Email Overload? 4 Top-Rated Programs Help Manage Your Inbox

If you asked people what the most time-saving mode of communication is, many would choose email.

But when you consider all of the wasted hours spent ridding your inbox of spam, the choice is not so clear. Sure hundreds of spam filters exist, but these programs leave many people wondering if an important message has been flagged and removed from their inbox unbeknownst to them.

While spam does complicate the entire emailing process, a number of products also exist to help manage junk mail without losing a single piece of important information.

Spam-Free Emails

Spam Arrest does a great job checking the validity of an email. The first time an unfamiliar user sends a message, Spam Arrest counters with an automatic reply that requires them to type out a few randomly chosen words. If the foreign user is able to type out the words, it proves that the message came from an actual person and not some spam-peddling server. (Source: boston.com)

30 day free trial:

http://www.spamarrest.com/

Quickly Add Contacts using Signatures

Those who frequently use their email accounts often include a signature at the end of each message. A new program called Gwabbit recognizes signatures and automatically enters them into your email address book with a double-click of the mouse.

Previously, users would have had to open up their address book and fill out all of the contact data manually. Now, click on the signature and the sender's name, address and other information is stored.

14 day free trial:

www.gwabbit.com.

Easy Search for Emails

Another neat little program is NEO Find. The software constantly indexes incoming messages and sorts them by sender. But unlike similar software, NEO Find indexes every word of your messages. (Source: geekedabout.com)

If you remember reading a hilarious joke in a previous email about a "priest and a rabbi walking into a bar", but cannot remember who sent it to you, type in "priest and a rabbi" in the word search and the original email instantly appears.

90 day free trial:

http://www.caelo.com/

Email Meets Social Networking

Xobni ("Inbox" spelled backwards) is also still around, managing thousands of accounts each day. Its biggest feature is its connection to social networking services Facebook and LinkedIn. If your friend Dan has a Facebook account and he sends you an email, his profile picture and snippets of his personal information will also appear in the message.

Another Xobni feature is developed for those in the field of business, targeting executives who frequently send mass emails to their colleagues. If the user identifies a sender as someone of importance, the program kicks in to list other contacts that may also be important.

Xobni is free:

http://www.xobni.com/