Source: TechCrunch

Google are releasing a new feature for GMail called 'priority inbox' over the next week which looks to be a new option above the standard 'Inbox' hyperlink.

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/5382/priority1q.png

From the TechCrunch article:

The system uses a plethora of criteria to decide which messages are most important: things like how frequently you open and/or respond to messages from a given sender, how often you read messages that contain a certain keyword, and whether or not the message is addressed solely to you or looks like it was sent to a mailing list. If you come across a message that’s been marked important when it shouldn’t have been, you can hit an arrow to tell Gmail it’s messed up. Likewise, if a message that should have been flagged gets sent to the ‘everything else’ area, you can promote it. Through these actions Gmail gets progressively smarter, so the system should work better over time.

Cue cliche Google animation promotional vid:

Wicked. Out of curiosity, does anyone use stars to mark emails?? I prefer to use labels to sort stuff and leave everything visible in the inbox. For anything that's important that I need to get back to, I have a nice, bold red label that says "NEED ACTION". I find it's easier to notice these labels in my inbox than it is to remember to go and check starred emails...

Wicked. Out of curiosity, does anyone use stars to mark emails??

I do, but I use the Google Labs project called 'Special marks' (or something like that - it's Spezialmarkierungen in Deutsch). Allows you to have different stars like a red exclamation mark or a green tick or whatever.

I only use it for s*** that is mega important. I try to keep my inbox less than 20 emails long - everything else is archived. My job basically requires me to answer questions in order so I prioritise them with marks, answer them important ones first and then archive.

i think the way i use my inbox is the best:

-archive all emails when they've been dealt with, i.e. leave emails in inbox if they require action
-label everything
-star items i'm waiting for or wanting accessibility to, eg star ebay items bought or star my expense claim spreadsheet

win!

This is interesting, will come in quite handy.

I have facebook send me notifications for pretty much everything, but mainly as a log cos I like to be able to see messages/whatever even if they're deleted. As a consequence though my gmail is always packed with facebook emails, and it takes an extra few seconds to check if there's actually anything important in there.

If I can get the facebook emails de-prioritized or something that'd be sick. I mean I could already just set gmail to redirect them to another folder but meh.


Edit: also my gmail inbox reads: 1 - 100 of 9165

I used to use folders and sort stuff when I first started using gmail, but haven't for years. Everything is just left in the inbox, but with googles search feature I've never had trouble trying to find anything, it really doesn't need to be sorted.

last edited by kr0wb4r at 18:03:29 31/Aug/10

I definitely don't get enough email for this to be helpful. My inbox is rarely more than 20 emails long. Anything I've dealt with I either label and archive, or just archive. If I need to get something back, that's what gmail search is for!

Yeah I have this on one of my accounts today, pretty cool feature.

Here's an idea google, make it so when I send an email through imap IT DOESN'T f***ING APPEAR IN MY GODDAM INBOX

I still dont trust gmail with my email. prefer to keep it in house cause I'm paranoid

lols, yer, im sure google would have a great time reading all of your emails;

gmail is easily the best thing ever created on a computar;

i just read all my emails, and use the super easy search for anything i need to find

its never failed me

its not the content of my emails, its them and their targeted advertising etc
i just read all my emails and use my super easy search too ..

I often find teq's comments laughable, and this is one of them. I don't even notice ads in gmail, I think the one time I have I remember it to this day because I got an email from QUT about some work I was doing for them and the gmail advert was a UQ ad having a go at QUT, was great I thought.

im not crazy if they actually are out to get me

Like iTOM I use my Inbox as my "todo" list. If I don't need something, I archive it (or move it to a label if unlabelled). Miscellaneous emails don't get labelled.

Sometimes I'll go through and just delete any from:facebook or from:twitter emails to clean out things a bit.

My Inbox is almost always empty because I put everything I've dealt with away.

I leave stuff in my inbox but use labels for some things.. Mostly stuff I've sent myself like interesting articles.

