Mountain View, California — Several months ago, creators of Google’s Gmail service have launched Gmail Priority Inbox. It was very well received and today, the search engine titan Google has upgraded its Priority Inbox, which automatically places important mail on top of your inbox, with a couple of enhancements based on user feedback.
Although Priority Inbox has extended some respite from cluttered-inbox syndrome, it has not worked perfectly, sometimes becoming confused when organizing messages and sometimes categorizing important e-mails as unimportant. On Tuesday Google said it had updated the algorithm and features that support Priority Inbox with some additional transparency to the first version that automatically sorts your e-mails by putting the most important ones up top.
The app left many users, including PCMag analyst Michael Muchmore, curious about how the app knew which e-mails to prioritize. “They claim it is based on whom you respond to and those you e-mail the most,” Muchmore wrote.
“Since then, we have heard from a number of you who have found it helpful in combating information overload, and we have seen evidence of this in aggregate too,” says Engineering Manager Pal Takacsi-Nagy. “Looking at median time in conversation view, we noticed that typical Priority Inbox users spend 43% more time reading important mail compared to unimportant, and 15% less time reading email overall as compared to Gmail users who do not use Priority Inbox.”
Furthermore, “One thing we heard is that you wanted to know why Gmail classifies certain messages as important. So starting today, when you hover over an importance marker you will see a short explanation,” Takacsi-Nagy, wrote in a blog post.
Examples of explanations include “important because you marked it as important” or “important mainly because of the people in the conversation.” The importance marker looks like a small yellow arrow.
The search engine leader will likely continue to try to fiddle with Priority Inbox, especially because Gmail, like other free online e-mail services, faces a new threat from Facebook’s new e-mail system. That service, which began last month, organizes messages based on the people you are friends with online, not in a traditional chronological view.
To try Gmail Priority Inbox, click on the “Settings” tab in the upper-right hand corner of Gmail, and selecting the Priority Inbox tab.
For more details, see the slideshow here.