A little over a year ago I started using Gmail extensively. Outside of my job’s need for Microsoft Outlook, I’ve switched all of my accounts to forward to Gmail. This includes my website accounts, personal accounts, and some junk mail accounts. I’ve found that Gmail’s features and interface are so quick and easy to use that it didn’t make sense to keep everything in separate webmail sites. With the ability to label and “send mail as” features, Gmail is truly the king of free web-based email clients.

The only feature that I have missed or noticed missing from Gmail all this time was color coded labels. To separate my accounts, I’ve been pretty creative with labels by varying the text (using caps, a mix of caps and lowercase, etc…), or by using special characters (*’s or #’s or @’s…) to separate and make the labels stand out in some way. It was with great excitement that I noticed that Google has added a new feature to my Gmail that lets me color code my labels. I think this feature will really help me to visually recognize and act upon certain emails more efficiently and appropriately so that emails that need quick action get read and responded to and other emails can safely sit unread for a while.

If you don’t yet have a Gmail account, go to it and get one! Become friends with it and make better use of your time. Gmail is fast, easy to use, and full featured! Now that they offer color coded labels, there’s no reason not go have a Gmail account. Couple that with the super fast search and nearly unlimited storage space and you have yourself a winner!

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