Google Unveils Gmail Drag, Drop Features

I am among the Gmail faithful, but its folder system, or lack thereof, has always been somewhat of a drawback. Google took steps to fix this problem Wednesday with the release of several new drag, drop, and hide features intended to make it easier to organize your Gmail inbox.

First up is a new location for labels. They are currently listed as a separate section underneath Chat, but will now be grouped together with the inbox, drafts, chats, and other labels. If you don't want to clutter your inbox, the upgrade also lets you hide those labels you don't use very often. Clicking the down arrow next to a label will allow you to show, hide, or delete it.

Need a bulk edit? Go to the labels tab under "settings" and re-arrange en masse.

"For those of you who created label names like _stuff or todo to force your most-used labels to the top of the list (come on, you know who you are, I did it too...), you don't have to come up with clever tricks like that anymore," Google wrote in a blog post.

Also new is the ability to drag and drop e-mails.






"This does the exact same thing as 'Move to' -- it labels and archives in one step," Google said. "You can drag labels onto messages too. It's the same thing as using the 'Label' button."

It's also possible to drag labels into the "more" menu to hide them and vice versa.

The label changes mean that Google will discontinue right-side labels in Gmail Labs - the first Labs product to be cut.

"Now that labels aren't in their own little box and take up much less space, moving them around the screen didn't seem as important," Google said.

Google will be rolling out the label updates throughout the day, so check back later if you don't see them immediately.