New AOL Email Client Takes On Outlook Express

AOL Communicator Pro: Spam Filtering, AIM integration, Certificates Con: Simple Rules Summary: AIM, POP, IMAP and AOL email in an easy to use package. But when will it ship? Company: AOL

Tired of Outlook Express to access your POP or IMAP email? Are you an AOL user sick of the typical AOL interface? Wish your AIM and email address book were integrated? Good news! AOL is readying a new email client, called AOL Communicator that does all that and more.

Although the name and the interface make it seem more AOL-like, this new client is more of an upgrade to Netscape Communicator than AOL's previous mail clients – in fact, we've heard that development is being done by the old Communicator team, rather than AOL's core group. This might actually be the first successful example of AOL Time Warner integrate two disparate parts of its assembled colossus.

ExtremeTech took an in-depth look at a recent build of AOL Communicator, and overall we were impressed with what we saw.

AOL Communicator's main interface is more similar to Outlook Express' interface than it is to the consumer AOL e-mail client. And during testing we found that it looks and feels almost exactly like Outlook Express. You have three preview pane options, a mailbox and folder area on the side, and standard mail buttons along the top.

You can add in a range of email accounts, including POP, IMAP and AOL. This flexibility makes it an ideal system for users of both AOL and other mail systems. We did not find an ability to bring in HTML mail accounts such as those found at Hotmail or Yahoo.

Adding an email account works just like in Outlook Express. The simplified icons at the top are easy to understand – much more intuitive than those found in Outlook Express. However, we missed having a "Send/Receive" icon for manually collecting mail – and we couldn't figure out any way to add it. You can manually receive mail through the pull-down menus.

One interesting feature – you can mark a message as Spam with just a single click of a button on top of the screen. AOL Communicator claims to have a sophisticated Spam filtering system that learns what you consider Spam. Inside the Spam mail folder, you can also remove the Spam mark from improperly tagged messages, which also helps it to refine the rules. We didn't get a chance to test this feature extensively, but if it works as advertised, it will offer a clear advantage for many email users.

AOL Communicator includes simple mail filtering – messages can only be moved, deleted or marked as read. We'd like to see mail forwarding and other advanced rules incorporated before the product ships. Simple mail search tools are also included, but the interface needs work.

Protect Your Identity: AOL Communicator also adds an Identity Manager feature that can digitally sign and encrypt e-mails as well as instant messages. You can synchronize certificates with Internet Explorer and Windows, as well as import them from previous versions of Netscape.

The identity manager technology is probably based on the Liberty Alliance specification. Sun Microsystems and AOL are both members of the Liberty Alliance, which is building a single authentication and identity management scheme. Microsoft has its own incompatible TrustBridge identity management strategy, and is not a member of the Liberty Alliance.

AOL Communicator's identity management scheme offers additional value above the current version of Outlook Express, and adds value for those looking for secure communications.

AOL Communicator's address book solves one problem we always have with AIM – we often forget which clever handle maps to our real live buddies. AIM handles can be added, along with email addresses and other personal information. This makes it much easier to keep track of just who you're communicating with. You can import your buddies directly in from AIM, and add in email addresses and real names at that point, or add handles to existing email addresses.

Existing AOL customers will like the Sync feature – a one-button task that automatically keeps your AOL mail address book synchronized with the address book in AOL Communcator.

Email addresses can be organized in natural groups – and AOL Communicator comes preconfigured with the standard ones you'd expect from AIM. Another nice touch: when you receive email from someone new, that address is added to the Collected Address folder when you view the message. You can then either add, or delete the email address – it doesn't clog up your main address book, like in Outlook Express

AOL Communicator offers tight integration with AIM – you can start a chat right from the email client, and manage addresses and handles concurrently. The AIM client also sports a new look – with rounder buttons that are easier to understand and use.

In addition, a new "Timestamp" feature has been added, which lets users toggle on and off the time a message was received – a real bonus if you leave your IM client up all day, and wonder when that message actually arrived.

Conclusion: This is just an early beta, or late alpha, and some features have not yet been enabled – like group chats in AIM. Still, from what we've seen this is a very powerful and interesting email client, one that will appeal to AOL and non-AOL customers alike. We can't wait to take the finished version for a spin. Could it possibly be time to retire the popular phrase AOL-Hell?

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.