Gmail gains Virtual Folders with "Move to" button

Today, many of you will wake up to a new Gmail.
The difference is clearly noticed, as the entire top bar has been revamped:

Well... you may laugh at me, but these new function actually confused me: particularly seeing a "move to" button next to a "labels" button!

As you're probably aware, Gmail doesn't use a folder system to organize its emails; it uses a label system that allows you more freedom in taggin your emails. Imagine a friend sends you an email with some photos from your last holidays together. With a folder system you'd probablt move it to a "friends" folders, or an "holidays" folder, or a "photos" folder; with tags, you can label it as "friend" and "holidays" and "photos" - see what I'm getting at?

Nonetheless, there are still a lot of people that feel more confortable with a folder system, and today they'll be better served by these new Gmail buttons.
You see... if you use a single label, you can effectively simulate a folder system - particularly if you "archive" as well and remove it from your inbox view.

That's exactly what the new move to button does: it applies a label to the selected emails and automatically archives it.

That's something that many people did in the past, requiring at least a couple of clicks - and it can now be done faster and more efficiently.


We also get an auto-complete feature when you start typing your "folders/labels" names - something that most people appreciate, especially if they were used to sorting through hundreds of labels previously.


For power users, you can access these new functions via keyboars shortcuts (if you have it enabled) by pressing "L" for labels, and "V" for moving the emails to a folder.