Google Launches Gmail Postmaster Tools to Help Fight Spam

There are times when an important email arrives in our inbox and for some reason ends up moving automatically to the spam folder. Google seems to acknowledge the same issue with its latest Postmaster Tools for Gmail.

The company on Thursday announced the new tool for the Gmail and revealed that it uses the same intelligence developed for Google Search and Google Now to filter spam emails.

According to Google, Gmail's Postmaster Tools will help qualified high-volume senders analyse their email, including data on delivery errors, spam reports, and reputation. The company believes that the new tool will help "diagnose any hiccups, study best practices, and help Gmail route messages to the right place."

Announcing the new Postmaster Tools, Google Product Manager Sri Harsha Somanchi in a blog post said, "Gmail users get lots of important email from companies like banks and airlines - from monthly statements to ticket receipts - but sometimes these wanted messages are mistakenly classified as spam. When this happens, you might have to wade through your spam folder to find that one important email (yuck!). We can help senders to do better, so today we're launching the Gmail Postmaster Tools."

Google revealed that the new spam filter will now use an artificial neural network to identify and block the "sneaky spam." The revamped Gmail filter will now be able to recognise what type of emails a user prefers.

"We also recognise that not all inboxes are alike. So while your neighbour may love weekly email newsletters, you may loathe them. With advances in machine learning, the spam filter can now reflect these individual preferences," said Somanchi.

While announcing the new tool for the Gmail, the company claimed that less than 0.1 percent of emails in the average Gmail inbox are spam and the amount of wanted mail landing in the spam folder are even lower at under 0.05 percent.

The company adds that the new spam filter will root out email impersonation, which is mostly source of phishing scams. The new machine learning signals will also allow Gmail to figure out whether a message originated from its sender and will keep bogus emails at bay.