What is the best web based email?

[grl]

Good afternoon,

My current email address is getting spammed to death and it is time to get a new one. This is not too much of a problem as I know those people that I need to give a new address to so there is not a problem of losing contact with people.

What I would like to know is what email provider I should use?

Hotmail, yahoo, gmail, other ?

I am currently using hotmail which is ok, but it would be appreciated if people could let me know their thoughts on which is the best.

Thanks

[Lucas]

Gmail is my favorite. Not only do you have a ridiculous amount of storage (almost 5 gigs now?), which you can use as storage with a simple FireFox plugin.

The spam filters on it are incredibly effective.

Gmail also offers features that you have to pay for at Yahoo, like for instance the ability to use a POP mail client. Gmail also allows you to use IT as a POP mail client, receiving mail from other mail accounts as well as being able to send mail as those other accounts.

I especially like the way it stores email conversations almost like a forum thread, so you don't have 100 emails stacked on top of each other.

[Caveman Joe]

Another vote for GMail here.
It's got IMAP as well as POP support, which is fantastic for E-mail on my phone.

[jcase4]

another +1 for GMail. The web client is great and with the new, free imap support you can use it transparently with just about any mail application including those on many mobile phones. Windows Live Mail would be my second choice.

[schola]

another vote for gmail

[Brutha]

Gmail, google is just more truthworthy than either microsoft, yahoo or aol.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Gmail, google is just more truthworthy than either microsoft, yahoo or aol.

It's funny, I feel that yahoo is more trustworthy then google...! I'd love to know why google is more trustworthy, as I feel gmail is better then yahoo mail.

[balexmills]

Gmail, hands down.

[John P]

Gmail, definitely.

Out of 300+ spam emails every month, only one (maybe two on a bad month) will actually make it to my inbox. After having tried several online email accounts (and having to leave them due to spam), it's been great to have Gmail and not have to deal with that at all.

[jbischke]

Piling on.

Gmail.

Learn the shortcuts.

Install Better Gmail.

Be happy.

[openeyes]

also Gmail.

[jwz]

Gmail rocks!

Get gmail, then use thunderbird/WinMail/Outlook to check mail.

[Gene]

I will add my voice to those who like gmail for a web based email solution.

[xander3]

I would like to suggest use of a disposable email service (DEA) and Fastmail(.fm). A Disposable Email is like a virtual email address that you give people - messages are then forwarded to your real email address. Any spam? - then delete/retire your disposable address.

I use both - specifically Emailias.com - and consider myself unlucky if I get 1 spam message a month.

I've used Spamgourmet DEA service as it is free but is far from usable. I moved from Aliencamel.com to Fastmail ago and am very happy with it.

I've not used Yahoo/Hotmail for a number of years now although I do keep a Gmail account open.

I don't get paid for recommendations to either company mentioned - just telling you what works well for me. It may not be quite as simple as using 1 single email address for everything but there you go. . .

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by xander3

I would like to suggest use of a disposable email service (DEA) and Fastmail(.fm). A Disposable Email is like a virtual email address that you give people - messages are then forwarded to your real email address. Any spam? - then delete/retire your disposable address.

I use both - specifically Emailias.com - The Dedicated Email Address Service - and consider myself unlucky if I get 1 spam message a month.

I've used Spamgourmet DEA service as it is free but is far from usable. I moved from Aliencamel.com to Fastmail ago and am very happy with it.

I've not used Yahoo/Hotmail for a number of years now although I do keep a Gmail account open.

I don't get paid for recommendations to either company mentioned - just telling you what works well for me. It may not be quite as simple as using 1 single email address for everything but there you go. . .

So when you dispose of that email, what becomes of all those people who have that email in regards to contacting you?

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Lucas

So when you dispose of that email, what becomes of all those people who have that email in regards to contacting you?

They evaporate.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Gmail, FTW. I actually have to be careful to check in the spam folder every once in a while to make sure I'm not missing something I actually want. I've never had a single spam message in my inbox.

At Yahoo mail, I get spam in my inbox all the time. And I haven't signed up using that email for anything in over a year! I think AT&T might be selling my address or something!

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by seeker5

They evaporate.

Well, that sounds like a plan.


Yahoo email sucks, imo, not just because the spam filters are nonexistant, but because they charge you 20 bucks a year if you want to use POP or IMAP

[Hugh Hollowell]

Count me in the Gmail pile.

