Plannin' On It

Cyberfile your cybermail

jimray:

Apparently, everyone I follow on twitter is annoyed that their inbox is filled with CyberMonday spam. Bummer! Here’s a fix if you’re using Gmail (I found this somewhere else years ago, I can’t recall where).

Create a new filter.

In the field for “has the words” copy and paste the following:

"added you" OR "is now following" OR "opt-out" OR unsubscribe
OR "viewing the newsletter" OR "privacy policy" OR enews 
OR "edit your preferences" OR "email notifications" 
OR "update profile" OR smartunsubscribe 
OR secure unsubscribe OR "manage your account"
OR "group-digests"

Click the “Next Step” button

Check the “Skip the Inbox” field

Check the “Apply the Label” field and give it a good label — I call mine “Bacn”

Save your filter.

As an added bonus, those dozens of email subscriptions that aren’t really all that important but you can’t bring yourself to unsubscribe from will be filtered away. Be sure to check it every once in a while.

It’s probably too late for this year’s CyberMonday but just leave it there and your inbox will suddenly be magically cleaner.

You can also do something similar to this with Gmail Smart Labels. Mailing list-type stuff will get sent to “Bulk”, social network update spam can be sent to “Notifications”, and discussion lists will get sent to “Forums”. So far, Gmail’s ability to correctly label these things has been almost perfect.