Gmail: Priority Inbox Is Working; Users Spending 15 Percent Less Time Reading Email

Tuesday, 07 December 2010 02:27

Gmail: Priority Inbox Is Working; Users Spending 15 Percent Less Time Reading Email

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Back in August, when Google launched Priority Inbox for Gmail, we praised it. And rightfully so. It took many of our nightmare inboxes and turned them into dreams. Well, okay, let’s not get crazy. But it did make them more manageable. And now Google has so stats to share to prove it.

When looking at the median numbers,

Google has found that Gmail Priority Inbox users spend 43 percent more time on reading “important” emails versus “unimportant” ones. But even more impressive is the overall stat: Priority Inbox users spend 15 percent less time reading email than Gmail users who don’t have it turned on. That’s actually pretty staggering.

Google also used their post on the matter tonight to showcase a small but interesting new feature. Now, if you hover over the “important” indicator on an email, Gmail will tell you why they think it’s important. It could be because of the people messaging you, or the content of the conversation, among other reasons. This transparency is helpful, for example, in showing exactly why Gmail keeps placing some spam email in my Priority Inbox.

Google also says that Priority Inbox should now respond faster to your manual corrections. Again, that should help with my spam issue.

Priority Inbox still isn’t my dream of a Gmail Lite, but it’s a start.