Zenbe: Email on Steroids

Zenbe is a new and up coming online email client. At the moment it is in private beta and you need an invite to get started. I will try and bring you everything there is to know about Zenbe in this post. So far I find Zenbe to be fantastic and am seriously thinking of abandoning my gmail account for good to use Zenbe.

First off lets get a quick overview of what Zenbe is about. Zenbe is an online email client that works similar to something like Gmail, yahoo mail, or Aol mail. But it is only similar to those in the fact of receiving and sending emails, Zenbe is actually much more then that. Zenbe is an email client, calendar, contact list, to-do list and project manager all rolled int one. Pretty much it can do everything, even give you updates on your facebook friends. When you log into Zenbe you are presented with your inbox which will look something like this:

Now lets take a closer look! To the far right of the page is a little side bar type thing which allows you to quickly access your calendar, to-do list, address book, and facebook updates. The side bar looks like this, when you are viewing the calendar:

I can’t tell you how convenient it is to have your calendar right next to you while your typing and email or reading an email from a friend about an event your planning together. You can also switch to the to-do list to see uncompleted tasks which you can then check off the check box for them when they are completed. I usually log out with the to-do list chosen so when ever I log in to see my email I see a list of things I need to get done.

To switch between the different side bar views is super easy and fast, using the tabs at the top:

The first tab which looks like an arrow, is used for making the side bar go away if you want to. I personally find the side bar way to convenient to ever make it go away, but who knows maybe while reading a long email I will want to send it away for a little bit. The second icon will switch it to the calendar view. The third icon switches to a nice contact list. The 4th icon switches it to the to-do list, and the final icon shows you your friends updates from facebook.

If I were to give the Zenbe team any suggestions with this side, bar is allow for the tabs to be customizable. What I mean by customizable is let the user switch there order or removes ones they do not want. For example I personally would want the to-do list next to the calendar Icon, just because I believe they go together. Also although the facebook thing is pretty nifty I would rather not have it as an option, because I don’t use it at all. I personally would just rather go to facebook itself.

Now onto email

When you sign up with Zenbe you are given an email address for @zenbe.com Since Zenbe is in beta and so new I was lucky enough to get an email address for a very, very common name. Anywho, lets say you don’t want to tell all your friends and everyone else your new email address, just because it would take for ever or for some other reason like you would have to change your email address in so many online accounts. Well you can access your email from Gmail, yahoo, aol:

Not only does zenbe allow you to have multiple email addresses but it allows you to manage them well. For example if you get an email from your gmail account and want to reply. Zenbe will automatically reply as if the email where coming from your gmail account and not your zenbe account. Also if you are emailing someone and want to pick which email account the email is coming from, you can easily and quickly switch it from a quick drop down menu!

So far from using Zenbe the only thing I do not like about email or should I say the one thing I miss from using gmail is having the replies back and forth in an email layered on top of one another and not how they are in most email clients.

File Attachments

One of Zenbe’s inovation is how email handles file attachments. You can still open your email and see your attachments and download them the old way. Put Zenbe has what seems to work as a built in file system for any attachment you have received or sent. Instead of posting a million pictures there was a nice video on the Zenbe blog about this:

Zen Pages

The last thing I will mention about Zenbe is Zen Pages. Its kind of a build your own collaboration web page to email to your contacts. I personally haven’t used it or don’t plan on really using it in the near future. But I definitely believe it has great potential. You can watch zenbe’s video of it:

My overall experience with Zenbe has been amazing! Can’t wait to see where it goes!!!

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