How to tag email messages in Gmail (a work around)

For a long time now I wanted a way to be able to tag and edit email I have already received from Gmail. 

Sometimes someone sends you an email about something but doesn't explicitly say a keyword you would think of if trying to search for it later. 

Sometimes you get more information on the subject later and would like to be able to add it in.

So I decided to do this myself, thanks to Gmail's conversation view, it is possible.

Step 1:

Go to Contacts

Add a new contact called "tag" and make the email address yourusername+tag@gmail.com.

This will still go to your inbox.

Next we want to add a filter for this email address.

Go to Settings, Filters, Create a new filter...

Now in the To: box type in this tag email address, yourusername+tag@gmail.com

Click Next Step, select 'skip the inbox' and 'mark as read'

Click Create Filter

Now anytime someone sends you an email that you want to add keywords to, or notes for yourself to review later, you can.

Forward the message to "tag",  in the body of the message type whatever you like, and press send.

This email will be added to the original message in conversation view, and will be searchable to find the original message later.

Let me give you an example of when this could be useful.  You were at a dinner party and you told the group you need a new cleaning person. Tom said he has a great cleaning person named Monica, and he would email you her contact information the next day.

When the email arrives all it says is Monica 416-555-6933, if you were to archive this message as is, you would have to remember her name, something you may not remember in a couple weeks when you're looking for it again.

Now you can forward this message to "tag"  and in the body write words like "cleaning person cleaner maid tom suggestion recommendation" etc.

You get the drift, you want to be able to make every email that comes in searchable by you.

You have to ask yourself what you would naturally try to search to find this message and make sure those keywords are attached to the conversation.

Give it a try, let me know what you think.