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If you're a Gmail user, Google will take what it knows about your email habits -– what you read, what you delete, what you reply to, what you star -– and sort your mail for you. This new Gmail feature is called Priority Inbox. Here's Google's cutesy, ragtime rendition of what Priority Inbox can do for you.
It reminds me of Pandora, the music streaming service that you can teach. On Pandora, you set up a playlist and vote up or down the songs that come your way. Eventually, Pandora figures out what you like and you get a constant stream of music that exactly matches what you want to hear.
Google uses an algorithm to assign value to items in your inbox, and then sorts them for you into categories of importance. If Google gets it wrong, you teach it by correcting it. According to the Gmail Blog, your email will be split into these sections:
Priority Inbox splits your inbox into three sections: “Important and unread,” “Starred” and “Everything else”:
If you have a filtering system set up in your Gmail, it will be respected –- depending on your filtering preferences. You can also use Gmail’s filters to automatically mark certain messages as important. However, Google claims that its algorithm is more dynamic than a filtering system because it responds quickly to trends and changes in patterns in your mail.
It's being rolled out this week. When it gets to your account, you'll see a "New! Priority Inbox" link in the top right corner of your Gmail account.
Jacqui Cheng at ars technica reported in Gmail's "Priority inbox" sorts important e-mail for you on some comments from Google's group product manager of Enterprise Apps Rajen Sheth. He told Cheng,
. . . people are spending an average of 6 percent less time managing their e-mail after enabling the feature.
Google has known all about your Gmail habits for some time. The privacy issue was preempted long ago. But now Google is putting the data to use in a way that you may find either helpful or invasive. Do you have Priority Inbox yet? What do you think of it?
Virginia DeBolt
Web Teacher | First 50 Words
