Google Unveils 'Priority Inbox'

Google has successfully purged Gmail users' inboxes of most spam, but that doesn’t mean email isn't still unwieldy: “Our inboxes are slammed with hundreds, sometimes thousands of messages a day—mail from colleagues, from lists, about appointments and automated mail that’s often not important,” according to the Gmail blog. To help sort through the information, Google is unveiling a new feature called “Priority Inbox” that will help Gmail users sift through the information. The feature splits the inbox into three sections, stacked horizontally on the screen: “Important and unread,” “Starred items,” and “Everything else.” Gmail will attempt to detect which items you consider important by figuring out who you email most and which emails you reply to most frequently. It will also allow you to mark conversations as important.