GOOGLE APPS LABELS VS FOLDERS

What are labels? How do they compare to folders?

Apps mail doesn't use folders. Instead, to help you organize your mail more effectively, Apps mail uses "labels".  Basically, labels do all the work folders do and give you an extra bonus: you can add more than one to a message.  There is no limit to how many labels you can apply to an email. And, because Apps mail aggregates all related email messages into "conversations", when you label one message in the conversation, you automatically apply the labels to all the messages in the conversation.  You can view all the messages related to a label by clicking on the label name in the left side of your Apps mail window.  Example: Suppose you receive an email from a student about his final research paper. With a folder  system, you have only one choice where to "file" your email message - under "Students" or under "Research Projects" With labels, you can create several categories of organization and apply multiple labels onto an email. In this case, the email can have both the "Students" label where you keep emails from students and the "Research Projects" label where you keep emails regarding research projects. Now, to access the message, you can click on either of the labels you applied. If you click "Students" you will see all the messages that you have tagged with the "Students"  label. If you click "Research Papers," you will see only the messages you have tagged with the "Research Paper" label. Here's a breakdown of why we think labels are better than folders: Labels Folders A conversation can have more than one label You can only put a message in one folder A conversation can be in several locations (Inbox, All Mail, Sent Mail, etc.) at once, making it easier to find later You have to remember where you filed a message to retrieve it You can search conversations by label You can't always do folder-specific searches If you delete a label, you do not delete the messages associated with it.