SNARF, the Social Network and Relationship Finder, "a complement to e-mail programs such as Outlook, filters and sorts e-mail based on the type of message and the user's history with an e-mail correspondent. The result: a collection of alternative views of your e-mail that can help you make sense of the deluge," says the Microsoft Research site.
"We often say, 'Your dog knows the difference between strangers and friends who visit your house; why shouldn't your e-mail client?' "
The process on which SNARF is based is called social sorting. The concept has been around for a while; in fact, Microsoft Research's Eric Horvitz worked on a similar project called Priorities a few years back. But what's new about this implementation is its simplicity. The tool, which has been deployed within Microsoft for a field study, simply counts e-mails, sorts them by sender, and draws conclusions about their relative importance from the intensity of the correspondence relationship.
