Gmail Adds Colors to Labels

Oh, happy day. Gmail just added a fantastic new feature: colored labels. It might not sound like a big deal, but for anyone who relies on labels for organizing their mail, it's a major improvement. To assign a color, just mouse over any label, click the little arrow that appears, and then choose a color from the pop-up picker. Presto: All messages tagged with that label will show the label in that color.

Interestingly, in his clever, amusing blog post about the new feature, Google software engineer Dave Cohen hints at some "folder-y-ish" functionality in the works as well. He also notes that the new feature works only with Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7, so if you're still chugging along with an older version of either browser, it's high time you upgraded.