[Dan.Linehan]

Yep, gmail by a landslide.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Lucas

Yahoo email sucks, imo, not just because the spam filters are nonexistant, but because they charge you 20 bucks a year if you want to use POP or IMAP

Well, I've had yahoo for about 10 years, and I remember when they did allow POP for free. So when it comes to gmail, while it does allow POP for free now, I can't help but wonder how long that will last.

[sunj]

The best thing about gmail is that it auto-saves your emails when you are writing them. So it anything happens, pc crashes, you accidentally close it, when you go back, it will still be there with the last auto-save that it did. I think it auto-saves 30 secs after you pause typing.

[shnu]

I think GMail is the best engineered free mail offering out there, but there are a couple of issues with it:

1. You don't own the data, and you have no legal recourse if they mess up or lose your data;
2. You are giving Google an awful lot of your personal data to analyse how they please, and they know more about data mining than anyone else.

Basically, I think you have to trust Google a fair bit to use GMail. That said, they are less likely to lose your data than most people will be with a self-administered machine.

web.de offer a free email service with both POP and IMAP, which I have used without problems for years (as well as a GMail account, and an email server i run myself).

[Brutha]

You don't own the data, and you have no legal recourse if they mess up or lose your data;

Backup your data, pop3 gives you the option to do that easily with gmail. You can also autoforward every message to an yahoo account to backup your data there.

It's funny, I feel that yahoo is more trustworthy then google...!

Google got a lot of bad press for being transparent about what they do with your gmail data at a time where the other mail providers did the same thing but weren't as transparent.

If you want you can also open additional GMail accounts/or any account that has pop3 as throwaway addresses, and pick that mail up with your main Gmail account.

[andrew]

Gmail.

It's so good, it raised the bar silly high, esp with free storage. What are we up to now, 5GB free?

[seeker5]

Heh, you guys are getting me to rethink my position on yahoo mail.

[{aspiring_to_clarity}]

Really, you should.

[xander3]

@ Lucas #15


When u dispose of the email address, you have 3 choices:

1. Disable the address: All emails sent are not received by you, they are not bounced back to the sender either. Emailias, the company delete those emails and that is that. The email address can be re-enabled again as you wish. You will then start agin to receive emails to that address.

2. Delete the address: You don't get any more emails - this time this is no way back. Once the email address is deleted that is it.

3. Retire the address: A new address is generated once the old one has attracted too much spam. All this ensures that people you are corresponding with can continue only with an updated address to contact you on.

There's a bit more to it than that but I guess that's a start.

[shnu]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Backup your data, pop3 gives you the option to do that easily with gmail. You can also autoforward every message to an yahoo account to backup your data there.

Of course, if you are after high-reliability, there is no recourse if GMail fails to forward your data.

The issue is not just speculative. A poster pointed out the tools that exist to use GMail as an offline backup medium. Doing this puts you out of your Terms of Service, and accounts have been yanked for doing just this.

Originally Posted by Brutha

Google got a lot of bad press for being transparent about what they do with your gmail data at a time where the other mail providers did the same thing but weren't as transparent.

Google have been about the most ethical player in the unethical world of data-mining, but they are in a far better position (knowledge, resources) than others to misuse what they have, and they have got things wrong before.

My point is not to say not to use the service (I use it), but that I think it is important for people to be aware that this is not like getting an email account with AOL in some important respects: if AOL yanks your account for violating the TOS, you are in a much better position to complain about it.

[Brutha]

Originally Posted by shnu

Of course, if you are after high-reliability, there is no recourse if GMail fails to forward your data.

If you backup something you should check from time to time if the backup is right.

The issue is not just speculative. A poster pointed out the tools that exist to use GMail as an offline backup medium. Doing this puts you out of your Terms of Service, and accounts have been yanked for doing just this.

There is a difference between backing up your mail per pop3 and using a third party tool to use googles space to backup other tools.

Google have been about the most ethical player in the unethical world of data-mining, but they are in a far better position (knowledge, resources) than others to misuse what they have, and they have got things wrong before.

You don't need that much resouces to abuse data. Whether AOL, Yahoo or MSN, they all have large data centers and can practially match google in datamining of an emailaccount.

if AOL yanks your account for violating the TOS, you are in a much better position to complain about it.

Complaining about it doesn't help you much if AOL screwed up your data (or releases it to the whole internet like the did which their search querys but that another point about AOL).