The point of a laboratory is to facilitate testing.  The average chemist might not get too far if he was just presented with a jumble of beakers, however, and similarly, Gmail Labs has been getting pretty messy.  A new feature promises to fix that issue.

Greg Bullock, a software engineer at Google, explained the problem on the Gmail Blog.  He wrote, "Have you ever found it just a little bit tricky to find what you were looking for on the Gmail Labs Settings page?  Scrolling was ok when there were a handful of Labs, but now that there are over 50 it’s another story."

Next, Bullock continued, "A lunchtime discussion made us realize that having to rely on the browser’s search function or endless scrolling makes it hard to find the Labs features you want.  So another Gmail engineer named Manu [Cornet] and I decided take an afternoon and address this.  The result is an addition to the Settings page which filters the visible Labs as you type."

This should make it considerably easier for would-be testers to find the Gmail Lab that’s right for them.

Google should then benefit as people provide feedback and help the company improve Gmail, which has in large part lost its "lots of storage compared to rivals" draw.

We’ll just remind everyone not to get too attached to any given Gmail Lab, since the old warning about them breaking or disappearing at any point still applies.