Google has had the ability to “star” emails in Gmail since the service launched. This isn’t exactly a groundbreaking feature, Microsoft has been calling it “flagging” since they launched Outlook back in 1736. It’s super handy when you know you want to come back to a specific message at a later time and date. Today, Google is bringing the same “star” concept to your Google Contacts. Simply click on a person who emailed you, click the star, and you’re done.

Isn’t this essentially a list of your favorite contacts? Yes, it is, and various email services already offer some kind of service whereby they’ll highlight the people who communicate with the most. I would have liked to see Google try something a bit more bold, like copy Apple’s VIP feature. For those who don’t know, Apple’s VIP is just a fancy way of whitelisting. You specify who the most important people in your life are, and the only emails and phone calls you’ll receive are from those people. You can always view your complete inbox, of course, but most of the time you’d want to be in that “VIP” view.

Has innovation in Gmail slowed down? I want to say yes, but I know that would be foolish, since Gmail is a web app that Google probably updates several times a day with fixes and UI tweaks. Google’s insistence on making Google+ a core feature of Gmail has made me start researching alternative email providers, and truth be told, no one does email as good as Google.