<p>Like so many, I have a love-hate relationship with e-mail. If I'm waiting for an important message, I thrill at the sound of something new hitting my inbox. Most of the time, though, I'm slogging through an ever-growing list of daily deals, mailing lists I don't remember signing up for, and reminders I've sent to myself. Important e-mails are too easily lost or forgotten about. And the rise of e-mail on smartphones and tablets has made this e-mail overload seem even worse.</p><p>E-mail is showing no signs of disappearing, either. According to the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm, there were more than 2.1 billion e-mail users last year, and this number is set to rise to 2.7 billion by 2016. Besides the sheer number of messages, much of the problem with e-mail is that we're dependent on the same technology used to send the first message more than 40 years ago (see "Startups Aim to Bring E-Mail Back to the Future"). In the years since, most of the innovation in e-mail has happened on top of that tech.</p><p>It will likely be a long time before something replaces e-mail altogether, but there is hope for improving the services we already have. Companies large and small are working to make e-mail less of a pain. I've spent time using three that I think are worth a look. If you're ready to rethink your inbox, one of these might do the trick.</p><p>Mailbox</p><p><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/509236/three-companies-thinking-outside-the-inbox/">Keep reading...</a></p>