Mozilla Thunderbird 3 to be Released on Monday

Mozilla, primarily known for its popular Firefox browser, is set to release Thunderbird 3, the updated version of its e-mail software, on Monday, November 9, 2009 [we reviewed Thunderbird 3 Beta 4 here]. According to Chief Executive David Ascher, the newest version of Thunderbird will be much more web focused than its predecessor. “There are a bunch of actions that start in e-mail that really involve the Web,” Ascher says, alluding to the new web based capabilities of Thunderbird 3.

One of these new web capacities is the new Raindrop feature, which will attempt to integrate common inboxes, such as Facebook, Twitter, and – of course – e-mail [we covered Raindrop here]. The focus of Raindrop will be to allow users to choose what is most important to work on at any given time. (The capacity to make split decisions about the workflow of items in ones’ inbox calls to mind our recent article on how to use David Allen’s Getting Things Done system with e-mail.)

If Raindrop is any indicator, the goal of Thunderbird 3 will not be to revolutionize the e-mail experience, but to make the process of receiving, processing, and acting upon e-mail a much more enjoyable experience for the everyday e-mail user. Although Thunderbird has yet to achieve the popular success that its cousin Firefox has enjoyed, Thunderbird and its focus on making the e-mail experience easier and more enjoyable could find a welcome audience, especially given the overwhelm of many who deal with e-mail and social networks on an everyday basis.