free e-mail

[mylungswereaching]

I've had yahoo e-mail for more than 10 years and I'm looking to get a new e-mail account. I originally chose yahoo because it was simple, free and did nothing but e-mail. Over the years, it has added a lot of new and useless to me features. It's trying to force everyone to switch to the newest version that I can't stand so I'm starting the process to switch e-mails now before I'm stuck with the useless new version.

I'm looking for a free e-mail service that does nothing but e-mail. No instant messaging, no links to services I don't use like facebook or twitter. Just a simple e-mail service that does e-mail well.

Any suggestions?

[Father Mannix]

Gmail has other features, but they can all be turned off. That's how I use mine.

[mylungswereaching]

My son has G-mail and he's been trying to get me to switch but it looks too cluttered to me. Google has been integrating a lot of different services together and I want a stand alone e-mail service. Also I've read that a lot of the features can't be turned off, like autocomplete.

[Father Mannix]

For what it's worth, GMail has never autocompleted a thing for me. I didn't even know it had that feature.

Most webmail services are getting more and more feature-rich, so it's going to be hard to find one that just does simple email. Your best bet might be to get a standalone email client (like Thunderbird) and use it with GMail or any other email service that supports IMAP. There are plenty of tutorials on the web for setting this up.

[Mod City]

I don't know, I've used Yahoo since 1997 or so and it's always allowed me to use older versions of itself if my operating system isn't compatible with the newest version, which happens quite often on my work computers. I'm assuming you can switch to a "classic" Yahoo version somehow.

Oh, and in my opinion, stay away from Thunderbird. Too many times I've lost hundreds of emails due to some glitch in the program. There may be other good stand-alone clients to use with third-party webmail, but I don't use them for that so I wouldn't know.

[Father Mannix]

Jul 20, 2011 10:39:32 GMT -5 Mod City said:

Too many times I've lost hundreds of emails due to some glitch in the program.

That's why I recommended IMAP instead of POP. With IMAP, the mail never leaves the server unless you explicitly delete it, so you always have a backup.

[mylungswereaching]

Right now I'm trying out Zoho. It has a lot of extra features but they're accessed by a couple of small menus at the top and side. Most of the screen is dedicated to the actual e-mail service, like yahoo classic. With Yahoo's newest version the e-mail portion took up about 1/3 of the screen with the rest filled with stuff I never used, the fonts were tiny, you had to click to 3 or 4 different screens to get to your inbox and you had to agree to let them read your e-mails so they could send you more focused spam (Its in the terms and conditions.)

I've had my e-mail with them for close to 20 years and I don't particularly want to switch but when they force you to upgrade to make it easier for them to send you more spam, I've got to switch.

[inlovewithcrow]

I have three yahoo accounts, all "classic" for now though I do have to opt out of upgrading several times a year. One account I use just for relatives and banking. The second I use just for ordering stuff via amazon, my bulletin board accounts, people I've only met on-line, etc. (Man, does it get the spam!) The third is my primary test account. If I don't know a site, the first time I use it, I use #3 and wait a month to see if spam starts arriving. If not, I move it over to #2.

Now that I write this all out, it seems insanely complicated, but it's my minimizing-spam approach. Or perhaps my spam herding approach. Account #2 gets a lot of spam, but I delete it all unread and know I'm not accidentally deleting my sister telling me someone has died. You're right, the business portion of the yahoo screen is shrinking. Make sure you go to adchoices and "opt out" then "save."

[inlovewithcrow]

hey, I just upgraded to the new yahoo mail and if you go into mail options, you can check "show inbox at start-up" and it's a pretty clean screen, then.

[lilacetoile]

FastMail is a good one. There is a free version and it is secure.

[inlovewithcrow]

hmm, I just downloaded an ad-blocker add-on from the firefox site (which is the browser I use, for better or worse) and now that I've had it for a couple days, my yahoo mail is really clear, on every page.

[mstie2912]

I had the same issue - I used Yahoo! mail for years, but the new design is awful. I moved to Gmail since it's simpler in design and easy overall access.