The search giant has recently updated its Gmail service with a ‘priority inbox’ feature which reduces information overload in e-mail inboxes.
Priority inbox automatically filters e-mail in to four categories: important, important and unread, starred items and other.
In any e-mail there are a number of indicators which allows the system to grade the status of a message. These include regular contacts, junk mail filters and static features such as whether you are the sole recipient of a message or whether it has been sent to lots of people.
The feature is also said to become more intelligent the more a user uses the facility alongside a plus and minus tool within the system to increase or minimise the importance of a message.
Recent research by the Radicati Group has revealed that in 2010, 294 billion e-mails are sent each day with typical business users sending and receiving about 110 messages a day.
This extreme figure is evidence that people are currently being overloaded by the number of emails that arrive in their inboxes each day and that features such as priority inbox will inevitably help people to be more productive.
It is hoped that products such as priority inbox will mean less time is spent sifting through emails and more time will be spent concentrating on more important tasks.
