Which Free Email service do you use?

[SteveC]

And more importantly Why?
What features do you like?
What makes it easier to use?
Remember it has to be FREE!

I just subscribed to Verizon dsl, and need to cancel my AOL dial-up.
Thanks for any input!
SteveC

[BadDNA]

I use GMail, if you want an account let me know, I'll send you an invitation.

It's free, easily organized, 2+GB of storage per account and growing daily, searchable, indexable, excellent threading ability, all the features most others require you to pay to get.

[off piste]

email.com -- I set it up a long time ago as a SPAM trap, but ended up liking the features (nice interface, "commercial free" for about $5/year, calendar/reminder feature), so I ended up using it as a main email client.

[Slider]

GMail. Links in with other Google feature, lots of storage, easy to retrive any past messages quickly.

If you want to use your own domain, LuxSci is a Cambridge-based provider that has written some awesome features. You pay for it, of course, but not too much. Great service.
http://www.luxsci.com

Disclamer: I used to consult for LuxSci, and use them through another company that I also consult for. But I make no money off them; I just like the service.

Slider

[Mr_Cheeze]

Verizon dsl doesn't count as "free" since you are paying for the service. The only advantage to the free services are the anonymity they provide to anyone who wants it for whatever the reason... like secretly subscribing to porn behind your wife's back? ( :-X ) Just one example. They also provide a buffer from your "real" e-mail address if you're worried about getting bombarded by unwanted e-mails. But You're paying some service to have internet access anyway, which means you usually get multiple e-mail accounts with that service. I use one of my secondary accounts as that buffer.

I have Comcast and greatly prefer it over any of the free services for my general e-mail needs.

[imploded]

GMail. Hands down best free provider. Got it about 3 weeks after the invitations starting going out (April 2004), have about 1GB (10k messages) in the mailbox, very fast, easy to sort, extremely powerful, and it keeps getting better.

I love it.

Cheers,

-Andrew

[FriedRys]

I'm gonna say gmail as well, for all the same reasons cited above. If anyone wants a gmail account I still have 100 invites left.

[hammerhead]

I don't use any 'free' service routinely, but have accounts with a couple that I use to avoid the built in SPAM traps on my Comcast and Company accounts.

At home I use the Comcast accounts or my Company account for routine stuff.

H.

[splat]

gmail . As said already

[narlus]

another gmail disciple. my hotmail account is languising.

mr_cheeze, the great thing about web-based email as opposed to comcast is accessibilty to yr mail from wherever you may be (unless you don't download them from the comcast server, but i think that storage is rather limited and they would just delete them, right?

[If_Rider]

Gmail here too. I like the gmail notifier which runs in the tray and pops up when you get new mail in your account. Being a secondary account it's not overly active which could get annoying and it saves you from having to randomly check the account for new mail.

[ArmOnFire]

I have verizon DSL, and to be quite honest, flippin' hate the e-mail user interface.
The Yahoo e-mail is much easier I have found.

But, if anyone wants to use one of their G-mail invites, and everyone seems to like it so much, send me one Darn it!

armonfire99@yahoo.com

Thanks fellow nemba memba's

-dan

[bob24250]

I have to agree with AOF. I hate the Verizon email and the service for that matter. I just had to go with them. the lesser of all evils. because I have to use VPN. I have all of the regular email address because I use IM so much for work and most require it. I prefer Yahoo for no reason at all. I wouldn't mind trying the G-Mail too if anyone has invites left. bob24250@yahoo.com.

[splat]

I have to agree with AOF. I hate the Verizon email and the service for that matter. I just had to go with them. the lesser of all evils. because I have to use VPN. I have all of the regular email address because I use IM so much for work and most require it. I prefer Yahoo for no reason at all. I wouldn't mind trying the G-Mail too if anyone has invites left. bob24250@yahoo.com.



I sent you one
But you may not get it , yahoo sometimes Blocks Gmail, a buddy of mine I tried 3 times to send him an invite he did not get one until he sent me a Message first then i could invite him. so if you don't get my invite, just send me a message to goeller AT gmail.com that goes for anyone who would like an invite. I have 1 00 of em.

I also sent an invite to you too steve.

[Quo Fan]

I use a Netzero adress because I've been with them for ages. I also have a Comcast adress, and a work adress, though I never check my work adress.

[BadDNA]

I use a Netzero adress because I've been with them for ages. I also have a Comcast adress, and a work adress, though I never check my work adress.


Is that why you're not using the new cover letter on yout TPS report? I'll make sure you get another copy of that memo.

[SteveC]

thanks everyone for all the response!
And Thanks Splat I'll take all the advice and try gmail too!
Yeah Mr Cheeze --doh! I forgot that I AM paying for it........
Anyways,.....I now have printed my AOL address book and will try to do the same with my favorites.......thats not as big an issue since I have websites in there that are ancient --lots of non-existent stuff there.........time to rebuild........
Steve

[ArmOnFire]

Thanks for the invite MTBTOM!

-dan

[Mr_Cheeze]

another gmail disciple. my hotmail account is languising.

mr_cheeze, the great thing about web-based email as opposed to comcast is accessibilty to yr mail from wherever you may be (unless you don't download them from the comcast server, but i think that storage is rather limited and they would just delete them, right?


Comcast mail is accessible by web and has 250MB of storage. Not too shabby. Not quite the 2.5GB that gmail offers, but do you really need that much storage for webmail, which is essensially used as a secondary account? That a lot of damned porn spam! Also with comcast, deletion is not automatic, but new e-mails are held in limbo until memory is freed.

