Gmail has just unveiled a new interesting feature in its Gmail Labs program called "Hide read labels," which is just a small tweak but can prove very useful in some circumstances as it allows users to hide the left sidebar labels for the emails that they have read already. This makes for a less cluttered interface but also allows users to more easily keep track of their unread messages.

“A lot of people want to see their labels in order to see which ones have unread messages, but they don't want a long list of label names cluttering up the left hand side of their inboxes. To help out with this, we've made a Gmail Labs feature called 'Hide read labels',” David de Kloet, software engineer at Google, wrote. “This is particularly handy if you use your inbox as a to-do list where unread messages are the outstanding things you need to take care of. If you use that method along with labels like "Home" and "Project X," it's easy to see all your to-dos in context.”

The feature is accessible just like any other Labs tweak in the Settings menu under the Labs tab. Turning it on will remove all of the labels that don't have unread emails. The unread messages will still show up but users can hide them as well if the wish to. With the new feature enabled, labels that have unread messages will also show up in bold and have a number attached corresponding to the number of emails.

Gmail Labs has amassed a big number of features and tweaks and already has several relating to labels. Users can choose their own custom colors for labels with one feature, while another one lets them remove the number showing the unread emails. There is even the possibility to remove labels from the email subject line, which is especially useful on smaller screens like those of netbooks.