I will like to start with the 3 email services that I have been using for long time - Gmail Beta (GB), Yahoo Beta (YB) and Hotmail Beta (HB - also known as Live Mail).

GB provides 2.65 GB of space till date. YB - 1 GB where as HB provides 2 GB but out of these 3, only GB is live and you can get GB account over phone or by invitation whereas in case of YB and HB, you need to be on the waiting list unless you use hacks (which are illegal) to get the account.

GB is compatible with most of the browsers including IE, Firefox, Netscape, Opera & Safari. YB is compatible with IE, Firefox and Opera. YB opens its simple interface in Netscape. And in case of HB, it is fully functional in IE. HB has included few features recently in order to make it compatible with Firefox but still all of its features don't work in Firefox.

The organization of mails in GB can be done through labels where as in case of both YB & HB, it is through folders.

YB & HB provides spell checking in IE whereas GB provides spell checking in multiple browsers and that too for dozen of languages.

GB & YB allows POP option whereas HB doesn't provide it.

The unique feature provided by YB & HB is that you can drag mails and drop them in appropriate locations whereas this feature is missing in GB.


All said, in my view, GB is still far ahead as compared to YB and HB. I think, it is the best and most reliable mail service these days.

 

 

 

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I use GB, and I agree it's a good email serivce. However, i've heard that they give out your information, hence the amount of spam you get (It might just be me, but I get loads, and I don't randomly give out my email address). I was wondering if this rumour was true, or are you unsure?

Although, saying that, I still think it's a good email service. It's faster than Hotmail (Not tired Yahoo) and isn't clogged up with stuff, and has lots of free space. I'd recommend it any day

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I use google beta free e-mail service, and i used to use hotmail and then i passed to yahoo mail, but now, most of the times, i use none of the 3 free e-mail services, now i use my own applications.

Now, i am using this programs, which doesn't need smtp or pop3 protocols from online free or pay services like gmail, yahoo mail or hotmail:

Advanced Emailer
Advanced SMTP Server (My personal smtp protocol)

With this 2 tools, i can send emails with my own smtp protocol, so i don't need any of the 3 free e-mail services, i just need to open the advanced emailer program, then i configure the smtp settings (i just need to insert a word which is "localhost", and then i create my mailing lists, then i create the text or html messages, add or not add attachements, and click send).

To receive emails, i use gmail with the tool "google talk", google talk allows me to know when new emails arrive to my gmail account inbox, and i also can chat or instant message with other gmail users that use google talk program.

This way, using this tools, i don't take too much of my memory (RAM), and i don't take the risk of people catching emails i am sending because i use my own smtp protocol program.

And there's also much more advantages of using this tools insted of using free e-mail services to send emails.

 

 

 

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gmail rocks it for me. For chat, talk, pop and forwarding. Im had all of them and G is the winner. Google offers more storage for your email than other Internet service providers that we know about. The powerful searching encourages account holders to never delete anything. It's easier to just leave it in the inbox and let the powerful searching keep track of it. Google admits that deleted messages will remain on their system, and may be accessible internally at Google, for an indefinite period of time.

A new California law, the Online Privacy Protection Act, went into effect on July 1, 2004. Google changed their main privacy policy that same day because the previous version sidestepped important issues and might have been illegal. For the first time in Google's history, the language in their new policy made it clear that they will be pooling all the information they collect on you from all of their various services. Moreover, they may keep this information indefinitely, and give this information to whomever they wish. All that's required is for Google to "have a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users or the public." Google, you may recall, already believes that as a corporation they are utterly incapable of bad faith. Their corporate motto is "Don't be evil," and they even made sure that the Securities and Exchange Commission got this message in Google's IPO filing.

Google's policies are essentially no different than the policies of Microsoft, Yahoo, Alexa and Amazon. However, these others have been spelling out their nasty policies in detail for years now. By way of contrast, we've had email from indignant Google fans who defended Google by using the old privacy language — but while doing so they arrived at exactly the wrong interpretation of Google's actual position! Now those emails will stop, because Google's position is clear at last. It's amazing how a vague privacy policy, a minimalist browser interface, and an unconventional corporate culture have convinced so many that Google is different on issues that matter.

