• VerticalResponse
• AWeber
• Constant Contact
• Campaign Monitor
• FuseMail Campaign Connect
• MailChimp [$30 free credit]
• RealMagnet MagnetMail
• Your Mailinglist Provider
• listrak
• ExactTarget
• iContact
• newsberry
• Mad Mimi
• Experian CheetahMail
• Pedrera eNews
• ListPilot
• Lyris HQ
• SalesForce.com (added 1/8/2009)
• JangoMail (added 8/31/2009)

I’ll be posting full reviews as we finish evaluating them.  Right now I’m most impressed with AWeber, Campaign Monitor, MailChimp and newsberry, but iContact and MagnetMail have been suggested to me by a few people, and I haven’t looked at demos of all of ‘em yet.  We’re also looking into a service called AuthSMTP which handles the delivery and lets you sort out the mailing system.  So far it’s been fantastic for our bulletin board and other systems that have mail integration.

/**
 * Simple Obfuscation Class
 *
 * The beginning of an obfuscation class, made primarily to obfuscate
 * email addresses within a block of text or HTML.  Used in conjunction
 * with reCAPTCHA's Mailhide service  or
 * a database-driven e-mail address hider.
 *
 * LICENSE
 *
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
 * or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * for more details .
 *
 * @author     Chris Morrell
 * @copyright  Copyright 2008 Chris Morrell
 * @version    0.1
 * @license    GPL
 *
 */
class Galahad_Obfuscator
{
	const EMAIL_ANCHOR = 101;
	const EMAIL_URL = 102;
	const EMAIL_DISPLAY = 103;
	protected $mailtoRegexp = '/((.*?)<\/a>/is';
	protected $emailRegexp = '/\b[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}\b/i';
	/**
	 * Public method to obfuscate all e-mail addresses in a string
	 *
	 * @param string $string
	 * @return string
	 */
	public function emailAddresses($string)
	{
		$string = $this->replaceMailto($string);
		$string = $this->replaceEmail($string);
		return $string;
	}
	/**
	 * Private function to replace all e-mail addresses with
	 * obfuscated string (most often links)
	 *
	 * @param string $string
	 * @return string
	 */
	private function replaceEmail($string)
	{
		$string = preg_replace_callback($this->emailRegexp, array($this, 'processEmail'), $string);
		return $string;
	}
	/**
	 * Private function to handle all found e-mail addresses in string
	 *
	 * @param array $matches
	 * @return string
	 */
	private function processEmail($matches)
	{
		return $this->obfuscateEmail($matches[0], self::EMAIL_ANCHOR);
	}
	/**
	 * Private function to replace all mailto: anchors with
	 * obfuscated anchors
	 *
	 * @param string $string
	 * @return string
	 */
	private function replaceMailto($string)
	{
		$string = preg_replace_callback($this->mailtoRegexp, array($this, 'processMailto'), $string);
		return $string;
	}
	/**
	 * Private function to handle all found mailto: anchors
	 *
	 * @param array $matches
	 * @return string
	 */
	private function processMailto($matches)
	{
		$newUrl = $this->obfuscateEmail($matches[2], self::EMAIL_URL);
		$inner = $matches[4];
		if (preg_match($this->emailRegexp, $inner)) {
			$inner = $this->obfuscateEmail($inner, self::EMAIL_DISPLAY);
		}
		return "{$matches[1]}{$newUrl}{$matches[3]}>{$inner}";
	}
	/**
	 * Subclass this method to obfuscate the address however you see
	 * fit (whether with Mailhide or some other system).  Right now
	 * this function isn't very helpful, as it obfuscates all e-mail
	 * addresses and links them to #
	 *
	 * @param string $email
	 * @param int $type
	 * @return string
	 */
	protected function obfuscateEmail($email, $type = self::EMAIL_ANCHOR)
	{
		$email = substr($email, 0, strpos($email, '@') + 1) . '...';
		if ($type == self::EMAIL_ANCHOR) {
			return "<a href="\">{$email}</a>";
		} else if ($type == self::EMAIL_URL) {
			return "#";
		}
		return $email;
	}
}

Here’s some sample usage:

class My_Obfuscator extends Galahad_Obfuscator
{
	protected function obfuscateEmail($email, $type = self::EMAIL_ANCHOR)
	{
		$id = $this->emailToId($email);
		$email = substr($email, 0, strpos($email, '@') + 1) . '...';
		if ($type == self::EMAIL_ANCHOR) {
			return "<a href="\">{$email}</a>";
		} else if ($type == self::EMAIL_URL) {
			return "http://yoursite.com/get-email.php?id={$id}";
		}
		return $email;
	}
	private function emailToId($email)
	{
		// Implement this by adding the email to a database
		// and returning the row's ID, for example
		return rand(1,500);
	}
}
$html = 'some string with e-mail addresses in it.';
$obfuscator = new My_Obfuscator();
echo $obfuscator->emailAddresses($html);

So far the class has worked well with limited testing. Obviously it handles both e-mail addresses in plain text and mailto: links. Please let me know if you find any bugs in it, or have a suggestion about how to make it better.

I use IMAP for all my e-mail accounts because I love the access-anywhere freedom it provides.  But there’s definitely an associated lag with just about everything because you have to talk to the server to do it.  Particularly when trying to reach Inbox Zero, this can be a major pain, because the half-second that I have to wait for a message to move from my Inbox to, say, my Action-1 (requires action, high priority) folder can really add up over a few hundred messages.

Well this morning I had this great (and blindingly obvious) idea to process e-mail “Offline.”  Almost all e-mail clients have the option to download your messages, make changes/write emails offline, and then send and “do” all those changes once you get back online.  Well, you don’t have to actually be offline to enjoy this feature.  Not only is manipulating IMAP mail instantaneous, but you also have the added benefit that no new mail comes in to distract you from the task or sorting old mail.  Genius!

I feel like I must be the last person on earth to discover this fantastic tool, but just in case I’m not, I wanted to share it with the world.  Best case scenario, someone else gets to hit their forehead and say, “duh.”  If nothing else, everyone who figured this out 5 years ago can have a good laugh at my expense.