19. A client system for searching messages in a conversation-based message system, comprising: one or more processors; memory coupled to the one or more processors, the memory storing: a search module for receiving a query from a requestor and transmitting the query over a network to a conversation management system, the query having one or more query terms; a receiving module for receiving from the conversation management system a list of conversations that match the one or more query terms, each of the conversations in the list having a respective conversation identifier and at least one message relevant to the query, and wherein at least one conversation of the list of conversations comprises two or more messages of the plurality of messages; and a presentation module for presenting at least a portion of the list of conversations to the requestor, each conversation listed in the presented portion of the list being represented as a single item, the presented portion of the list including a plurality of items, each representing a distinct conversation, at least one of which comprises a plurality of messages, wherein each item representing a conversation having a plurality of messages has an associated icon indicating the number of electronic messages in the conversation.
20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the single item for a respective conversation in the presented portion of the list of conversations is generated so as to include a text string having a highlighted instance of at least one of the one or more query terms.