After 180 days in the U.S., email messages lose their status as a protected communication under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and become just another database record. This means that a subpoena instead of a warrant is all that's needed to force Google to produce a copy. Other countries may even lack this basic protection, and Google's databases are distributed all over the world. Since the Patriot Act was passed, it's unclear whether this ECPA protection is worth much anymore in the U.S., or whether it even applies to email that originates from non-citizens in other countries.

Google's relationships with government officials in all of the dozens of countries where they operate are a mystery, because Google never makes any statements about this. But here's a clue: Google uses the term "governmental request" three times on their terms-of-use page and once on their privacy page. Google's language means that all Gmail account holders have consented to allow Google to show any and all email in their Gmail accounts to any official from any government whatsoever, even when the request is informal or extralegal, at Google's sole discretion. Why should we send email to Gmail accounts under such draconian conditions?

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i use hotmail googlemail and freeola mail
One feature i like about gmail is when i go to my homepage (google) i can see if i have any new emails and the 2gb of storage is nice. does anyone know why they changed the suffix from
@gmail.com
to
@googlemail.com

I dont like the latter as much and that is my account suffix

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I originally started with Yahoo Mail, then moved on to Hotmail, but have not tried either bata of each of those mails, because most recently I found out about Gmail's beta, and have fallen in love with it.

At first the no folder's thing threw me for a loop, but I got over it, once I relized how lables do the same thing, but are better, because it means I can put each message into more than one "folder" at a time. I really like that. Plus, the amout of space that they give you is incredible, and I've had barely no problems trying to send attachments because they give you lots of room to play around there. Much more than my previous accounts.

I also like the fact that you can get a Gmail account much easier than the others, because they seem to be "less live" than the Gmail bata at the moment.

One thing I didn't know about is the drag and drop thing. It sounds like a nice feature, but since I like to be able to put my emails into more than one folder on most occasions, I don't think I'd really be able to do that with a system that could use drag and drop. Plus, using a drop down menu might even be easier than dragging something across the page.

Anyway, I haven't checked out the others so I can't be certain, but I like Gmail so much, I have my plans set with staying in that account anyway lol...

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I, personally, cannot stand Hotmail nor Yahoo mail. I love Gmail though. I also have an extension for Firefox called Gmail Space that makes Gmail act as more of an FTP server so I can back up a lot of my stuff using the 2.6~ gigs Gmail gives you. I don't really use Gmail as an email server, so I'm not too worried about my name and email address being exploited. I do use it to sign up for services though, such as Trap17. But honestly, I've grown to expect exploitation from even the most secure sites on the internet.

Yahoo is definately my least favorite of the three. I don't like Yahoo mail, I don't like Yahoo hosting, and I don't even like Yahoo search. The only thing I EVER use Yahoo for is to quickly find out what time a movie is playing at my local theatre. And that's only because I live in a small city and the theatre doesn't have their own website.

Hotmail, I suppose, can be trusted. But as does everything else Microsoft runs (especially the MSDN script database), it works best in Internet Explorer. And I'm a Firefox guy, and a big fan of CSS2 (which IE cannot interpret). But Hotmail was where I got my first email address, which I still use today for backup. But one hillarious thing I've found with Hotmail is they limit the number of addresses you can block, and my block list is full. But I suppose I don't like Hotmail mainly because I don't like Microsoft (not to say I like Macintosh any more. I can't stand either one of them. I <3 Linux), even though I'm slowly becoming more infatuated with Windows Vista. But back on-topic; I also recall Hotmail being strict on the size of attachments. And I haven't had that problem at all with Gmail.

But the only way to get a Gmail address is the be referred, or call Google. Or, as I did, get lucky enough to find a link on Google's main page to sign up. But why is Gmail so restricted if the only big difference they have to offer is exploitations? I suppose being part of a restricted community just kind of makes you feel special

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I must admit Lycos's new interface and 3 GB of space is pretty good. My only gripe is the fact they don't offer POP access for the free accounts.

Hotmail is fine if you mind the spam. I consider it average in today's email services. It might be worth it for MSN messenger.

Gmail is a good choice with its space and spam filtration system. A must if you can get one.

Yahoo is good for starters at 1 GB with decent filters. Again no POP access.

Overall Lycos, Gmail, and Yahoo have very competitive service, for those who don't have a cell phone or have never heard of gmail, that is...

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