The problem with a folder-based filing system is that some items belong in more than one folder. You see this in real life with paper documents: Should loan statements go into "Personal Finance" or "Tax Info"? Do take-out menus go in the kitchen junk drawer or the one in the TV stand?

We have the same problem with computer files. Aliases (or shortcuts, on Windows) can only take you so far.

Speaking of keywords …

Apple and Microsoft have been beefing up their OS's to accommodate the Google approach to file management — at least as it applies to hard drive searches — for a while now. You can apply keywords to any file in OS X by adding them to the Spotlight Comments area in a file's Get Info dialog box. (Select the file in the Finder and choose File > Get Info.) Both Spotlight and the Finder's basic Find command can include keywords in searches.

I just got a call from a client, a web designer, whose boss told him he's now in charge of starting up the company's HTML E-mail marketing campaign, and had no idea where to start. He asked, "I can just copy and paste HTML code into a new Mail message and send that, right?"

It felt like hearing your kid look up at you with their big brown eyes and ask, "Mommy, Santa Claus is real, right?"