EmailTray

It's true that the busier you are, the more e-mail you receive. Yet that just makes you busier still, and takes away time from what you're supposed to be busy with: namely, your business. It just gets worse when you use multiple accounts and even clients in a vain but valiant attempt to divide and conquer the flood of messages. EmailTray from Web CEO is a free e-mail tool that collects all your e-mail and Webmail accounts in one interface and prioritizes your messages based on your usage patterns and your own customization. It displays the number of unread messages in a handy system tray icon.

EmailTray's installer lets you set the app as your default e-mail client. We chose to keep Outlook as our default client. Adding accounts is easy, and many users will only need their user name and password, though EmailTray's Configuration Settings offers seven tabs for managing accounts, adding custom rules, configuring alerts and backups, and other options. EmailTray's main interface has a sleek yet businesslike look that will blend in with any corporate environment or business suite. The program's design focuses on the most important features; for instance, the left sidebar usually shows only basic buttons like Inbox and Sent, though clicking More shows Archive, Trash, and Contact icons. Reply, Forward, Delete, and other buttons are on the right margin. The main view is similar to most email clients in layout, but sorted by three tabs: Top Priority, Low Priority, and No Priority. A discreet System Tray icon displayed the number of unread Top and Low priority messages in a split view, up to 99 each.

In importing our messages and data from our email accounts, EmailTray had studied how quickly we'd responded to certain messages and senders, which messages we quickly deleted, what was obviously Spam, and other patterns. It did a pretty good job of sorting our messages, too, though we could right-click any message or use the program's tools to change a sender's priority, create rules, and change options. EmailTray is great for the businessperson or any busy person, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed by e-mail.