Is there a simple way to assign email senders into categories so that all mails are grouped in the same way?

For example I want all mails from my friends go into the "Friends" group, all Mails from Amazon, Ebay, .. into "Shopping", ...

I can do this by using rules, but either I have hundreds of rules (one for each sender) or it is rather complicated to keep the few rules updated (copy the email address into clipboard, go to the rules management window, find the specific rule, edit it, paste the email address, close window - then repeat for every other address).

Is there a simple way to do this? My best guess would be "right-click on sender address and choose category from a dropdown list".

Maybe a plugin? Or does any other GOOD mail application support something like this? Maybe do I just need to update to Outlook 2010?