I was optimistic that the Quick Links feature just released with the new Gmail Labs would scratch my itch for the ability to link to Gmail threads. Well Quick Links itself is pretty raw but I was able to use it to figure out the URL format for a thread to wit:https://mail.google.com/mail/?zx=mca2fxr2r24c#inbox/11a5bb2474f4842dI hadn’t seen that ‘zx’ query parameter before and it appears to be not strictly necessary (may be a proxy cache defeater—I removed it and found the URL still worked fine).What is new to me is that whereas last time I tried to revisit such an URL I was taken not to the thread, but to my Inbox, now when I replay this URL I am taken to the thread (as expected!)Now if Gmail would only provide a “Link to this page” control à la Google Maps my life would be complete.
