Free E-mail Accounts

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Virtually every Internet Service Provider will give a free e-mail account with their service. Likewise, if you buy a hosting package for a domain address, the web host will usually throw in e-mail support and accounts.

Neither of these services will be covered in this section. Instead the free webmail services, such as Gmail will be explained and explored. Webmail uses a browser to access e-mail, instead of a stand alone client program. The advantage of webmail is that a user can access their mail from any computer connected to the Internet. It also offers improved anonymity and the ability to create multiple accounts.

Hotmail was one of the first webmail services launched (1996). It was soon purchased by Microsoft a year later. Hotmail has went on to become one of the most popular webmail services, especially when they linked it to their instant messaging service. Free webmail did initially suffer from poor spam filtering, virus detection, additional services, and storage capacity. Hotmail and Yahoo mail required users to purchase their premium service to get improved functions and support.

The webmail landscape was revolutionised by the launch of Gmail in 2004. Google's service was free, but offered the storage capacity and functions of paid services. While Hotmail etc, were offered 2-4mb of storage on their free accounts, Gmail was offering 1GB. This resulted in existing free e-mail providers quickly increasing their level of storage to compete with Gmail.

List of free e-mail providers,

(The below data is valid for 29/06/09)

Resources: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/email6.htm, http://www.internet-guide.co.uk/free-email-accounts.html, http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html