Free email services are in abundance all over web. There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of different services to help you with your messages. Why do companies provide these services? Because they can sell advertising space, and they have several ways to do it. - They can append a small ad to each email message which is sent or received
- They can display banners
- Their sites can issue popup windows with advertisements
Why would you want to use a free email service? Probably most important reason is simply to help you with spam. You can use a web based free email account to receive messages from signups to various services. Then, you can access account only when necessary for service. This way, any spam messages will be directed to free mailbox, which you do not use very often if at all.
Another great reason to use these services is to be able to pick up your email from your browser. This is great for when you are traveling or on those occasions when you want to read your home email when at work (see "Is surfing internet safe at work?")
Each of four basic types of email services are described below, along with some examples of some of free services that are available.
Web Based Email - These services allow you to retrieve, send and manage your email from your browser. In general, services are advertising (banner) supported, although most offer an ad free paid version of some kind.
Hotmail.Com http://www.hotmail.com The first and oldest web-based email system. Good interface, reliable and reasonably fast.
Mail.Com http://www.mail.com/mailcom/login.jhtml Probably best free web-based email service available. Choose from dozens of different email domains. Very easy to use and flexible. Premium service is available at a low cost.
Startrekmail http://www.startrekmail.com/member/login.page Create your own Star Trek email address. Choose from many domains, including:
@StarTrek.com @USSEnterprise.com @Klingons.com @HesDeadJim.com @ToBoldlyGo.com @DeepSpaceNine.com
Yahoo Mail http://mail.yahoo.com/ Another popular, nice email system. Lots of features, very reliable and fast.
POP Email Services - POP email is virtually always supplied as part of services you receive from your web host and ISP. Your messages are stored on a server, and you use your email client (Outlook, Outlook Express or Eudora, for example) to send, receive and manage your messages.
E-OmniNet http://eo.yifan.net/ E-Omninet provides online services of all kinds with a single account. It includes file manager, address book, bookmarks, solar and lunar calendars plus event reminder, free POP3 email and web hosting.
Mail Options http://www.mailops.com/ Provides mail and news access in a web based browser. Mail is stored on a POP server.