I've just been wrestling with gmail - and after telling a fair number of people that my gmail account will stay active when I go to Indonesia, I discover the single most annoying email feature I've ever encountered - the conversation. This groups all emails with the same subject line together - so when two completely different people send me a mail with "Greetings!" in the subject line, it assumes they are related. Google thinks this is a good thing - I don't - and you can't disable it.
So I guess it's back to Thunderbird to access my gmail account - shame, because I did like the labels features, and it's handy to have a good web interface.
Unfortunately Virgin Media use gmail as their mailserver too. This miffs me somewhat further - firstly because I feel like I'm paying Richard Branson for something, and he's getting it off google for free. And secondly, Virgin Media webmail has conversations too. I'm starting to feel nostalgic for Telewest - and it's obviously not a good sign to feel nostalgic about ISPs.