Google is come out with a new Gmail inbox today which auto sorts incoming messages so important stuff is easy to find and clutter.
The new inbox was leaked that appeared at the end of last week and it shows off a look that is more about helping users organize their inbox into categories with horizontal tabs, versus a vertical list of labels.
Google redesign Gmail's separates messages into as many as five tabs:
- Primary (stuff from real people, such as friends, family, and colleagues);
- Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and dating services;
- Promotions, for Groupon, LivingSocial, and the like;
- Updates (receipts, statements and confirmations from banks, airlines, and other businesses);
- and forums, for messages from discussion boards and mailing lists.
On the mobile side, iOS and Android apps will also now offer users easy access to preset Smart Labels for categories such as social, promotions and updates.
Conceptually, this is simpler than Priority Inbox, since Gmail is only trying to sort messages into general categories rather than figure out which people are more important to you than others.
These improvements also raises an interesting issue: the same algorithm behind this feature is also behind the-sometimes-useful but always-intrusive ads. How we balance these two will be a big question we need to answer in the coming years.
Google says that if you want to get the new inbox sooner, watch for a "Configure Inbox" setting to hit the gear menu icon in Gmail.
