Gmail doesn't yet allow you to set a customizable view for how you want to see your inbox as it's first presented to you when you login, but you can easily get around this with a bookmark in Gmail "2.0". You'll know you're on it if you see "Older Version" in the upper-right, and if you see "Newer Version", click that to change.
The newer Gmail interface dynamically changes its address in the location/navigation bar of your web browser (I use Firefox), allowing you to easily copy specific searches for later use. For instance, I use this as the Gmail link in my bookmarks toolbar:
Clicking that shows me only inbox emails that haven't been read yet. Why bother? Because it can be a time-waster to also sort emails, and instead of repetitively being distracted by archiving messages throughout the day, I instead do it in big lumps, once or perhaps twice daily. This gives me a lot more focused view of my inbox.
The principle of this tip can also be applied to, well, any Gmail search you like!
Sound useful? Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Neaters!
And my friends always look at me as if I've got a kangaroo growing out of my head when I extoll the virtues of gmail…. shows what they know