E-mail is no longer just e-mail, and it arguably hasn't been for some time. Webmail clients like Yahoo's have offered IM and calendar integration for a while, and now Gmail allows video chatting and embedded gadgets. Zenbe, a new startup, is bringing social features, collaboration, and a new perspective on our e-mail routine with things like a sharable wiki, discussions, and even a Twitter sidebar.

At its core, Zenbe presents itself as a new interface for our e-mail, but not necessarily a replacement for our current provider. While the company offers its own @zenbe.com addresses and 4GB of space for free accounts, users are encouraged to plug in their Gmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo, or Hotmail credentials (the latter two requiring the purchase of "Plus" plans for external access) to use Zenbe's services as a front end.

Messages can be sent and received from these external addresses, or any others that are compatible with the POP3 protocol. Due to the limitations of POP3, however, a switch to Zenbe for e-mail is all or nothing if you plan to stick with your existing address. The addition of IMAP and its support for synchronizing read/unread message states between clients would, of course, provide a lot more flexibility for users, as well as a smoother transition.

Once your e-mail is in Zenbe, though, the service provides some interesting features. Mail can be tagged, and a Gmail-like conversation view helps you stay on top of things, but a "Files" tab allows for both online storage of files you upload and the browsing of attachments you've received, regardless of who or when you received them. Messages can also be filed and tagged by rules, and a clever "Favorites" view allows one-click access to a filtered Inbox view that contains messages from contacts that you mark as such. The fact that Zenbe can import contacts from compatible e-mail services when adding the account (it worked for our Gmail address) is a big help here.

Moving beyond e-mail, Zenbe offers a decent set of calendar and task management tools. Arguable essentials like pop-up/SMS alarms are missing, but a free Zenbe Lists iPhone app (iTunes link) lets you take at least your projects along for a ride.

Back on the Zenbe website, the calendar and task tools can be displayed in a collapsible sidebar that also features Twitter, Facebook, and Google Talk panels. This brings an appealing level of dashboard modularity to Zenbe, and the fact that everything is wrapped in a functional UI makes all these tools a pleasure to use and switch between. Points are deducted, however, for an unfortunate lack of keyboard shortcuts. There are some quick key combos for browsing and managing mail, but none (yet) for switching tabs or viewing files.

One of Zenbe's most interesting features is ZenPages, a sort of focused, collaborative wiki to which users can add things like discussion boards, shared e-mail (via tags), Flickr photo streams, link sections (with Delicious integration), Google Maps modules, YouTube videos, multiple task lists, RSS feeds, and more.

ZenPages become even more useful when you share them with friends and family via nothing more than their e-mail addresses. Refreshingly, they won't need to register just to add content or participate. This turns Zenbe and ZenPages into a useful, and more importantly, unobtrusive service for things like holiday planning, coworker collaboration, and family bulletin boards. ZenPages really are quite useful, and our only complaint for now is that the layout isn't as flexible as we would prefer it to be. Modules can only be added in a vertical fashion down the page, but it would be great to place, say, a Google Maps module right next to a discussion box or a shared mail module.

Zenbe is really on to something here. While services that collect this much functionality rarely capture all the niche features that power users need, the company has launched out of beta with an impressive grasp of fundamental necessities and useful perks. The fact that users can transparently send and receive from their current address will surely lower the barrier to testing the company's services. Zenbe says it will soon offer subscription plans with more features and storage, so any users looking for a way to stay social and productive at the same site should definitely give this a try.