If you use OUTLOOK or EXCHANGE, you must get XOBNI. That is inbox backwards. And it works that way. It turns your inbox upside down. From a morass of emails and other crap, XOBNI brings order. And it does this without you providing any organizing principle. No need for folders and rules etc. Rather, there is a simple search box. It indexes your inbox. It creates profiles of all your senders and recipients. It pulls their data automatically from LinkedIn, Twitter, Hoovers, Facebook and other social networking services. It shows the relationships between that person and ALL your other contacts. It takes your emails and threads them together in conversations (remember GMAIL). And it exposes and makes searchable ALL attached documents.
So what is the cost ... well FREE. The free version should be adequate for most people. For $35 you get a little more. If you are looking for a needle in a haystack, XOBNI is your metal detector. It sorts the chaff and out comes the needle. Want to know who knows whom. Use this handy little sidebar.
Try it. You’ll like it.