Google has updated their Google Docs & Spreadsheets application with a whole new look and feel. The most notable thing of course is the addition of the Windows-esque folder structure on the left sidebar. The interface also includes the more traditional Google “star” for marking certain documents – as found in apps like Gmail. This leads me to wonder if the new layout of Google Docs & Spreadsheets will be a precursor of what is to come in future iterations of Gmail itself.

One of the biggest complaints by users about Gmail is that you only have the label option to organize your messages. While this works fine when you don’t have that many emails or all of your emails come from only a few sources, it can sometimes get difficult to navigate when you have thousands of emails from hundreds of sources. This is only really true for the main inbox, as if you are navigating the label windows they are essentially the same as folders, but it’s still reason enough for complaint. This new Google Docs & Spreadsheets look – even if there were just the option to use it, would solve this.

Such a structure would also help users of applications like Microsoft Outlook who are looking to switch to Gmail. Outlook of course uses the left side folder navigation to organize things, and simply seeing something like a folder icon would probably go along way to help ease users in to using a new client. This is no doubt one of the reasons behind this change for Google Docs & Spreadsheets as well – to help ease users over from a certain Microsoft Office application.

So will Google eventually put this interface in play for their other apps like Gmail? Well, they certainly seem to like to keep a certain degree of consistency throughout their sites, so I’d say there’s a pretty good chance we could be seeing Gmail folders in the future.

[UDPATE]: TechCrunch has some thoughts on this new interface’s potential in Gmail as well.