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Filtering the Flood of Information

So we’ve reached the end of our series on dealing with information overload. Our final post will examine one of the most established strategies: filtering. Defined as paying attention to just the most important and helpful information, and leaving aside any other sources, filtering is something we do every day, consciously or subconsciously.

Filtering can be viewed in two ways, depending on the flow of information you are dealing with. It can be seen as a process by which you search for information that is useful to you, or a process by which you block information that is not useful to you. Either way, filtering is a necessary tool for sifting out the useful from the useless.

The Best Free Spam Filters for Outlook, Thunderbird and Outlook Express

Avoiding information overload starts with filtering out unwanted news. This is especially true for email spam. We had a look at the available spam filters for Outlook, Thunderbird and Outlook Express and here’s our list of the better ones we found.

Background: Although most email systems now come with their own built-in spam filters we find them mostly clumsy and ineffective, potentially allowing spam to reach your inbox while sending genuine messages to your spam folder. This is especially true of older email programs. There are several more sophisticated add-on spam filters; these offer more customization, options and better filtering techniques. Commercial spam filters can be expensive but there are several good free options out there.

SpamBayes 1.1a6 (our pick)

SpamBayes is an add-on that plugs into Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Yahoo, Gmail and other popular mail programs. It works with both IMAP and POP email accounts. As the name suggests, SpamBayes uses Bayesian filtering to fine-tune its response based on the emails you receive, your choices and the training you give it. If you're using POP, you'll see a custom header that you can use to tweak SpamBayes' settings. In IMAP, messages are moved directly to the server; you can train the filter by moving messages yourself.

Spamihilator

Unlike many third-party spam filters, Spamihilator is designed to run unobtrusively in the background. It runs in between your email client and the Internet at large, attempting to catch spam before it reaches your email program. Messages flagged as spam aren't lost – Spamihilator drops them into a quarantine folder from which you can rescue anything that was put there in error. Spamihilator doesn't let you whitelist emails and can seem rather a blunt instrument when compared to filters that allow more hands-on adjustment but is very effective in filtering out junk mail. Spamihilator works with almost any email client.

Outlook Spam Filter (only for Outlook Express)

While not strictly speaking free, Outlook Spam Filter does offer a free trial so you can decide whether it's for you before paying the full price. Unlike third-party products, Outlook Spam Filter is released by Microsoft and was designed specifically for use with Microsoft's own Outlook Express. Positives include the intelligent Bayesian filtering which learns from your correspondence; there's also a handy feature that lets you check your outgoing mail to see if it might be mistaken for spam. You can build up your own lists of trusted friends (and untrusted enemies) to ensure that you never miss an important email. Outlook Spam Filter supports MS Exchange, POP3, HTTP and IMAP. One downside is that it can only be used with Outlook Express.

AntySpam

AntySpam is a fairly basic plug-in for Outlook. It relies on definitions and blacklists held on anti-spam servers to identify spam coming to your inbox. Experienced anti-spam filter users won't find much to impress them; on the other hand, if you're looking for a simple, free anti-spam filter without too many bells and whistles, this one may work for you. Servers used by AntySpam include Redhawk, Spamhaus, Spamcop etc; there's also the option to add a custom server of your own.

Matador Spam Fighter 1.0

Matador is one of the more basic free spam filters on offer. It's a simple but effective plugin for Outlook, offering a small but well-chosen handful of essential features. Matador Spam Fighter comes pre-loaded with basic anti-spam data; once you begin using it, its adaptive Bayesian filter starts to build on this foundation to spot junk mail more accurately. Matador scans emails as they arrive in your inbox, diverting any that fit its spam definitions into a junk folder. If you wish, you can also clean any email folder manually. Matador also collects statistics on its own performance so you can see how well it's taking care of junk mail.