ClearContext Outlook Plug-In – Second Chance
I read about ClearContext a little while ago, and it intrigued me. There’s no doubt that the concept is tantalizing; ClearContext purports to be able to arrange your inbox in order of the priority of the email coming in. In their own words, ClearContext Outlook Plug-In “automatically analyzes, organizes and color codes incoming email; presenting the inbox as it should be and saving you valuable time each and every day.” I filed the name away in my head, thinking that I’m always interested in new and different ways to make the way that I relate to my email easier and faster.
I later downloaded the trial version of their program, installed it, and gave it about a ten minute try. I’ll admit, I wasn’t fair; it changed how my inbox looked, and I wasn’t in the frame of mind to deal with that or learn a new way of interacting with my email. So I immediately uninstalled it, and forgot about it.
Then some time later I had my little fit with respect to email etiquette, which has become known as the “Filers vs. Pilers” post. While I was reviewing the comments and trackbacks on that item, I noticed a trackback that pointed to an email survey at www.clearcontext.com. When I followed the link, I found that there was no referring content – in other words, nothing that explicitly mentioned my post. Forgetting that I had heard of ClearContext before, I deleted the trackback. (I could very well be misunderstanding the use of trackbacks, and if this is the case, I apologize.)
Surprisingly, a few days later I received an email from someone at ClearContext apologizing for the confusion. They wanted to make sure I understood their intentions, and explained in detail what their survey was about. They also listed a bunch of influential bloggers that were supporting this initiative in some way. In a word, I was impressed.
Since that time, I have had a few email exchanges with Brad at ClearContext, and I have to say that I’ve been impressed at every turn. When I finally took the survey, Brad noticed, and sent me a license for ClearContext for my trouble, even though I’d made it clear that I was perfectly happy with my email solution.
I wanted to make it clear here that I did receive a free license from ClearContext, but that is not the reason I’m talking about their company; I have simply been impressed each time I’ve come in contact with them. I emailed some people I trust about them, and got nothing but glowing references. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that they deserve another try.
So, after my last email-related post where I intricately described my MailFiler / GTD plug-in setup, I’m going throw things into disarray, and turn off MailFiler in favour of ClearContext. I’ll keep you posted on my results.
March 11th, 2005 at
Hi Jason,
I’m a Regular here now. Infact it was me that prompted your well written article about Mailfilter and GTD addon.
Co-incidently, i literally done the same thing with clearcontext. And am just about to install (I’m still deciding on which approach to take)
So I guess myself and you must be in the same line of sight !
Anyway good luck. I look forward to your findings…
PS: I am going to venture into the blogging world over the weekend.. As soon as I’ve registered my domain and found an idiots guide to setting up a blog.. (I am guessing there are thousands)
March 11th, 2005 at
Thanks Andrew; I’m glad you’re finding my email experiments interesting! I look forward to reading your blog once it’s up. I heartily recommend WordPress if you’re looking for a blog platform to start with.
March 14th, 2005 at
http://www.clearcontext.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=74
Jason,
I have spent far too long over the weekend testing clearcontext.
At this stage I am yet to be impressed. I don’t know about everyone else, but for me a FLASHdemo speaks a thousand words. A screenshot speaks a few hundread. But a bullet point for explaining a feature just don’t do it for me.
Therefore I am still open minded to the idea of using this product. But feel that the build in RULES wizard (see link above for full post) does more than clearcontext. Ok if your stuck with OUTLOOK2000 you might say different.
Summary
Using GTD addon, together with Mailfilter is fine for me
March 14th, 2005 at
I have to admit that I’ve been slow to post my impressions of ClearContext, because I still can’t decide. Outlook rules are indeed quite powerful, but in my experience, particularly in an Exchange Server environment, I find that they can be pretty flaky. When they’re set up correctly, they just work, but sometimes I run into problems when trying to add a new rule. The server flat out refuses to allow me to add it, even though there’s nothing wrong with the rule. I use a set of about 10 rules quite extensively, but I’d hate to try to set up rules for every sender that I receive mail from.
Clear Context appears to be trying to mainly allow the user to assign a Topic and Priority as per their scoring system through the AutoAssign dialog. It works and is fairly straightforward, so I’ll give a thumbs-up on that feature. As for the overall approach to my inbox… well, I’m still working on it.
April 7th, 2005 at
I’m using the GTD plug in to manage e-mail and tasks. Any conflict between ClearContext and the GTD plug in that anyone knows?
April 7th, 2005 at
I didn’t notice any conflicts between ClearContext and the GTD Plug-in when I was using it, for what it’s worth. For sure, nothing like the clash between GTD and MailFiler that I described above.
April 12th, 2005 at
I took the plunge myself and started using ClearContext.
I found a ‘feature’ that I didn’t like and asked a question on their message board. Brad M. responded. I actually was a little frustrated by the response and continued the dialog. We’re in continued discussions and I plan to post more about it on my blog.
April 12th, 2005 at
Brad appears to be the main guy behind ClearContext, and I have to give him credit: he is probably the most accessible product developer I’ve had experience with. Good luck – I hope the dialog proves fruitful.
April 19th, 2005 at
FYI – As requested by Andrew in the comments above, we just posted an eight minute flash demo highlighting the main features of ClearContext. Check it out at http://www.clearcontext.com/ClearContextv11Demo.html .
May 20th, 2005 at
[...] s is brilliant. ClearContext, The Outlook Add-In that I’ve written about previously (here, here and here) has a new program. If you write a [...]
November 19th, 2007 at
I’m a big fan of ClearContext, since they’re trying to fix what’s so broken about email. GTD has also made a good effort, though the performance hit is substantial. Unfortunately, both are trying to fix email w/in a paradigm that is already broken… why not redefine email to have more context like Facebook?
Some of my favorite plug-ins:
Lookout (still possible to find, but I don’t have the URL)
SendShield (www.sendshield.com) – saves me from sending files that have metadata and has a PDF writer
LinkedIn’s plug-in, though it still seems to have a few bugs (www.linkedin.com)