Google tries to make it easier to focus on what's important (watch how-to video).
Google on Monday night announced a new feature for Gmail called "Priority Inbox" that sorts your e-mail for you based on criteria such as how often you respond to a particular sender. The move is intended to reduce inbox overload by sorting what's important.
Gmail now goes beyond traditional filters that siphon off junk mail by sending the non-junk mail to three categories: "important and unread," "starred" and "everything else."
The new feature begins rolling out in beta, or testing, mode Tuesday and users will eventually see an alert about it on their screens.
"For the past week I’ve been using Priority Inbox in test mode, and although it doesn’t solve the problem of e-mail overload completely, it definitely eases the pain," writes Nick Bilton for The New York Times Bits blog. "Users need to keep an eye out for messages that slip into the unwanted netherworld of 'everything else.' There were times that I felt like I was training my inbox, as if I was trying to teach a puppy to sit still for a few minutes."
The upgrade was also praised by Ben Parr on Mashable: "We’ve had the chance to test out Priority Inbox for the last few days and discuss the new feature with Gmail Product Director Keith Coleman, and we’re impressed."
Edward N. Albro, writing for PC World, says Google is missing an opportunity for us to also get easily ditch of non-junk e-mails we don't care about, such as an aunt's newsletters: "If Google can figure out what we really care about, they should be able to know what we don't care about, too, and offer to let us get rid of it in one fell swoop."
» Five tips for e-mail efficiency [Telegraph]
» Hallelujah! Gmail Saves E-mail With ‘Priority’ Message Filtering [Wired]