Priority Inbox in GMail

I just discovered the priority inbox feature in GMail, and I’m quietly impressed.

It’s a brilliant touch, and I can’t wait to get a bit more use out of it! All it does, is separates your messages into ‘Important’, ‘Starred’ and ‘Everything Else’, a sort of triage system for e-mails. Probably the best feature is the ability to override the system, and for example, put everything from one person straight into the ‘Important’ section. According to the promotional video, it looks at which e-mail you read, and which you reply to, to decide a rough priority for every message coming in.

That said, like Spam filtering, this will undoubtedly eventually become a new standard feature in future webmail services and webmail clients, and, like spam filtering, I’m sure there will be a variety of qualities.

After spending 15 minutes fiddling with it, I’m more than just impressed, and although I still want to read all of my e-mail, this should be a nice touch when I get home after a weekend away, to find anything up to 100 unread messages.

Anyhow, back to school next week, and I’m planning on spending a few days trialling a few new tools in terms of organisation and productivity, which I may review over the weekend!

Website Updates

Following the release of my first commercial WordPress Plugin, and in the run-up to the release of my first commercial template, I’m taking a proper look at my website.

I have decided to put less focus on the blog, and more on some general background, and providing a ‘hub’ which links to other sites, like my profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn, and my Portfolio on CodeCanyon.

In order to do this, I’m doing the following;

• New Sub-sites – I’ve already moved the blog to it’s own site, I’ve got some more sites like this in the pipeline, which will be announced very soon!
• New Homepage – This design only exists on paper at the moment, however as soon as the subsites are finished, I’ll hopefully launch a central homepage that links to each of the sub-sites and everywhere else on the internet.
• Marketplace – Presently, I intend to make all future releases available on CodeCanyon and ThemeForest, however expect to see a distinct area of my own website that is concerned specifically with storing one central list of what’s available.

Everything’s still powered by WordPress (3.0, meaning now Multisite powers the subsites; I’ve still just got the one admin panel), and I’m fiddling around with some custom plugins and themes at the moment, trying to make everything work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I’m hoping to launch the first new sub-site this weekend. Providing there aren’t any further problems, I should be able to have it up and running, and connected with everything else online, as a good model for the future development.

WordPress AJAX Store Finder

I’m pleased to announce that my first WordPress plugin is now available, exclusively on CodeCanyon.

It takes minutes to install, add your first stores and create your own store finder page, and users, anywhere in the world can instantly find their nearest store from a postcode or address.

The whole plugin, which is powered by the Google Maps API, is available for just $20USD (About £13), and once purchased, is ready to download, install and use instantly.

• Have a try with the live demo here
• See the complete features list, buy and download the plugin here

And finally, here is a screen cast I prepared, demonstrating exactly how it works!