I don't get enough new email to see a benefit from this feature, but can see it wing useful for others.. Or if I could use it for work email that's be amazing

teq = faceman

I have facebook send me notifications for pretty much everything, but mainly as a log cos I like to be able to see messages/whatever even if they're deleted. As a consequence though my gmail is always packed with facebook emails, and it takes an extra few seconds to check if there's actually anything important in there. If I can get the facebook emails de-prioritized or something that'd be sick. I mean I could already just set gmail to redirect them to another folder but meh.

you know you can set filters right? for example, give all @facebook.com emails a label and archive? then you have a periodic task to check them or whatever you want to do

yeah I know, said that in my post. I don't want them going straight to another folder though

Here's an idea google, make it so when I send an email through imap IT DOESN'T f***ING APPEAR IN MY GODDAM INBOX

that is so f***ing annoying.

i am intrigued by this new feature; I've struggled over the years to find a good system to deal with the volume of email I get and frankly I feel its one thing I've never been able to resolve to my satisfaction. on the surface I dont think it will be that useful because it seems too much like folders, but I look forward to trying it out.

I don't want them going straight to another folder though

They don't. They just get a label.

I suck with email....I have hundreds of unread emails both at work and on my gmail - should really folder them...but I'm pretty good at searching so I rarely bother. So yeah this feature will definitely come in handy!

Yeah I personally don't think this will be useful for me but I'll give it a burl.

I used to use Outlook Express, then I changed to Thunderbird (POP3/SMTP) and that failed miserably. It's a great app, but it just can't handle the volume of emails I get - sounds similar to you, trog. It died more than a few times and I had to restore corrupt mailboxes and so on - it was easy but a pain in the arse.

GMail is by far the best solution for me so far. Much <3

yeah thunderbird doesn't like too many emails
I just created a rule to mark all emails from request-tracker as read and delete them immediately
I even gained many extra hours a day at work so I could qgl!

I fear my gmail account is too far gone, 10k+ unread emails. Never set up any kind of system, it's just f***ing shambles and mostly just get constant stream of crap from the numerous accounts I've had all across the net. Only probably 3 people send me personal emails there and occasionally some cousin or aunty gets the address and wanders why I don't reply..

I'm using Clear Context on my outlook work email and it's awesome I will always use some tool to manage my email since going this direction.

I guess I am an email neat freak, the only things in my inbox are those awaiting action. Once it is dealt with it is labelled and archived. Anything I refer to on a long term basis (like registration emails, or logins) gets a star.

I'm up to 23% storage usage of my gmail, and I've already been through once and backed up and deleted attachments.

But I already have a plan where I will start a 2nd gmail account and redirect stuff from the first account there.

I fear my gmail account is too far gone, 10k+ unread emails. Never set up any kind of system, it's just f***ing shambles and mostly just get constant stream of crap from the numerous accounts I've had all across the net.

Just set up a handful of labels and filters and you'll easily be able to get rid of 99% of that stuff. I know a few people who have email setups like that and I cannot figure out how they ever get anything done with email!!

I need to go play yoshi's island/mario 2.

i got a few accounts that feed into my main gmail account and its at about 50% these days

i have to stay on top of unread emails, its like a ocd

I used to use folders and sort stuff when I first started using gmail, but haven't for years. Everything is just left in the inbox, but with googles search feature I've never had trouble trying to find anything, it really doesn't need to be sorted.

+1

also looking forward to new feature.

i chose hotmail cos it has folders so i can put that s*** in folders and forget about it

i also lik ehow it sends a hotmail ad at the bottom of all my outgoing mails

gotta help the bill gates foundation somehow right

Finally got this, and as far as I can see there's no keyboard shortcut to return to priority inbox. Huuuuuge fail.

Hmm, I saw the thingy in the top right corner today and thought twice about enabling it for fear of no return - possible to go back?

yeh in the options/settings area you can turn off/on

I'm fkn loving priority inbox so far. I have 4 different areas in the following order from highest priority to lowest:

1) Important and unread
2) Important and read
3) Unread
4) Everything else

I'd like the option to add more areas, so I can have areas for specific labels, but other than that, it seems great, even if it does keep putting Facebook messages in important even though I mark them all as unimportant!

Haha Billy, your "I'd like the option to add more areas" reminded me of this pic.

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/7424/friendswt.jpg

haha at the pic pinky :)