This is a suggestion i have just posted to gmail guys:
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Hi gmail,
This is something came to my mind so felt I should share the thought so someone can benefit from it.
The idea:
On gmail, there can be a customizable alert service which can send mail arrival notification emails to other designated email address(es) or cell-box(es).
The notification can be through filters (from specific email), separate notification on each email or even a summary notification every N hours listing all emails received during the interval.
Benefits:
1. I am a corporate user having a corporate email as me@company.com, where my email client polls every 5/10 minutes. I also have a personal account with gmail. A gmail alert to my corporate account can notify me that I have new email on my personal account at gmail.
2. I am online with my MSN/Yahoo messenger and a messenger pop-up notifies me of a gmail alert notifying me that my gmail has an email.
3. When I’m offline, a gmail alert on my cell-box will let me know that I have mail on gmail.
This is a very commercial idea, and I am thinking to get it patent, so I can get some pennies out of thought works ;).
Hope to hear from gmail guruz.
Faisal Iqbal
Application Developer,
ORISON Technologies
www.orison.biz