A similiar question has been asked already here
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I agree that's minor, but what do you think about it? Not to criticize the new answers / new active answers feature, because that's useful as well (and should not be removed), but overall I'd find more useful to have the number of pending notifications instead in most cases.
As of now if I'm willing to answer some questions and I'm waiting for a response on my questions / answers / comments I can simply stay in the page and be aware of any new question / new active question thanks to the bar at the top with the number of pending notifications a little above, and that's fine.
But if I'm not willing to answer any question for any reason but I'm waiting for a response on my questions / answers / comments, with this feature I could just do something else being quickly aware of any notification, instead of continuosly switch tabs. Plus if I'm not willing to answer any question and I'm not wating for a response on my questions / answers / comments, I'd probably like to check new notifications anyway. This should be really easy to implement.
Again, I agree that's minor, but what do you think about it?