[mtbtom]

I like gmail - it took me a while to get used to reading e-mails in threads but I like it now. Also, when it comes to locating info in my mail I've always been a "searcher" instead of a "filer". In my line of work I've seen some extreme examples of e-mail "organization" - thousands of folders, drilling down through dozens and dozens of levels would reveal one e-mail within a folder, ughh.

Also, keep in mind google doesn't give you all that storage out of the goodness in their hearts - it's so they can crawl through all that data you've archived and show you targeted ads. Count how many additional clicks it takes to delete something as opposed to simply archiving it and it's clear what they want you to do. Nothing is really for "free", I guess.

[Slider]

mtbtom,

I don't really have the issues that you mention with Gmail. I don't see any ads at all. Do they popup?

And deletion is as simply as selecting the message, pulling down the menu and selecting "Delete." They do give a button that doesn't require pulldown for "Archive." But I really think that is just to get users used to saving everything, which is really what all that storage is for.

This is from their Terms of Use doc:

"Google does not claim any ownership in any of the content, including any text, data, information, images, photographs, music, sound, video, or other material, that you upload, transmit or store in your Gmail account. We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service."

My main complaint is about Webmail verses a PC-based client. Gmail is at least pretty fast, but screen refreshes are always goung to be slower that any non-Web alternative. And this is coming from someone who basically runs the sales side of things for Emumail, the very first commercial Webmail package. Webmail is great for anywhere-access, but I'll take a PC client any day.

Slider

[mtbtom]

While reading a message in gmail I see this on the right hand side of the screen:
http://18.85.21.43/i.nsf/googlead.gif

If you click on "about these ads" you would will see the following:


These links are produced automatically for your convenience. No humans read the content of your email in order to generate these links and none of them are sponsored by advertisers. We hope you'll find them relevant and useful!


Most of my e-mail in this account is about bikes - it's a not a coincidence that they are showing me biking advertisements ! If you're not getting these perhaps it is because you don't have enough content available yet?

Deleting a message is more clicks than archiving a message, it's also harder to locate. For example, while reading a message you need to click on "more options" then locate the "delete this message" which is nested among reply and several other links. The "Archive" button is always viewable and in bold font. Much easier to "close" a message using that button instead of delete.

Now I don't have a problem with gmail, the ads, or google making money off showing me ads - I'm just pointing out that there is a reason they offer all that 'free' storage !

[Slider]

It is true that my message file is pretty small, but I guess on second look that I do see those, when I have a message open. I have a message from a friend about a drum solo he taped, and the right side links are for drum-related stuff, and disposal of harzardous waste drums. At least it is text-only.

So I am hoping Foreclosure is NOT a problem you are facing.

Slider

[catbbq]

I use gmail, but since they provide pop service, I download to my email client while at home. When travelling, the gmail web interface is almost as good as a fat client.

[BrianK]

I've had a Yahoo email address for a long time. They've recently improved the service (more space, search features, virus scan) to compete with GMail. The #1 reason I still use Yahoo's instead of Gmail though is the spam filter. It works very well.

GMail's might be good to though. I haven't gotten much spam on my gmail account yet (because I hardly use it).

[SteveC]

gmail is different! As a long time AOL user, it will take some getting used to.......the lingo is new to me.......stars and such.......I'm also demo-ing hotmail and yahoo. But I do like the minimal ads in gmail as opposed to the inyourface blinking shite on hotmail.........
in Email limbo...
SteveC

[SteveC]

I use gmail, but since they provide pop service, I download to my email client while at home. When travelling, the gmail web interface is almost as good as a fat client.

Now that's some lingo no comprendo...... ???

[Slider]

Steve,

A fat client lives on your PC and does the processing there. Think Outlook, which runs on your PC and downloads email files from a remote server. Outlook places the individual messages into the appropriate folders, and nothing happens outside your PC until you tell it to Send or Receive. We'll ignore the IMAP versus POP question to keep things simple here.

Thin client is the browser. Most of what happens takes place on the distant server, and all you see is what the browser shows on your PC, usually just the mesage you happen to be reading. Some say all computing is heading that way, and we'll never buy software again.

Clear as mud, right?

Slider

[SteveC]

Clear enough Mr Slider! Thanks! Now it all makes sense. AOL used to be all fat, and now it's about 1/2 and 1/2. But it still takes up way too much hd space, that's why I'm 86'ing it soon, as soon as I can manually move all the stuff I want to keep...........
Gmail seemed weird at first, but it's turning out to be pretty cool and I'll probably keep it.......
Now, if I could figger out a way to get my photos onto a posting......anyone want to start a thread on that?
SC

[ArmOnFire]

As long as the pic is under 500 KB (see the small text at the bottom of the blue box when you reply;

Attach:, click the browse radio button (Silver button that says:Browse)

Essentially you use a windows explorer "window" to find the picture you want to post. (See picture below)

As long as it isn't too big so radair doesn't hunt you down, you are posting pics like a pro.

What's that? All your pictures are really big, well go to Irfan View (http://www.irfanview.com/) which is a free image editting tool, to resize your pictures.
That is the next lesson.

[radair]

Anyone have a gmail invite they can send me?

The only things worse than big pics are big avatars!

[ArmOnFire]

Rob,

I'd be more than happy to send you an invite.

Look for a e-mail from "armonfire@gmail.com".

-Dan

[PutAwayWet]

Yeah gmail! Now they have chat too. I'll never get any work done!!!