Organization
Users can construct "advanced searches" using either the Advanced Search interface or search operators in the search box. Search options include search for phrases, message sender, message location and message date. There are also undocumented search operators like "language:russian" that can be helpful.
Users can run filters by using an interface similar to the Search Options dialog. Gmail allows users to filter messages by their text; by their "From", "To", and "Subject" fields; and by whether or not the message has an attachment. Gmail can perform any combination of the following actions upon a message that meets a label's criteria:
- archiving (i.e. removing the message from the Inbox)
- marking as "starred"
- marking as read
- applying a label
- moving to the trash
- forwarding to another e-mail address
Gmail recognizes related messages by subject and groups them into "conversations" where associated messages appear listed one after another, with the newest messages at the bottom. If a conversation has more than approximately 100 messages, it splits into separate sections. Reply or forwarded messages from some local (like local Yahoo! Mail) accounts split up conversations because their subjects contain parameters in the local language, instead of "Re" or "Fwd:". In response to some users complaints, on Wednesday 29 September 2010 Google added the option of disabling conversation view from the options menu. Google software engineer Doug Che explained: "We really hoped everyone would learn to love conversation view, but we came to realize that it's just not right for some people."
To organize messages further, users can label e-mails. Labels provide a flexible method of categorizing e-mails since an e-mail may have any number of labels (in contrast to a system in which an e-mail may belong to only one folder). Users can display all e-mails having a particular label and can use labels as a search criterion. In addition, important e-mails can be flagged with a star, so that a user may find an important e-mail more quickly than searching through the entire inbox. In October 2010 Google introduced a "priority inbox" feature, which when activated classifies important mails automatically.
Unlike other email web clients, Gmail does not permit users to see the size of an email message or to sort email (for example, alphabetically by subject).
Read more about this topic: Gmail Interface
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