RSSMicrosoft Simplifies E-mail with 'SNARF'
By Ed Oswald | Published December 2, 2005, 11:53 AM
Microsoft says that social networking information already present on our computers could help us better organize cluttered e-mail inboxes. Thus, the company's research division has developed a new application called SNARF, short for Social Network and Relationship Finder.
The SNARF interface will allow a user to order their unread mail in the way that makes the most sense to them. "People use a variety of strategies to handle triage; there is no single 'best' ordering of email messages to produce an optimal outcome," Microsoft says.
A user can select a certain quality to order their mail using a series of panes. For example, messages could be separated by the date they were sent, or if they were sent directly to the user or as part of a mailing list.
Under each pane, the e-mails will be split up by author, allowing a user to see all messages falling under a certain category by that particular person. Authors who are known to the user are then automatically sorted to the top of the list, while strangers get less precedence.
SNARF requires either Microsoft Outlook 2002 or 2003 as a MAPI source, as well as the .NET Framework to run. It has also been tested with Exchange, Hotmail, POP, IMAP, and the OL Connector for Lotus Notes, Microsoft said.
"SNARF grew out of an exploration of how people triage their e-mail and whether social information would help," Microsoft researcher AJ Brush said. "We often say, 'Your dog knows the difference between strangers and friends who visit your house; why shouldn't your e-mail client?'"
The idea for SNARF is nothing new, according to the team behind it. A similar project called Priorities had been developed several years ago. However, the difference here according to Microsoft Research is its ease of use.
At initial launch, the SNARF client will index the user's mail and display three panes of information: mail sent directly or CC'd to the user, mail sent as part of a mailing list, and people mentioned in e-mails sent by the user in the past week.
From there, the user will be able to configure the software to display information as they see fit.
"SNARF was developed for people who have trouble keeping up with their e-mail," Brush says, "but we have found that people who travel often or spend lots of time in meetings may find SNARF particularly helpful. Our studies seem to suggest that SNARF can be useful to help people stay aware of new e-mail."
The first version of the SNARF client is available for download from FileForum.
Bah - this kind of crap exists for a long time, for example in "Pegasus" . . .
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I think that the Thundercats should sue for name infringement. Poor Snarf.
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lmao...
God, I can't believe I didn't catch that.
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seems like a terrific idea. beats preset filters hands down.
i would try it, but i don't use (hate) outlook at home. i use it at work, but they don't let us grunts install stuff.
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Very nicely done.
For those who say "GMail" did this.
Nope, GMail requires you to setup labels, mark email, etc.
This simply does it for you. And finds related messages.
And, works with Outlook, which is unrelated to GMail.
Not everyone wants to have a public email service.
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seems to be targeted for those people who don't organise anything in their emails and who load their PCs heavily!
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Is something like this available for Thunderbird?
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Oh, you mean they implemented Gmail's labels? :) It's a great upgrade and definitely something that makes Gmail so much better than any other email servie out there right now.
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It's nothing like Gmail's labels. It's a completely different idea. Gmail doesn't recognize other people, nor does it "label" itself. This program sorts and groups messages by author, showing you first messages from people it determines are "close" to you.
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Have you *ever* used gmail labels for their intended purpose?
Gmail can do all of those things...excep the pregeneration.
SNARF simply allows you to do it through a supposedly better interface and without actually sing the word label or folder anywhere...
The fact that you have to install it seperately makes me wonder about it's chances for success.
Labels are built into GMail. They need to build this into OE and Office.
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