Hassle-Free E-Mail

Illustration: John Hersey

Let's face it: E-mail is enormously valuable, but it can be an enormous hassle too. You need a tool that can read, write, and wrangle hundreds of messages a day, that can find and help organize messages, and that can juggle e-mail from multiple accounts. And in an era when (according to UK research firm MessageLabs) half of all e-mail is spam, you need a tool that can filter out most of the junk.

We looked at eight e-mail options--four desktop clients and four Web services--to find out which ones were easiest to use, and which offered the best features and the strongest spam protection.

Each e-mail option has its advantages. Desktop apps store messages on your hard drive, so there are virtually no limits on how many you can keep. But e-mail programs can be difficult to back up, so if your hard drive dies, your e-mail may expire along with it. We have two favorites. XP users should take a look at Outlook 2003, a package that's a lot more than an e-mail application and works well in business settings. Mozilla Thunderbird is a much simpler desktop app for individuals who don't use Windows XP or who simply want e-mail without all the extras.

Web-based e-mail is far more portable: You're just an Internet connection away from your mail. Some services will even download mail from an ISP and then filter it for spam. The downside? Most limit the amount of mail you can store, and make it difficult to save messages to your hard drive. Our top pick, Mailblocks 2, provides a universal in-box for all kinds of accounts, from AOL, MSN, Hotmail, or any other ISP. And its challenge-response technology virtually guarantees that you won't get spam, though it can also stop e-newsletters and other legit mail.