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Yep, but I'd much prefer calling them something like message groups, conversation collections, smart labels, or anything other than folders.

Using the folder analogy inherited from the physical object is bogus when a unique message appears within multiple groups, like one iTunes library track appearing in different playlists. In real-world folders you'd be reproducing multiple physical copies (clones) but each can be individually modified and become distinct from the original.

If nothing more, I see Gmail as opening a door for the "mainstream" webmail user to view/search/organize/store e-mail messages using abstractions beyond the ever increasing limitations of traditional folders. Folders become simply a subset and arbitraryconvenience within these more powerful methods, which will extend into more applications/services in the future (like we've tasted with [smart] playlists/albums in iTunes/iPhoto). That's what makes Gmail exciting (and important) for me.

I've been curious to try Bloomba but there's no Mac OS X client for it (yet).

The big thing with GMail apart from its space, is google's name behind the search feature. A proper search function really appears to be lacking in pretty much every major email client out there, once you get into large volumes of mail (which if you are reading this, you probably are) searching the mail takes serious amounts of time.

One existing, non-web, alternative is Bloomba which has a *great* search function, even on high volumes. My email client is already indexing well in excess of 10K messages (folders cap out at displaying >5K, I have two of those) so I dont have a real count), and searches all take less than a second.

The easiest approach on Windows is SAProxy, which unfortunately is no longer free. I used this pop3proxy plus this How To SA on Win32 to roll my own. But if you're on unix, you could still use pop3proxy, but it sounds like you should read up on fetchmail.

SAProxy is a free, easily setup version of SpamAssasin for Windows, and works great. Get it on the Bloomba site, at http://saproxy.bloomba.com/moreinfo.php

SAProxy is a free, easily setup version of SpamAssasin for Windows, and works great. Get it on the Bloomba site, at http://saproxy.bloomba.com/moreinfo.php

All is not lost, consider Spam Assasin if you are not afraid of Perl. It can help you block the Spam and does not cost a lot. Of course Windows users can download SAProxy a pre-compiled version, so they don't need to mess with Perl. At first it blocks about 50% to 60% of Spam, but you have to feed it Spam examples that slip through so it learns. You also need to feed it Ham (Non-Spam) examples so it learns from that as well. It only works with POP3 clients, so no AOL or MS Exchange mail.

If they were brave enough, they would have posted their blacklists to the Internet for others to pick up where they left off.

This is a sad event for those who want to shut down the Spammers, they got shut down themselves.

SAProxy for Windows (Based on SpamAssassin) got the highest marks.

I've found SAproxy to be a convenient way to run SpamAssassin with Outlook. You point your account at the locally running POP3 proxy, it filters your mail as it's coming in, prepending "*****SPAM*****" to the beginning of any suspected spam, then you add a rule in Outlook looking for that. Easy peasy (and freesy!)

However I've really gotten hooked on Bloomba -- it has good SAProxy integration. Very simple to setup compared to some of the other antispam solutions.

However I've really gotten hooked on Bloomba -- it has good SAProxy integration. Very simple to setup compared to some of the other antispam solutions.

...has already been done.

Of course, just like everything else they're doing, they have to try and one-up everyone else somehow.

If she's using POP3 to download her mail I can heartily recommend SAProxy which encapsulates Spamassassin as a POP3 proxy with a nice Windows installer & configuration screens.

I have not used this one but have heard great things about it: spambayes, a Python based Bayeian classifier with nice plugin for Outlook 2000/XP.

Last but not least, since Mcaffee bought Deersoft you can expect that their next version of SpamKiller should be at least as good as Spamassassin Pro was.

Spamassasin proxy for windows which requires minimal setup and works very well for me. I was using Cloudmark's solution, but stopped when they wanted $4.99 monthly to let me keep their database up-to-date. Found their solution flawed anyway, since a lot of people seemed to believe that mailing lists they subscribed to became spam when they grew tired with them.

.com site

sf repo

also have a look at spamassasin for windows, the plug and play way

Acutally, even if your provider is not as cool, and you are a Windows user you can utilize Spamassassin by using a SpamAssassin Proxy. It works as a local proxy for your POP3 account, running Spamassassin on every mail you download.

• If you have Perl on Windows (ActiveState, Cygwin), then the standard SpamAssassin will run fine.
• Open Source Windows client for POP3: SAproxy (disclosure: I'm one of the developers)
• Commercial: Spamnix for Eudora
• Deersoft made Exchange and Outlook versions, but they are being revamped since Deersoft was acquired, so they're not being sold for a few months.
• and more...

Not to mention all the reasons why challenge-response filtration systems are alienating to the rest of the world. Sure, you will get almost no spam, but you'll also lose a lot of legitimate email from disgruntled people who don't like being challenged. (My standard reply to TMDA challenges is to ... not. I find it very obnoxious when I reply to someone, answer a question, or heck, just email them for any legitimate reason, that I have to prove that I'm a human. It basically sends the message that "my time is more important than your time".)

Thankfully, there are some strong anti-spam methods that are being developed which don't require challenge-response, opt-out lists, patented crypto, or any of the other dumb ideas I keep reading about.