Comments on: Roundup: Google sees results in Washington, sex offenders out of MySpace, Motorola’s big loss and more http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/04/roundup-google-sees-results-in-washington-sex-offenders-out-of-myspace-motorolas-big-loss-and-more/ News About Tech, Money and Innovation Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:19:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Bill Bliss http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/04/roundup-google-sees-results-in-washington-sex-offenders-out-of-myspace-motorolas-big-loss-and-more/comment-page-1/#comment-860220 Bill Bliss Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:46:57 +0000 http://venturebeat.com/?p=103511#comment-860220 Re: GMail Labels vs. Outlook Folders. There is a fundamental difference between labels and folders.<br><br>A folder is a container where the message actually "lives" -- just like a folder on a hard disk. For that reason, a message in Outlook can't be in more than one folder at a time.<br><br>Labels, however, are hierarchical tags instead of containers. They don't "live" in the label because labels aren't containers. For that reason, a message in GMail can have any number of labels associated with it.<br><br>Now IMO GMail's made that distinction rather blurry by using a word like "Move" but since the difference is a subtle one, most people won't notice the difference.<br><br>Personally, as hard disks and storage space get bigger and bigger, I think the Google approach is superior to Outlook's, if you can assume ubiquitous and fast search. (I was one of the founding members of the Outlook '97 team at Microsoft. The folder vs. label semantics is something we discussed a lot. Folders were not something we had a choice about though -- that came from the Exchange/MAPI team.) Re: GMail Labels vs. Outlook Folders. There is a fundamental difference between labels and folders.

A folder is a container where the message actually “lives” — just like a folder on a hard disk. For that reason, a message in Outlook can't be in more than one folder at a time.

Labels, however, are hierarchical tags instead of containers. They don't “live” in the label because labels aren't containers. For that reason, a message in GMail can have any number of labels associated with it.

Now IMO GMail's made that distinction rather blurry by using a word like “Move” but since the difference is a subtle one, most people won't notice the difference.

Personally, as hard disks and storage space get bigger and bigger, I think the Google approach is superior to Outlook's, if you can assume ubiquitous and fast search. (I was one of the founding members of the Outlook '97 team at Microsoft. The folder vs. label semantics is something we discussed a lot. Folders were not something we had a choice about though — that came from the Exchange/MAPI team.)

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