Gmail has added a new feature to its ever-changing Gmail interface. The new, yellow importance markers are an interesting and helpful way to help differentiate between the clutter of an inbox without having to resort to more complicated measures such as creating folders and filtering mail.
Also, Gmail has introduced a new way to order your inbox, called Priority Inbox, which utilizes the importance markers.
Function of Importance Markers
The importance markers are automatically applied to all conversations in which there is a dialogue. If there was at least one reply to the initial message, then the email thread is regarded as important. This is very useful to differentiate these emails from other advertisements or less significant messages that did not warrant a reply.
A marker can be manually applied to an email by clicking the yellow marker with the plus sign in the middle, located at the top of the inbox. Conversely, an importance marker can be removed by clicking the gray marker with the minus sign in the middle, located directly to the right of the yellow one. (You must have an e-mail selected in order to apply/remove the markers.)
How to Turn Off Importance Markers
Some people choose to disable the importance markers because they dislike them, or possibly have a different system for differentiating between emails. This is simply done. Depending on how up to date your Gmail account is, you either need to select “Settings” or “Options” (represented as a gear). Both appear in the upper right of the page. From there, you need to click the “Priority Inbox” option and then you can choose “Show markers” or “No markers.”
Priority Inbox Introduction
You will also notice the option to enable or disable the Priority Inbox system on this screen. This setting allows Gmail to determine which types of email are most important to you. The importance markers will be used on a wider array of mail than just continued conversations.
Through your marking of mail as “important” or “not important,” the system becomes optimized and performs better over time, deciding what you should read first by separating incoming mail. This may be something you want to experiment with if you have an overwhelming amount of mail in your inbox on a daily basis and don’t have the time to weed through all of your emails.
Also, the video on the “Priority Inbox” page is pretty entertaining, so you should definitely check it out; it’s only 1:54.
Charles Tilley - Charles Tilley Suite 101 Contributor
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