Tech firms battle info overload.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis - Survey

Thanks to the proliferation of e-mails, instant messages, and cell phone calls, countless surveys have shown that workplace productivity has suffered. It may seem strange, however, that some of the companies responsible for those distracting technologies are trying to find a solution to the problem.

Indeed, big tech firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google, and IBM, have formed a nonprofit group--the Information Overload Research Group--to study the problem, publicize it, and devise ways to help workers, including their own, deal with the digital onslaught, according to The New York Times. The group plans to find both cultural and technological solutions.

According to many employers, such solutions are much needed to stem the tide of constant digital interruptions. For example, Rescue Time, a company that analyzes computer habits, found that a typical information worker who sits at a computer all day turns to his e-mail more than 50 times and uses instant messaging 77 times. The figures come from a study of 40,000 people who had tracking software applied to their computers. The study also found that on average the worker visits 40 websites during the day.

Research firm Basex said this costs U.S. businesses dearly--more than $650 billion annually in productivity is lost due to unnecessary interruptions. According to Basex, much of this cost comes from the time it takes people to refocus after an interruption and get back to work.

Major corporations worldwide are searching for ways to keep software tools from becoming...