E-mail Tools You Can Use

In 2009, it's an e-mail world and we all live in it. Well, it might be a twitter world because everyone is in a hurry. But, that's another topic.

The chances are if you are reading this, you've recently read or replied to an e-mail, or even deleted something you didn't want from your inbox. Admit it, you do it several times a day. You dream about it, too.

The Boston Globe is here to help with a review of add-on programs to help manage your busy inbox.

Hiawatha Bray, the Globe's columnist covering the high-tech industry, gives a positive review of Xobni, which was developed in Cambridge by Y Combinator, a company that has since gone to San Francisco. Xobni combines with Microsoft Outlook to provide more information than you may think you need, even if the e-mail sender uses Facebook or LinkedIn. It's free, too.

Bray also praises something called Spam Arrest, which sounds both interesting and narcissistic. First time e-mails generate an automatic reply from Spam Arrest that includes some random words for the sender to type to prove the e-mail came from a person.

Bray's article is loaded with other programs to check out, too.

Photo by flickr user 10ch and available under a Creative Commons license.