Email functions, such as, for example, reply, reply to all, forward, delete, mark as unread, and mark as spam are made accessible to a user through a browser independent sidebar. In one embodiment, email messages stored by an email service provider comprise a first identifier used by a first email retrieval client and a second identifier used by the sidebar. In one embodiment, a protocol used by the sidebar to retrieve messages is augmented to comprise the first identifier, so that the sidebar can use email functions, such as, for example, mark as spam, that identify messages using the first identifier.