It not only brings up all messages containing your search term, but shows a graphical timeline of the message traffic on that search term.

The new Thunderbird also has a very cool filtered search system. If you do a search, the search results appear in their own tab. That way you can consult key emails when you need them without opening a welter of overlapping windows. If you simply double click on an email in a list, it opens in its own tab. Mozilla has brought tabs, now standard in Web browsers, to Thunderbird. But, in my view, all the techie rough edges still haven’t been sanded off and it’s still clumsy in a few places.įirst, the pluses. It is indeed a step forward, with some interesting new features and generally simpler operation. So, can Thunderbird 3, which is free and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux computers, become the Firefox of email, the go-to choice for average users looking for an alternative to the big guys?Īfter testing the new edition for about a week, I believe that Thunderbird 3 is a significant improvement over earlier versions of the product.

On the Mac, most people seem to use Apple’s (AAPL) very good built-in email program, Apple Mail, but it’s hard for third parties to customize. Outlook, which can be bloated and slow for consumers, has driven out many competitors on Windows, and the new Windows 7 doesn’t even come with a built-in email program. These save the messages to their own hard disks, include oodles of customized features, and can be more easily used offline.īut the choices among such local email programs are dwindling. While many people these days are content to store and manage all their email using Web-based interfaces provided by Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG) and others, plenty of folks still want to use local programs.

Mozilla thunderbird email reviews