How Much Spam is There?
According to Google, a whopping 50-70 percent of messages that Gmail receives are spam. So it’s easy to appreciate that Gmail is working hard to keep all those messages out of your in-box. Gmail filters your email using machine learning, routing what it believes to be unwanted messages to your spam folder (called a label in Gmail). When you open your spam folder, you’ll see all the email that has been marked as spam by Gmail or you. Each email includes a label at the top explaining why it was sent to spam.
What are Machine Learning and Spam Filtering?
Machine learning is the use of artificial intelligence that provides systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience. Gmail’s spam filter is a tool (with machine learning at its core) that uses specific criteria to detect unsolicited or unwanted email and prevent those messages from entering your inbox.
Fine-Tuning Gmail Filtering for Your Work Flow
When you mark or unmark emails as spam, Gmail learns from your actions. It’s a good idea to regularly check your spam folder to unmark messages that have been incorrectly flagged as spam so that future messages from that sender won’t end up in your spam folder. By the same token, spam messages that arrive in your in-box should be marked as spam so Gmail can learn to filter them to your spam folder in the future. For more information about marking or unmarking email as spam, click here.
You can easily manage incoming messages by creating labels in Gmail. Labels are filters that will redirect your messages to specific folders, archive them, delete them, or automatically forward them. Click here for instructions on creating labels. For an overview of useful practices for organizing your messages, click here.
Connectech can assist you in setting up Gmail organizational best practices and labels to better control the volume of email you receive each day. Please call us at (916) 972-9000 for more details or contact us.