Google announced a few additions to Gmail Labs today that make using labels a bit easier and expand the functionality of some of the already established features. Google announced Gmail Labs in June and, at that time, introduced 13 experimental features. This new batch of updates consists of 3 new features: custom label colors, label specific keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to change the order of items in the navbar.
By default, Gmail lets you choose between 24 different colors for your labels. If your favorite color is not part of this default set, you can now pick and choose from a lot more colors for your labels and, in addition, you can also choose the color of the text in the labels.
If you activate the 'go to label keyboard shortcut' feature, you can now hit 'g' 'l' on your keyboard and a little pop-up will show up that lets you type in the label/folder you want to navigate to. This comes with a build-in autocomplete feature, so unless you have an insanely complicated label structure in Gmail, you will only have to type in a few letters to get to your destination.
For users who prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, this marks the first time they can just switch between labels without have to resort to using the mouse.
One minor annoyance of Gmail was that every item in the navbar on the left was always fixed in place. Even if you never used the built-in chat, it was always stuck in the same place. Now, you can rearrange these items on the navbar and move the labels up to the top and the chat feature to the bottom.
It's nice to see that Google hasn't forgotten about the Gmail Labs and keeps adding more features. None of these new experiments are earth-shattering, but for a successful product like Gmail, it's the little evolutionary additions that matter more than radical design overhauls. For now, our favorite Gmail Labs feature is still Superstars, though we have already made good use of the new drag and drop feature to rearrange our menus.
Comments
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Will there ever be support for folders?
Posted by: Danesh | September 11, 2008 1:03 AM
What I really want is sorting and folders, not colors for my labels!
Posted by: RN | September 11, 2008 7:28 AM
thanks for posting this!
Posted by: Recruiting Services | September 11, 2008 10:15 AM
Danesh and RN: why would you want folders? This is a genuine question I am trying to find out what I am missing out on because to me labels allow the same thing that folders do (multiple labels are the same as putting a message in a deep subfolder), but also allow flexibility rather than just hierarchy (I can have a web of classification rather than a hierarchy).
Is there something that folders do that labels do not?
Posted by: Mohammad Al-Ubaydli | September 14, 2008 2:30 AM
I am not a Labels fan and havent used it despite my post about it on my Blog.
This new feature out of GMail labs that i liked is about reminder for forgotten attachments. Do take a look at it and post your review :) http://stockmode.com/tech/post/Google-Labs-e28093-Never-Forget-an-Attachment-in-E-mail.aspx
regards
Bharat Mudgal
Posted by: Bharat Mudgal | September 16, 2008 10:45 PM