| Most of the people on the planet use the email | | | | Believe me it is a major hassle tochange an email |
| accounts thatcome with their internet provider | | | | address. |
| service for their personalemail. These are included in | | | | I know this, because I recently changed from my |
| the price of the service, so mostpeople just use | | | | Pacbell accountto a personal mailbox which I |
| them because they don't know any better. I'dguess | | | | purchased from everyone.net. Ittook me over two |
| that outside of such services as AOL, WebTV and | | | | months to notify everyone of the change, and |
| the like,virtually everyone just uses an email client | | | | I'm sure I missed a few on the way. |
| such as Outlook | | | | The free web based email accounts do not have |
| Express and their ISP's included email accounts. | | | | that disadvantage |
| When I began on the internet, I simply used my AOL | | | | (unless, of course, the web based service folds or |
| account tocollect my email. It was simple (far simpler | | | | changes insome way), but their are good reasons not |
| than just aboutanything else, actually) because is was | | | | to use them for normalcorrespondence. |
| included with the AOLpackage. Once you set up AOL | | | | First of all, my own personal opinion that using |
| there was no configuration of anykind. You just used | | | | Hotmail or oneof the other big, well-known email |
| the email browser and you were all set. | | | | services is just plain, well,tacky. It strikes me like |
| After I moved to Pacbell, I simply began using the | | | | eating imitation crab meat orsomething - it just feels |
| Pacbell emailaccount that was provided as part of the | | | | low-class. I know other people feelthis way as well - |
| service. It's simple,after all, and better yet, it doesn't | | | | how seriously do you take something receivedfrom a |
| cost anything at all. | | | | Hotmail address verses a more unique domain name? |
| Later, like many people, I learned about services such | | | | And Idon't mean to pick on Hotmail - all of the big, |
| as | | | | free, web-basedemail suffers from the same |
| Hotmail, Yahoo mail and Excite mail. I got very | | | | perceptions. |
| excited, becausethese services solved several | | | | This makes a well known, web-based email account |
| problems for me. | | | | very unsuitablefor any kind of real business. People |
| First and most importantly, by using my Hotmail | | | | are so used to getting spamfrom these places that |
| account I couldreceive and send email from | | | | they will often delete the message unreadunless they |
| everywhere that had web access. Whilein theory I | | | | absolutely know who the source of the message is. |
| could do the same with my Pacbell account, it was | | | | Excluding things like FFA submissions, these email |
| ahassle. Hotmail neatly solved that problem. True, the | | | | accountsshould never be used for legitimate business |
| webinterface was no where near as nice as that | | | | purposes. |
| provided by Outlook | | | | Another major disadvantage is that you are at the |
| Express, but it was usable and convenient. | | | | mercy of thebig company hosting the email. They |
| On top of that, as I began promoting my own web | | | | want to make money,naturally, and they must do |
| sites, I foundthat there are good reasons not to use | | | | something in exchange for givingyou free email. Most |
| your own private emailaccount. I learned the hard | | | | of the services simply post advertisements,although |
| way, of course, by submitting mysite to one of | | | | some also require you to view popup ads or |
| those FFA services and using my own personal | | | | receiveoccasional spam emails. (I refer to these as |
| emailaccount address. I must have received 10,000 | | | | spam emails becausethey are undesired by virtually |
| emails in a periodof a couple of hours! All junk (the | | | | everyone and usually people treatthem like spam - |
| reason FFA lists exist is inexchange for a link the list | | | | they just have to be received to get the |
| owner gets to send you one or morepromotional | | | | freeservice). |
| email messages) and most even downright silly. | | | | Personally, there are no conditions that I would use |
| Yearslater I was still getting an occasional email | | | | Hotmail inthe future due to their requirement that |
| message as a resultof that one mistake. | | | | you sign up for apassport account. There are many |
| The next time I submitted to an FFA list (before I | | | | security concerns with using |
| learned howsilly these things are) I got a little smarter | | | | Microsoft Passport (not the least of which is that |
| and opened a | | | | Microsoft'strack record is abysmal as regards security |
| Hotmail account. All of the email messages were | | | | and privacy) andadditionally a real trepidation at giving |
| directed to thatmailbox, which I deleted a few days | | | | a large corporationsuch control over my information. |
| later. This saved me fromgetting tons of spam and | | | | So what would I recommend? There are many email |
| wading through an incredible number ofabsolutely | | | | servicesavailable at a very reasonable price which |
| useless junk. | | | | give you everythingyou could possibly want. Probably |
| The final problem was anonymity. There are times on | | | | the best and most reasonablypriced service I have |
| the internetwhen not giving out one's personal email | | | | found is from everyone.net. You get 10email |
| address is a good idea. | | | | accounts (whose names are completely under your |
| I found the email boxes at were perfect for | | | | control)for about $40 a year (100mb of storage) - |
| thispurpose. It requires only a few minutes to create | | | | and this even includesyour own domain name! The |
| a mailbox whichis more-or-less untraceable. While I | | | | service provides both POP and web-basedemail, and |
| have not had any real usefor this kind of anonymity, | | | | has an array of features which make it very useful. |
| I mention it because it is one majorreason some | | | | Additionally, since you are directly paying for the |
| people use free email accounts. | | | | service (andwhat better relationship is there in |
| Ah, but there are some disadvantages to using free | | | | business than the "customerdirectly pays vendor who |
| emailaccounts. First off, the ISP based email account's | | | | provides service" business model), youdon't have to |
| majordisadvantage is simply that it is linked to your | | | | view banners, you don't get popup ads and you |
| ISP. If youmove or change ISP's, then you have to | | | | don'tneed to receive spam emails. |
| change your email address. | | | | And believe me, that's the best reason of all to use a |
| This means changing every newsletter that you | | | | servicesuch as everyone.net's paid email accounts - |
| receive, everyproduct update, notifying every friend | | | | no stupidadvertisements which I don't want, don't |
| and other person who sendsyou email, and so forth. | | | | need and will never havea use for. |