Yeah, you can do that.

GMail can automatically label incoming messages with one or several labels using rules. If you want the message out of your inbox, there’s a way to do that as well. Basically, you build a rule that

1) defines search criteria
2) applies one or more labels
3) moves the message from your inbox to the archive

Labels show on the left sidebar much like a folder list and are bold if there are unread messages with an unread count to the right of the label.

The reason I like labels is that they’re tags, not categories. If you want messages from a certain person at a client to be marked Urgent and Clients, you can… you don’t have to choose.

In fact Mike brings up a key advantage of labels – a single message can have more than one label. Try that with folders….

Jeremy, The gmail limit is up over 2GB these days.

Andy, I agree with Brian about the labels/folder thing. What is the real difference between a label and a folder? I never understood. They are both the same thing to me. You add a label, then you click on that label to see everything with that label. I don’t really see the difference except that it is easier to apply multiple labels if you really want to than it is to file something in multiple folders.

As for Gmail, I am considering using it and just downloading a copy for backup to outlook. I know I go over that 1GB limit sooner or later.

On another note… Why exactly are you using Outlook? Have you considered trying Mozilla Thunderbird?

I used that for the longest time until my needs changed – it’s fast, lightweight, and makes a heck of a great RSS reader in addition to email.

Hope my $0.03 helped!