Gmail has given us a few new reasons to ditch Microsoft Outlook and move our e-mail out into the cloud. Priority Inbox and recent changes to conversation views should clear some of the last major obstacles to switching. Priority Inbox helps in overcoming information overload. We all suffer from inboxes that are crammed with messages of varying degrees of importance.
Information overload is a reality of the modern workplace. The average corporate worker sends and receives more than 150 messages per day1, an email deluge of varying importance: key project updates from colleagues, requests from higher-ups, appointment reminders, and automated mail that’s often much less important. With so much information to process, simply figuring out what needs to be be read and what needs a reply takes up a lot of time. Today, we’re excited to introduce Priority Inbox Beta in Gmail, an experimental new way of reducing information overload.
I’ve been running Priority Inbox for a month now and I am pleased with the accuracy in identifying what messages are truly important. All of the messages that I typically respond to are placed in a special category. Starred messages are placed in a second category. The following video explains this new feature:
The second major change is the addition of the ability to disable Gmail’s fabled conversation view:
Conversation view is perhaps Gmail’s most hotly debated feature. Threading enthusiasts say they spend less mental energy drawing connections between related messages and that their inboxes are much less cluttered. On the other hand, email traditionalists like many former Outlook users think conversation view just complicates something that has worked for years. Russ Midford, Senior Information Systems Engineer at Sanmina-SCI, sums it up well. “I personally prefer threaded conversations, but as an administrator who still needs to support some long-time Outlook users on Gmail, the unthreaded option is like gold.”
You can disable the conversation thread view by clicking on Settings – General and changing the Conversation View option.
Use this option to toggle conversation view.
So what do you think about these changes? Are they enough to make you want to try using Gmail in the cloud? Are you a long time user who is adjusting to these new features? What do you think about the changes to the Conversation View? Let’s discuss it in the comments section!
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I have also been pleased with Gmail’s Priority Inbox. I like that I can train it as to what I consider important, and then I end up with emails from people I know being moved to the top of my inbox so that listserv emails are no longer crowding the view.
If you would like further customization, you can go to Settings > Labs and turn on the Superstars lab. This allows you to color code the stars you use to mark special emails and even includes a red exclamation point which I miss having from Outlook.