I was using Outlook the other day and something caught my eye. The email notification in the lower right corner when I get new email. I’ve been using Twitter for well over a year and have tried a few different applications. Most of them send some notice to the screen when you get a new Tweet. Since Twitter is gaining users buy the boatload I imagine Microsoft, Google and the like have been trying to integrate the simple idea into their applications.

Now, let’s say for argument’s sake, the 140 Character thing is the key to all of this hype. Not too short, not too long. What would Microsoft need to do to mimic this behavior? Simple, just extend the character count in the notification. It currently only allows 80 characters.

Here’s what it would look like with a little visual change and a new category I’m calling “Announcements”. These could be company announcements, group announcements (“Cake in the 2nd floor kitchen for Bob”). Imagine if you could avoid all those kinds of emails from your inbox?

Here’s how I imagine it would look:

And all these little Announcements could be placed in outlook under their own category in Outlook so you can manage, search etc.

Oh and if that doesn’t work, you can always follow me on Twitter