Finding the right email client

WHAT I NEEDED:

1. can retrieve POP account (my site’s emails)
2. can send using SMTP or my site’s email
3. accessible anywhere
4. emails stored in a different server from my site
5. easy & fast interface (i.e. one-click flag or star messages)

I had Gmail, Inbox and Yahoo! accounts, so I tried them first.

It is pretty obvious what I would pick.  So I went ahead with Gmail.  I set up my POP account and downloaded my emails from the server.

While I was browsing through my emails, I was missing a few.  Then I remembered Gmail lets makes you view emails in “conversations.”  The tool is supposed to group related emails.  Unfortunately, one of the parameters they use to determine whether the email is considered part of a conversation is the subject.  And worse, there was no option to turn off conversation view.

This wouldn’t work for me coz all emails coming from my website have the same subject.  When I reply to these emails, I just hit reply and don’t change the subject since the subject is appropriate and it saves time.  So I was back to looking for another online web-based email client.

I decided to try Yahoo! Mail Plus.  I get a 30-day trial, so why not?  It was great.  Not perfect, but still better than the others.  The downside is that it’s not free.  It costs $19.99 a year.  But I needed it.  A review of Yahoo! Mail Plus and Yahoo! Mail Beta to come.  So stay tuned.

If you have any recommendations, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share it here.

UPDATE:

03/16/07: Review of Yahoo! Mail Plus and Yahoo! Mail Beta has been posted, click here.