New Gmail Feature Aids in Keeping Your Inbox Squeaky Clean

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Thanks to inbox filters and spam control, Gmail has long kept some of the cleaner inboxes, but no solution works 100% and inbox zero is still a dream for many.

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For a long time, my personal solution to keeping my inbox clean has been to periodically search “unsubscribe” in the Gmail search box to bring up all the mail I have containing that search term.  After that, it’s just a matter of sorting through each message to jump through the hoops of each company to verify that you don’t want their weekly, daily, or hourly updates mucking up your inbox.

A new Gmail feature is going to use a similar concept, but make it much simpler and more accessible.  Google is starting to roll out a feature that will automatically search an email for the word “unsubscribe” when the email is received.  If the link is hidden in the fine print at the bottom (or anywhere else in the email) it will place a shortcut in the email header for easy access.

UnsubscribeIt’s not difficult to get down to inbox zero on occasion, but maintenance can be hard and eventually many find themselves riding on dozens, hundreds, or thousands of unread messages due to email marketing, social media alerts, or other automated messages.  This new addition from Google makes it easier to maintain a clean inbox once you’ve managed to sort through and remove all unwanted email.

Google’s Vijay Eranti was quoted as saying “One of the biggest problems with the Gmail spam filter is identifying unwanted mail or soft spam.”  When unsubscribing from legitimate marketing emails—or any other services that the user themselves signed up for—is difficult, many messages get market as spam, which makes it harder for Google’s filter bots to differentiate between legitimate email and malicious spam.

Providing users with this tool not only gives Gmail users the tools they need to keep their own inboxes clean, but also goes a long way to helping Google’s filtering services properly identify potentially malicious messages,  ensuring that when actual spam comes along, they are better able to identify and neutralize it for every customer.

Source: CNET

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UK reportedly wants internet filters labeled as ‘default-on,’ true or not

UK reportedly wants internet filters seen as 'defaulton,' and ISPs aren't happy

It's no secret that some British residents want an active-by-default internet filter to keep kids away from salacious content. However, the BBC now claims that the UK government wants to falsely imply that this filter already exists. According to a reportedly leaked letter, the Department of Education is asking internet providers to refer to their filters as "default on" without changing what's ultimately a voluntary system. As you'd imagine, the companies are supposedly quite unhappy: ISP sources believe the phrasing would mislead customers and encourage complacency. Officials have declined to comment on the demands, but we may know the truth soon enough as the Department of Education's letter says an announcement could come "shortly."

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Via: Jack Schofield (Twitter)

Source: BBC

Iran blocks VPN access to global web, cracks down on ‘illegal’ filter workaround

http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/10/iran-blocks-vpn-filters-internet/

Iran's struggle with the unfiltered internet is well documented -- the nation has spent years fending off cyber attacks, blocking access and potentially fencing its own intranet off from the outside world. Sites like YouTube and Facebook can often only be accessed by using a VPN, bypassing the country's internet filter. Sadly, Iranian users may have to get their Harlem shake fix elsewhere: Iran is putting the lid on "illegal" VPN access. "Within the last few days illegal VPN ports in the country have been blocked," explained Ramezanali Sobhani-Fard, Iran's head of information and communications technology committee. "Only legal and registered VPNs can from now on be used."

Registered and legal VPN access can still be purchased, but the typical filter workarounds no longer work. That's not stopping Iran's most dedicated internet users though: one local took to Facebook to confirm that VPN access had been restricting, noting that he was using an unrelated method to dodge Iran's content control efforts. The crackdown may have also blocked access to commonly used sites, such as Yahoo or Google Parliament plans to study the issue more in the coming week, and will presumably tweak the policy as necessary.

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Source: Reuters

Iran unblocks Gmail, admits it only wants to restrict YouTube in the country

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Iranians who lost access to Gmail on September 24th should now be able to access their emails again after the government relaxed its ban. Telecommunications minister Rezi Miri conceded that the internet filter used couldn't distinguish between the eponymous email service and YouTube, which has been banned for distributing inflammatory materials. Officials have said that, at least initially, its own proprietary intranet will exist alongside the internet, but didn't go into specifics.

[Original Image: Wikimedia Commons]

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Iran unblocks Gmail, admits it only wants to restrict YouTube in the country originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 10:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Iran announces plans to create isolated local internet system, fate of global access unknown

Iranians have been having trouble accessing YouTube, Gmail and other Google services for some time now, but their digital world may be growing even smaller -- Iran announced today that it plans to shuffle citizens onto its own domestic version of the web. Reuters reports that officials plan to connect citizens to the national information network that's currently in use at government agencies. Iran hopes to complete the transition by March of next year, and is already taking steps to isolate its population from certain international services. "Google and Gmail will be filtered throughout the country until further notice," an Iranian official added, noting that the ban would commence in "a few hours."

Some locals, such as the Iranian Students' News Agency, are attributing the ban to recent protests sparked by a trailer for an anti-Islamic film on YouTube called Innocence of Muslims, but the government has made no official comment on the reason behind the ban. The state isn't clear on the fate of the global internet in Iran, either -- although it has talked about creating an isolated national network before. Here's hoping the new network will be a compliment to the Persian web, and not a substitute.

[Image credit: yeowatzup, Flickr]

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Iran announces plans to create isolated local internet system, fate of global access unknown originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 18:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter warned by Indian government to kibosh inflammatory tweets

DNP Twitter warned by Indian government to kibosh inflammatory tweets

India's in the midst of a security crisis and has asked Twitter to curtail "inflammatory messages" or prepare to face legal action, according to the Times of India. The country has shut down numerous websites, while Google and Facebook have already pledged to remove any threatening content. Officials reportedly said that Twitter "failed to cooperate" in efforts to curb messages or help the government find their source, despite an earlier pledge by the social network to censor content when a country demanded it. Indian ISPs have started blocking the service's accounts, according to TNW, but not Twitter itself, as the site first reported. In any case, the country still has a long way to go to catch the censorship leader.

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Twitter warned by Indian government to kibosh inflammatory tweets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |  sourceTimes of India  | Email this | Comments