Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/04/09/gmail_sneak_peek_nested_labels/

Google slots nested labels, sneak peek experiments into Gmail

Shrugs off folders once again

By Kelly Fiveash

Posted in Software, 9th April 2010 11:30 GMT

Mountain View has plonked two more experimental features into its Google Labs for Gmail.

“Nested labels” is the company’s latest attempt to improve its email labelling system, while “message sneak peek” brings up a preview pane for Gmailers to more quickly see their emails.

As is standard with Google Labs features, users will be required to enable the “nested labels” and “message sneak peek” via the settings tab before being able to play with them in Gmail.

In the past, many Gmail users have complained about Google’s insistence that labels are better than folders within its email service. The company banged the same drum in a blog post yesterday.

“Labels are more flexible than folders because a given email can have several labels but can't be in several folders at the same time. A highly requested feature for labels, though, comes from the world of folders: the ability to organise labels hierarchically,” said Google software engineer Manu Cornet.

Google justifies its latest Gmail label overhaul and message preview pane feature here. ®