Re: Zoot's Secret

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 3878

Posted by sub
2005-08-24 17:23:24

> Virtual folders perhaps confuse some. I have trouble seeing the sticking point, perhaps because I deny the distinction. Aren’t all computer folders “virtual”? ... I use the Opera browser, which has integrated mail with virtual folders, so it’s not a new concept, more like the opposite, an unexciting one.

That’s what I liked about the Opera mailer too and what I love about Google Mail—it’s like the Opera mailer on steroids.

All computer folders may be “virtual” but that doesn’t stop most from being limited to one-to-many hierarchical relationships; i.e. a folder contains many files but the same file can’t reside on many folders at the same time, even though “folders” are actually “directories”, i.e. catalogs/lists and there would be no harm in being able to list an item in several catalogs.

Shortcuts are no substitute for maintaining a file under several folders; mirrors / synced copies are better, but they require additional system resources.

I think the folder metaphor has actually imposed limitations that the system itself could have overcome in this age of Windows; no one expects a printed document to exists concurrently in several archives.

The “labels” metaphor that Google Mail has chosen sounds much more intuitive; a document / message can be (manually or automatically) labelled with many names and then accessed at will through any of them. Google Mail actually implements Zoot’s “virtual folders” concept but with a more intuitive metaphor.

I’m not sure whether this is the central Zoot concept (I think its more like a full range of many complementary tools facilitating both information gathering and access) but if it is, there’s competition down the line, i.e. Evernote, for example, if developed towards that direction.

alx

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