How does the 'move' command work? I have so far enjoyed the experience of learning about Bitcoins, mining, etc. I've setup a bitcoin daemon in hopes of developing a few apps and services in the near future. However, there is one thing that has been bothering me for a few days now and I can't seem to find an answer for.

There is a 'move' command in the client/API calls list that will "Move from one account in your wallet to another". I read somewhere that this DOES NOT flow through the block chain. If that is the case, then HOW can you actually use those coins in the new account/address when there is no public record of the transfer.

Thanks for your help
Accounts are an internal bookkeeping mechanism of the Bitcoin client. They are not the same thing as addresses. When you move from one account to another, the coins remain in the same address, and if you need to spend them they will be spent from the same address. The only thing moving does is subtract a number from one account and adding to another - both of which are just things the client displays and nobody else on the network has any knowledge of. An account balance can also be negative.

Accounts are good if you run a shared eWallet and want to track users' balances (and "move" can be used to make an intra-bank transfer), or if you want to keep track of different purposes of savings (so you can direct all incoming coins to an account called "unallocated" and then move 100 BTC to the account "college fund"; if you make sure to designate all outgoing transfers as coming from "unallocated", you will not accidentally dip into the college funds, no matter in which addresses your bitcoins physically sit).