Comment 85 for bug 436755

@jeremy: I think it has its pros and cons. I certainly don't want the indicator applet to be "green" whenever I have unread mail. It can take me weeks to get around to reading certain messages. If the applet was stuck on "green" that whole time then it loses any functionality. (For example, you wouldn't get visual notification of new chats as long as you have at least one uread message.) On the other hand I do think the number next to the mailbox should indicate the number of unread messages and not just the number of "new" messages. This would be easy enough to fix, but should probably be addressed as separate bug.

As an aside gm-notify actually affords the same functionality. Once you get indications of new messages if you click on the account name then the indicator resets without opening gmail. This gives you the option to acknowledge that you have new email without having to actually read it leaving the applet free to indicate new chats or what have you.