Add A Little Zen To Your Email With Zenbe [Review]

Zenbe is a new webmail application, comparable to Outlook & Windows Mail, that claims to be “the world’s best email experience.” After comparing both Zenbe & Orgoo for almost 2 months now, I’ve finally decided that Zenbe is the best choice for me. Though I may still use Orgoo from time to time, Zenbe has the professional look & features that I’m looking for.

So far I’m extremely impressed with Zenbe & all that it has to offer for a multi-tasking Blogprenuer & Webprenuer such as myself. If you are looking for a webmail application with added bonuses such as Facebook, Twitter, Gtalk, Task Management, File Management & more, then Zenbe is perfect for you. With all this functionality, I’m surprised that more people are using it.

Also, I just want to mention that if you have an iPhone, you will probably love Zenbe Lists. “Create and use your lists on your iPhone or on the web. List syncing always keep you up-to-date with the latest changes. The best part of Zenbe Lists is that you can share them. Collaborate on a grocery list, recommend your favorite restaurants, or pass along bullet points for a meeting.”

Although Zenbe does give you your own email address @zenbe.com that you can use, it make more sense to just have your regular mail imported there. You can use Zenbe with any POP mail account, including: Gmail, AOL, Yahoo Mail Plus (not the free Yahoo Mail) & Windows Mail.

As you all know from one of my previous posts, I’m a big fan of email filtering. Luckily, Zenbe does offer email filtering, which is very easy to set up. The only difference is that Zenbe calls them “rules” instead of “filters” (as Gmail calls them).

Unfortunately, Zenbe doesn’t group “like” email messages together like Gmail, which happens to be one of the things I really love about Gmail. Also, I do wish that Zenbe allowed inbox syncing; I’m hoping that it will be implemented in the future.

My favorite thing about Zenbe is the collapsible sidebar; it kind of reminds of the Flock Browser sidebar. The Zenbe sidebar has 6 tabs: Agenda, Address Book, Task Lists, Facebook, Twitter & GTalk.

The Agenda tab works in conjunction with the main Calendar tab; it’s just a smaller version of it. The main Calendar tab, located in your inbox, allows you to create different calendars (like personal, business, ect). You can then add events (using the Agenda tab or main Calendar tab) to different calendars that you create. I’m not sure yet if it sends you any kind of alert or reminder for events you add, but that would be nice.

The Address Book tab allows you to add & import contacts. You can also create “networks”, which are like groups, and add whoever you’d like to that network.

I love the Task Lists tab because it allows you to create to do lists. This is very useful for me since I tend to be forgetful at times & get so caught up in things, that I often forget about other tasks I was supposed to do.

I’m also loving the Facebook tab since I’m a regular user. You can update your status right from the tab. You can also view notifications for friend requests, inbox messages & pokes. You can refresh the tab as often as you want, simply by clicking on on refresh. It also shows all of your friends along with their thumbnail & status messages.

The Twitter tab is no surprise & something to be expected; what site isn’t integrating Twitter right now? If Twitter isn’t “currently down for maintenance” like it usually is these days, you can send tweets & view your friends tweets. There’s also a refresh button that let’s you refresh as often as you want.

Lastly there’s the GTalk tab which really needs no explanation. I’m hoping that Zenbe will integrate YIM as well, since that is the instant messaging service most of my friends & contacts use.

All of these features in just the sidebar & I haven’t even begun to talk about the other three main tabs: Mail, Zenpages & Files.

Mail is pretty obvious, you can access & manage your mail, rules (filters), tags, etc. Zenpages are webpages that allow you to share content with others (even those who do not have a Zenbe account) & they are amazing. There’s so much you can do with them. Lastly there’s the Files tab. Here, you can “send files in an email, share them on a ZenPage, or just store them for later.”

So, what do you think about Zenbe? Have any of you tried it & if so, are you satisfied with it? If you haven’t tried it, are you planning to now? I’d really love to hear what you think!

Technorati Tags: aol mail, calendar, email, email filters, email labels, facebook, file manager, gmail, gtalk, iphone, task list, twitter, webmail aggregator, windows mail, yahoo mail plus, zenbe, zenpages