ceremorphosis

Apple announced the MobileMe mail beta today with a slew of new features. The feature I have wanted the most, server-side rules, is present.

Rules to keep your email organized everywhere. Mail rules help you reduce inbox clutter by automatically filing messages into folders you select ahead of time. Set them up at me.com, and your rules organize your incoming email on the web and everywhere else — on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC.

I’d like to see the ability to define server-side rules in Mail.app on the desktop in addition to the me.com web site, but that’s a minor quibble.

Interestingly, MobileMe has also added an Archive button along with an Archive folder to the offering. This is very Gmail-like, and I am not sure I like it. I typically file email into specific folders to keep from having to search through a mass of email. On the other hand, Spotlight on the iDevices and desktop is pretty robust. I’ll give it a try and see how it works.

I know there are a lot of Google fanboys out there that will disagree, but these changes really bring parity or exceed Google’s standard Gmail offering. Yes, there is an annual cost, but that’s worth the price of not giving Google even more of my personal info.