gmail addon. I disabled it and all is well.
Aniruddh said 8:09AM on 7-02-2009
My Gmail Account is updated for this and I'm very happy to use it. easy to shorting emails and now I don't have to go to labels for see the new emails. this feature allow me to keep on eye, on labels that important to me.
Disagree o Lan, that emails can only compose in plain text coz I did able to compose emails in reach text format.. Its working.
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Aniruddh said 8:09AM on 7-02-2009
This feature also working in Google Apps !
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Niels van Dijk said 8:09AM on 7-02-2009
My inbox is very messy because label assignment is too much work, so i like this feature. Thanks Google!
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