Faster Foward; Gmail adds 'Priority Inbox' option

Google has a potentially neat new feature to help Gmail users tame overloaded inboxes, but I can't tell you whether it's much good.

The feature goes by the name of Priority Inbox. It attempts to find incoming messages important to you based on which ones you read and answer -- like "Bayesian" spam filters that learn from which messages you tag as junk mail.

As Google's blog post explains, messages that get Gmail's automated thumbs-up appear in a separate "Priority Inbox" above the rest of your Gmail, but you can undo its actions or endorse other messages as important by clicking a pentagon-shaped icon in Gmail's toolbar.

Priority Inbox has been drawing rapturous praise to the effect of "Godsend" since Google's coverage embargo broke last night. But I can't really tell you whether it's worthwhile: I reserve my Gmail account for online shopping, site registrations, newsletters and other low-priority e-mail.

(I also have two Google Apps Standard accounts that see more relevant messages, but Priority Inbox isn't turned on in them yet. Google says it may take "the next week or so" for all Gmail and Google Apps users to get this feature.)