Webmail

Best free webmail

Reviewers are split between Yahoo! Mail and Gmail as the best free e-mail service. In the end, the two are so closely matched that the choice ultimately comes down to user preference. In a review for Tech Crunch, Michael Arrington summarizes the choice this way: "If you are looking for speed and tagging is important, Gmail is for you. If you are looking for the closest thing to Outlook online, go with Yahoo! Mail."

Google's Gmail, which had famously been in beta since being launched in 2004, recently launched version 2.0. The new version was subtly rolled out to users with little fanfare. According to reports, it's faster than the previous form, and it incorporates a new version of Picasa Web Albums for organizing photos. Officially, Gmail is still in beta, though the term is practically meaningless in this case.

Heinz Tschabitscher, About.com's Guide to E-mail, says that Gmail delivers what users have come to expect from Google -- "search, simplicity and speed." Tschabitscher's observation sums up the majority of reviewers' comments on Gmail. Along with speed and simplicity, Gmail also offers clever organizational tools that let users "star" and label messages, as well as organize threads of messages into conversations. It's a novel way of organizing an inbox, and no other webmail service takes the same approach.

That's good and bad for Gmail, which has far fewer users than Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail. The unique layout takes some getting used to, reviewers say, and some may not want to make the jump. For people seeking a webmail service that more closely resembles Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail or AOL AIM Mail might make for a more enjoyable experience -- at least initially.

Gmail, however, is flexible. You can access your webmail in several ways. You can, of course, use a browser (Gmail supports five browsers), but Gmail also gives you options for downloading messages into an e-mail client such as Outlook Express. You can also forward all your Gmail to another e-mail account, and you can setup Gmail to notify you when you have new messages, even when you are not logged in.

Gmail is one of only two free webmail services (AOL AIM Mail is the other) that offer free POP and IMAP access, which allow users to check their e-mail from a desktop e-mail program such as Outlook or Outlook Express. One review notes this is a way around having to look at advertisements while checking your e-mail. Yahoo! Mail offers POP access for a fee and IMAP access for AT&T mobile customers. Windows Live Hotmail doesn't allow POP or IMAP access.

Gmail now has an integrated chat feature, similar to its stand-alone Google Chat application. However, the Gmail chat feature is actually embedded in the e-mail interface. If you're using a remote computer, for instance, you can actually chat through Gmail without having to download a separate application. Gmail recently added AIM compatibility to its chat tools, allowing users to import their buddy lists and to chat outside of AIM.

Google's service also offers a new way of handling your chats and instant messaging within the e-mail function. The service lets you turn your inbox into a "searchable database," with tools that make it easy to label and track any message. Gmail tracks message threads, organizing them as one ongoing conversation rather than a lot of individual e-mails. Instead of just organizing messages into folders as Outlook does, Gmail invites users to label their mail with relevant titles such as "family" or "house project," which you can then use to sort and scan mail and chat sessions.

Virus protection targets the most pervasive viruses and worms that arrive in the form of executable files. No executable attachments are accepted at all. Gmail's rules-based spam filter relies on a list of known spammers and contextual spamming. Experts say it does a decent job filtering most spam, but it can occasionally mislabel a legitimate message as spam. Users can scan a spam folder for any missed mail. Gmail deletes spam after 30 days.

Gmail's method of serving contextually relevant ads first attracted a lot of attention in the press, the concern being that automatic scanning of private communication threatened individual privacy. Gmail's website claims that all e-mail is scanned by a computer, not a human. Gmail's system scans each message for keywords and then places relevant text-based ads in the user's browser on the right side of the screen. Gmail does not display any advertising inside your outgoing e-mails.

Many users may not mind having all their incoming e-mails scanned by intelligent machines that will serve ads to them on the very topics being discussed inside those e-mails. But from a privacy point of view, this practice can be considered invasive. After all, machines read all our e-mails now simply in order to send and receive them as well as scan for spam. Moreover, those worried about security should know that servers currently monitor most e-mail. The only way to ensure complete privacy of one's e-mail is to encrypt it, so that no one else is able to read it, but only one webmail service provides this function, Hushmail (discussed below).

Like Gmail, the new version of Yahoo! Mail uses Ajax technology to provide interactive features, and its three-pane window looks a lot like the Outlook Express desktop e-mail client. Yahoo! lets you read a message in one window while still being able to view your inbox. Reviews also like another unique Yahoo! Mail feature -- tabbed messages. When you click "reply" or "forward," a new tabbed window opens. You can type a message, and refer back to other e-mails by clicking other tabs -- that means it's easy to start an e-mail, pause, and finish it later. Other programs, such as Gmail, force you to finish or abort the message if you want to return to your inbox or read another message. Furthermore, Yahoo! Mail lets you drag and drop messages into folders, much as you can do with a desktop application.

Reviews like Yahoo! Mail just as much as Gmail -- and sometimes more. PC Magazine, which reviewed Yahoo! Mail in October 2007, calls the service the "webmail client to beat." Reviewer Michael Muchmore likes the service's preview pane, which allows you to read a message without opening it, which is similar to Outlook. Editors also appreciate Yahoo!'s drop-and-drag functionality, tabs to be able to open several messages at once and a clean interface, despite multiple features. The service also leads others in integrating SMS text and instant messenger with e-mail messages.

Disadvantages include advertising -- there are more ads on Yahoo! Mail, and they're graphical rather than text ads. Also, reviewers note that when you sign into Yahoo! Mail you don't go straight to your inbox. Instead, Yahoo! sends you to a home screen with news headlines, links and, of course, more ads.

