Here's another user - happy with ZOE - it's going to take over the email world. It really is a neat tool - I've been using it since this weekend - even getting to my mail from outside my little home-based firewalled cable modem too!!! Thank you AT&T (www.attbi.com).
The goal here is to be able to index all the old pst files from my lifetime, :(, but in a usable format & in an effectively efficient manner - if that's a good combination of words - you'll get my meaning if you take a tour of ZOE on your own.
If you've had several jobs in your career & believe that the eMail you've received & generated over the years is yours & worth something, then take that look soon.
There is a tool (purchasable for $25) that converts various mail formats to one usable by ZOE - so you can import all your old email archives. It's an "eMail Alchemist" (see the reference to Emailchemy ... below !) - just one word of caution - the trial version messes around with the sender & subject meta-data tags in your email - so it's fine to test it out before purchase - but beware of what happens when you load the resultant "test" conversion file into ZOE - you might not like the results. At least I tried it for you - taking a Outlook Express account & running it thru the process. The "eMail Alchemist" web site has a great discussion of ways he's used it - actually to convert all kinds of mail formats (using interim conversions) - but also to solve the mysterious pst file "conversion" problem - since his software doesn't do it directly (but rather indirectly - an acceptable approach for me anyway) - and rightly so for the development effort required - support the pst file format directly yet.
Emailchemy may be of help:
http://www.weirdkid.com/products/emailchemy/index.html
Referenced below is a review by Jon Udell - it's worth the read - also - there was a posting on arsTechnica's openforum - Will I reach email Nirvana at last? - that got a lot of good feedback & alternative ways to view the solution - so opinions are out there for sure of this technology already. BTW, that threaded discussion is where I located the "eMail Alchemist".
BUT - Read on - enough of my background info - go learn what ZOE & Googling your eMail is all about...
Google where you need it. I recently migrated to Apple's Mail program but found it's built-in search feature to be about as useful as a 3-day hangover. Basically, I kept trying to use it as I use Google, placing phrases in quotes, separating inclusive AND key words with a comma or plus. But Mail, in it's eagerness to please ignored these logic queues.
However, I have found what I think is a good solution to this problem (aside from moving back to Entourage) in the form of a small Java jar called Zoë. This free tool is at once a mail client, mail server, mail filter, and mail search engine. Just import your existing mailbox, sign up for a Google's Web APIs, and let Zoë Google-ize your mail repository. It is, in a word, slick.
What I also found extremely useful about this tool is it's cataloguing technique that sets up an index of email "contributors" and attachments that follow your search queries. For more tricks with ZoE, check out Jon Udell's nice Web Services column entitled Googling your Email. [The Daily Blog]
Google It!