A new consumer survey from AYTM Market Research reveals that 40% of consumers subscribe to a brand's email list in order to learn more about its products or services. 24% indicate that relevant website content is what prompted the subscriptions. 

New tools are available to help consumers sort, filter and otherwise manage the deluge of daily deals and retailer promotions in their inboxes. Hipiti, Shopilly and Azigo aim to return some control to consumers, while still affording retailers the opportunity to cut through inbox clutter with targeted messages.

Iran's telecommunications ministry claims to have inadvertantly blocked access to Gmail when it was trying to block YouTube. "We do not yet have enough technical know-how to differentiate between these two services," said a spokesperson for the ministry. When a legislator threatened to summons the telecommunications minister for questioning, access to Gmail within the country was restored.

Push messaging service Urban Airship annonced today its Location Messaging Service, allowing marketers to target SMS messages based on historical location data. Urban Airship believes increased targeting options will increase the consumer appeal of opt-in SMS notifications.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, speaking at a cybersecurity conference on Friday, claimed that her cyber identity is "very secure" due to the fact that she does not use email at all. 

A new study from Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism has found that 68% of tablet owners use the deviced daily, with checking email cited as the most popular activity. 44% send or receive email daily on tablets, while 61% do so on smartphones.