Another criticism of Yahoo! is that while you can choose to download Gmail messages to Outlook Express or Outlook, the free version of Yahoo! won't let you do that -- you'd have to sign up for the Yahoo! Mail Plus paid service (*est. $20 per year). You can, however, setup Yahoo! to check other POP mail accounts (like Gmail). Downloading mail into an e-mail client is a helpful feature; it lets you read and write mail offline, as well as archive your mail on your hard drive rather than on the e-mail provider's servers.

Though it ranks behind others in most webmail reviews, Windows Live Hotmail gets a solid review from Which? magazine, scoring well ahead of Gmail and AIM Mail. Microsoft's latest webmail service is considered a great improvement over the original Hotmail, with features such as drag-and-drop folders and 5 GB of storage -- until recently the most out of any of the top services. Reviewers suggest the most recent version of Hotmail shows promise of new features to come. PC Magazine rates the new Hotmail highly; it shares an Editor's Choice rating with Yahoo! Mail.

AOL AIM Mail comes in second at About.com and gets several strong reviews -- though few say it's the best webmail service overall. AIM Mail offers unlimited storage, a smart interface and both POP and IMAP access for free. It also has strong spam protection, a weakness of AOL in the past. The lack of features and organizational tools, plus a terrible experience from CNet's reviewer trying to open an account, holds it back from passing Yahoo! Mail and Gmail, but the service is much improved.

Smaller services offer some unique features

We found some reviews for some smaller services, which have some interesting features, including stepped up security, additional flexibility and more.

Lycos isn't often reviewed, but it's unusual in that it allows unlimited file-size attachments to messages. That's an interesting feature no one else matches, and it could be useful to anyone who sends movies, photos or other large files by e-mail. Gmail has an attachment limit of 20 MB, while both Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail have limits of 10 MB for their free services. AIM Mail limits attachments to 16 MB.

FastMail's free account comes with just a 10 MB mailbox, which can be upgraded to 2 GB for $35 per month. The service offers a unique feature, however. You can choose from dozens of domain names if fastmail.fm doesn't appeal to you, including mailmight.com, reallyfast.biz, speedpost.net and speedymail.org.

Hushmail.com is the solution for those who need or want the utmost privacy. The Canadian company encrypts all messages and makes it near impossible for hackers to access them. The service took a hit in November 2007, however, when it revealed that it could, and would, turn over e-mails if ordered by the British Columbia Supreme Court. The news upset some privacy advocates, but the company openly discussed the situation in an article in Wired Magazine, stating they would not protect people engaged in illegal activity through their e-mail.

The company's candor in discussing the matter was applauded, however, because most webmail services and Internet providers will not reveal even basic information about what information they collect from users. If you're concerned about security, all of the major services collect some data on you. As for what they do with it, no one is certain.

Bear in mind that if you already have an e-mail account with your Internet service provider (ISP), nearly all of them have some provision for collecting your mail over the web if you're away from home. If all you want is easy access to your account when you are away from your desk, you probably don't need an additional web e-mail service.

Important Features: Webmail

Here's what the experts recommend you consider when choosing a webmail service:

• Storage space. This isn't a concern anymore. Yahoo! Mail has unlimited storage, while Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail both offer 5 GB and counting -- more than enough space for even heavy e-mail users.

• POP/IMAP access. While the services are running even in the features race, and adding more by the month, a key difference is POP/IMAP access. POP and IMAP allow users to access their web-based e-mail through a desktop client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. There is a difference between POP and IMAP. POP is the traditional method for accessing e-mail. IMAP is a newer version that synchronizes e-mail between a web-based service and a desktop service. For example, if you're using IMAP and delete an e-mail in Outlook, it will also be deleted on your webmail account. POP does not have the same synchronization. Gmail and AIM Mail offer both for free. Yahoo! Mail charges a fee for POP access and provides IMAP access only for mobile devices using AT&T's EDGE network, including the iPhone. POP and IMAP are not available in Windows Live Hotmail.

• Spam filtering. Professionals warn that spam can easily accumulate to fill up your mailbox and can be exhausting to handle. Most e-mail providers offer some sort of protection against junk e-mail, but not all spam filters are equal. Filtering programs that can plug into your desktop e-mail client will not help you when you use a web interface, so you will have to rely on your e-mail provider's filtering system. Most services have some kind of spam filter. In tests, reviewers like Gmail but are mixed on Yahoo! Mail's filter.

• Forwarding and reply-to settings. If you only intend to use your webmail account occasionally, experts say that the option to automatically forward incoming messages to an address you check more frequently is essential. Also important is the ability to set the reply-to line in your outgoing messages to a different address, so that anyone who responds to your message by hitting the Reply button will actually reach you at your more-frequently-used address.

• Speed. With the services evening out in terms of features, the amount of time it takes to login and check messages is an important consideration according to several reviewers. Most say that Gmail's stripped down design gives it the edge on speed.

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

# of Picks	Model	Price
6	Yahoo! Mail	Free; $20 annually for Plus version
6	Gmail	Free
2	Windows Live Hotmail	Free
1 each	Hushmail, AIM Mail

Thanks to its speed and flexibility, Google's Gmail still tops Yahoo! Mail in most reviews. However, advertising-related issues give some critics and subscribers pause. Yahoo! Mail's interface might be more familiar to most users, making it easier to use. Many experts now agree that the two services are near equals in ease of use.

 

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