Why aren't there any self-hosted options? There is a rich selection of webmail programs that can be installed on one's own server. For example, many people here have probably used Squirrelmail and Horde (shudder) at some time in their lives.
Zarafa and Atmail also look pretty good and I'd love to hear from anyone who is using either of them.
I use Roundcube when I'm away from my own computer. Usermin is also very useful when testing accounts on my server, but I can't imagine using it as a primary webmail client.
How intelligent is the spam filter? I'm getting some spam from websites (like myspace) that I actually would want to get certain types of emails from, so I can't totally block them. Would gmail's filter be effective with these types of emails?
I have used Yahoo! since 1996 (originally a free Geocities POP3 account), and am currently using a paid account.
I find it much superior to Gmail. Their beta AJAX web interface has the look and feel of a full desktop mail client, and is very similar to Thunderbird. Yahoo!'s AddressGuard feature is extremely useful - Google has nothing really comparable. The only drawback is that Yahoo! does not yet offer IMAP.
I use Google for my calendar and contacts (and use the Google exchange server to sync both of these to my phone).
It doesn't bother you that they essentially charge you for POP3 access?
That's what put me over the edge from Y! to Gmail - I wanted to use an email application (Thunderbird, actually) to manage multiple email accounts. And now I'm mostly using IMAP for better accessibility
I wasn't aware that POP3 wasn't offered on free accounts. Even so, it's only $15 per year, and the other features a paid account enables are worth it. Nothing wrong with paying for added value. :)
I actually use several email addresses. Hotmail is what I mainly use. I have a yahoo address that I got for playing chess online, but I never check it. I also have gmail, but that one is rarely used, mainly because I don't get a lot of emails there. I also use Outlook a lot because that is what my school uses. And of course I use mailinator for signing up for throwaway website accounts.
Stuck with it due to incumbency, and a vague feeling [call me paranoid] that since I already use Google for so many other things, if they could also data-mine my email, they'd know almost everything about me. I don't [knowingly] use Yahoo for anything except email.
Zarafa and Atmail also look pretty good and I'd love to hear from anyone who is using either of them.
I use Roundcube when I'm away from my own computer. Usermin is also very useful when testing accounts on my server, but I can't imagine using it as a primary webmail client.