The Best Mail Checking App Is…

Digsby. Here’s why:

First, it has native support for Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, POP, IMAP and AOL Mail:

Second, it puts usable icons in your taskbar. The beauty of how it works is that when there is no mail, the icon is dimmed. When there is mail, it shows color AND a small number telling how many emails are unread.

Hotmail inbox has no new mail:

Hotmail inbox has one unread message:

This can be done for any mail account you configure.

Third, this is one of the very few mail checkers that goes directly to the app or web site necessary to access the mail. On double-click of a Hotmail account icon, it launches the Hotmail.com site. With Yahoo! Mail, same deal. Gmail/AOL, also same.

I highly recommend Digsby if for nothing else than a since simple mail checker. It’s promoted as a multi-protocol messenger, but you don’t have to even bother with that at all if you don’t use instant messaging.

Concerning the other features of Digsby, it is a Swiss Army knife concerning what it can do. It can not only connect to several messenger and mail services, but also connect to Facebook and Twitter. There are very few apps that do all of this as well as Digsby does. The closest equivalent is Pidgin, however in order to push out status updates/”tweets” you must add in plugins just to get the functionality. And to be honest even then it’s not that great at doing it.

The point of this article however it that it is, without a shadow of doubt, the best mail checker that exists. Nothing else comes close in ease of use and notifications that are actually, you know.. useful.