Does GMail Need Folders?
Submitted on June 27th, 2007 by admin
Filed under Email
Techcrunch today mentioned the fact that google docs now has folders and suggested that logically that gmail should integrate folders next. The comments after the article there do a pretty good job showing the strong feelings people have regarding folders.
Two things struck me odd about the debate however…
First, if google feels so strongly that labels and tags >> folders, then why add them to google docs. If google no longer feels strongly, then why not add them to gmail? At best, their current decision seems inconsistent.
Second, why would you not want google to add folders? If you don’t use folders, then don’t use them. I do not think anybody actually believes that gmail would abandon the label/tags love. Many folder-philes would convert over to gmail if their beloved crutch was available. Google obviously has pretty item-dragging-folder code available now. Why not introduce it into gmail too? Maybe they will…
Using labels in gmail is very similar to folders. Create a label, select what emails you want to have that label, and then archive those emails. If you want to see them, you can click that label; otherwise, they are hidden from sight (almost like a folder even!)
What you can’t do with labels is drag and drop a message to categorize it. Many people physically sort their email like they sort their snail mail. There is some satisfying about dropping an email in a folder. It gives a sense of completion for that little task. With labels, you are more tempted to do groups of emails at once.
I believe a hybrid would work very well. If you could drag and drop emails into a label and it was disappear like a folder, both problems solved! People could still tag/label the old way… and folder-philes would be introduced to the power of labels.
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