Tagging update: Ho Hum.

As a a power user of Thunderbird 1.5, I evaluated the first beta release of Thunderbird 2.0 today. I was most looking forward to better tagging. More than five tags are now allowed, but the use the implementation is not compelling. First, you can't easily add multiple tags at the same time, like you can with del.icio.us. This makes the use of tagging slower than it needs to be. Second, there is no visible keyboard shortcut to add a tag to a message, beyond the first 10 defined. Finally, tagging simply doesn't scale well this way. As you can see in the screenshot, Thunderbird just keeps adding new tags to a linear list, which will eventually start to scroll of the screen. Unwieldy.

I want to use tags in Thunderbird just like I do in del.icio.us-- I use tags to add words to that I might later use to search for the data. For example, I might tag a message "Illinios" that relates to that US state, but doesn't otherwise contain that word. Thunderbird 2 would not currently prepared for me to easily track messages from all fifty states.

I had provided this feedback about tagging back in August on the official Thunderbird wiki, but it doesn't seem the Thunderbird developers read that-- none responded there despite feedback from several users..

Newsgroup Names: Still broken

My screenshot (175k) shows another pet peeve that persists in Thunderbird. Not only are the newgroup names shortened until they lose meaning, Thunderbird fails to take advantage of the space available to show the complete names. The space is simply there and not being taken advantage of.

Further, it doesn't seem that I can change the visible names myself, creating a short useful name myself.

Basic upgrade issues remain

The final issue visible in the screenshot is the red exposed XML: ">menuitem". Clearly something about my 1.5 preferences weren't compatible with the upgrade, but this red text provide now useful clue what. More useful would naming the offending extension, or at least a file name that's the source of the issue.

In conclusion: Not compelling yet

Thunderbird 2 seems to have some nicer icons and other polish, but so far I haven't found a compelling reason to upgrade from 1.5. I'd really like Thunderbird 2 to have first class tagging support, but this beta doesn't offer it.