Comments on: Google’s Priority Mailbox and the Future of the Web http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/ Sun, 26 May 2013 06:59:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Weekend Reading: The Midnight Hour Edition - ProfHacker - The Chronicle of Higher Education http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-579095 Fri, 21 Jan 2011 20:01:26 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-579095 [...] weekend fun” during a particularly frigid and snowy January like curling up with . . . a PDF with the math and such behind Gmail’s “Priority Inbox.” Statistical modeling o…: The biggest challenge isn’t necessarily the huge data crunching on the back end; it’s [...]

]]> By: ronald http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574734 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:09:56 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574734 Wait, do I get that right. First one creates a massive system, then when one has to deal with it it’s smart. You know there is nothing in the email RFC that says the system has to be centralized.

There is also nothing is any RFC that email has to be in one large inbox. In the 80/90′s we had a system called procmail, developed at Uni Aachen Germany, which could put mail for example into projects. So all Documents would be together, design, email about design …

Today one would expect to have autonomous context organization and not one big data silo with points to nowhere, nice overview though. But from a productive point of view rather pathetic.

]]> By: Jeff Yablon http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574714 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:55:08 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574714 My concern is that “users can always opt out” (or statements like that) don’t take into account that the reality that as a whole users don’t “get it”. So they’ll think that Google is giving them what they want, while in reality a lot of stuff will just vanish.

The goal may be admirable, but the results are terrible.

]]> By: AJ http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574626 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:05:33 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574626 I must say it is a pretty sleek ‘NEXT’ feature in Gmail. This was the only logical step they could take considering the amount emails, going in and out. It would be effective ONLY IF, the learning algorithm, ACTUALLY take in account what Gmail users tag as “important” or “not important”.

]]> By: Michael Martine http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574582 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:50:57 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574582 Priority inbox is a great way to completely fuck up your life. You will miss things that are important and it will fail to obey you when you mark something as unimportant and continue to list subsequent emails as important.

Turned it off after a good month of giving it a solid try.

]]> By: Todd http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574554 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:52:20 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574554 You’re not ceding anything to Google. Priority Inbox brings “important” emails to the top, but the rest are still there.

]]> By: Stacey Higginbotham http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574547 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:26:49 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574547 Also, a user can decide whether or not to use Priority Inbox or not. So if you are worried about ceding control, you don’t use it. But technically the challenge that Google is dealing with is massive and complex, so papers such as this are enlightening.

]]> By: Jeff Yablon http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574478 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 00:31:12 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574478 Yeah, I understand that as a concept, and from playing around with the feature I agree that the user has some control. But there’s clearly a bunch of “Crunching” going on in the background (as noted in this piece), and given that *most* people won’t have the time or inclination to figure out how to override it, I think being afraid of this makes sense . . . !

]]> By: Ragflan http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574452 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:35:51 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574452 There’s no algorithm, Jeff. Google doesn’t control what’s important or not. It’s controlled by the user who marks conversations as important or not.

]]> By: Jeff Yablon http://gigaom.com/2011/01/12/googles-priority-mailbox-and-the-future-of-the-web/#comment-574279 Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:04:22 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=285830#comment-574279 OK, so wait . . . as much as I like time savers, you’re suggesting that we should all just cede what gets to us to an algorithm determined by Google?

Think about that for a second. No, thank you. I’ll be keeping my own mail server, with filters applied as I see fit, not someone else.

Jeff Yablon
President & CEO
Answer Guy and Virtual VIP Computer Support, Business Change Coaching and SEO Consulting/Search Engine Optimization Services

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