Fight back against SPAM and its ever increasing and distracting counter. I hate spam just like everyone else. I used to enjoy the satisfaction of emptying my spam box, but now that little number in Gmail is just a nuisance. It begs me to take time out of my day to empty it so that it may return to its happy empty, un-bolded self. Why not take away that spam count and bolded link? We can and it’s easy too.

There are many little scripts like this that you can add to Greasemonkey (a Firefox extension) that can be used to take away this annoyance, but there is an easier way that might end up saving you time.

By using Gmail’s Filtering system, we can have Gmail do all the work to get rid of that spam count. Gmail has a search term, in:spam, which is linked to all of the messages in the spam box. We can simply create a filter that automatically marks as read all spam that is "received."

Simply go to your Gmail Filters section here or by clicking the Settings link in the top right corner of Gmail and clicking on Filters.

Create a new filter with the following settings:

• Has the words: in:spam
• Doesn’t have: My name, My university, My work, etc.
• Choose Action: Mark as read

The filter basically marks all spam messages as read, effectively getting rid of the distracting spam count and bolded link. However, it won’t mark any spam that might possibly be real or contain valuable information about your university or work.

No scripts and now a more productive emailing experience.

Thanks Matthew G. for this beautiful find.