Email Filters

Since I use a smartphone, I get immediate notifications for emails, like SMS. I've decided I don't want to be notified when Groupon has a new deal, or Amazon has special offers, and only want to be notified of emails personally directed to me. For all other emails, I'll check them at my convenience.

So, I've decided to start using filters. Here's my hierarchy, in increasing priority:
TRASH

1. Emails from senders I don't want - straight to trash. This is usually for sketchy companies that don't have proper unsubscribe functions. Use sparingly - try to use only for addresses, not whole domains. Same as blocked addresses in Yahoo email.
2. Emails from senders I want to read, but don't want to be notified of - Bulk Mail. Skip Inbox. Check often in case important emails get directed here (a receipt instead of an advertisement). Tip - some companies start such emails with ADV or such emails contain "unsubscribe" in their content. You can use these to filter.
3. All other emails - to Inbox.

INBOX

Update 26 Oct 13
Ok, you know how things seem to happen after you mention them? You might say it's confirmation bias, but I know this: after I started using filters, I got at least 2 emails from new senders - an "inaugural" newsletter, and an Etsy newsletter. I haven't bought anything from Etsy in 2 years, but they decide to start sending me a newsletter NOW.

Update 28 Oct 13
Ok, seriously? I just got an email from a restaurant I've only been to once, and that was more than 2 years ago.

Update 19 Dec 13
I decided to start using a "disposable" email address, and noticed something funny - Gmail doesn't have such a feature. It's odd because it's quite a well-known feature, so they must be intentionally leaving it out. I suspect Google is eschewing anonymity and disposable address in favour of good filtering and spam detection, which is why their filters are so much better than Yahoo's. Another sign of this is they're slowly forcing people to use their real names in different places, such as on YouTube comments.
Well, Yahoo has disposable addresses, but I chose an impractically long base name in the past, and it seems you can't change it (despite what searches say), so sadly I can't use it. But Yahoo DOES allow a second email address, which is meant to be more permanent, but I can still change twice a year, so it's practically the same for me. Speaking of Yahoo's filters, they're terrible:

• For blocked addresses, you could block entire domains in the past, now you can't
• At least you can filter entire domains to Trash, but sometimes my filters don't work
• You're supposed to be able to sort filters according to the order you want them applied, but they keep jumping back to the order they were created

Create A Blacklist In Gmail Using Filters

Yahoo mail has a blacklist, but Gmail doesn't. What the blacklist does is a step above sending messages to spam - it deletes the message, giving you no indication the message has been received. Which doesn't stop the person sending the message, but if you can't see it, it doesn't matter, I guess.

You can do the same thing in Gmail with a filter:

So create a new filter, and put the senders or domains (is it @domain.com or just domain.com?) you don't want in the from field, separating them with OR (| pipe symbol also seems to work). I suggest applying skip inbox, delete it, never mark it as important. I also applied a label so I can quickly check my bin if this is working.

Gmail Tabs

Gmail has introduced tabs to their inbox (the inbox is now divided into tabs). It seems to guess which tab messages should go to, but encourages people to make their own filters. So, it's exactly like labels?

Speaking of email, right now I'm looking for a way to "bounce" unwanted emails back to the sender. Hopefully this will make spammers think this address is invalid. I saw an antivirus suite with this feature before, but I can't remember which one.

Sent messages in Gmail

In most email programs, when you send a message to yourself, you end up with 2 copies: the sent copy in your "sent messages" and one in your "inbox". If you're sending that email to backup something, you can delete 1 copy to save space or get organised.
I just found out that in Gmail, there is only 1 copy. It appears in both "sent messages" and "inbox", but they are links to the same message. If you delete either one, the other will disappear as well. The good thing is you don't need to delete a copy if you send messages to yourself.