What is the appeal of free email services?

Many service providers offer free email accounts (e.g., Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail). These email services typically provide you with a browser interface to access your mail. In addition to the monetary savings, these services often offer other benefits:

Accessibility - Because you can access your account(s) from any computer, these services are useful if you cannot be near your computer or are in the process of relocating and do not have an ISP.

Even if you are able to access your ISP-based email account remotely, being able to rely on a free email account is ideal if you are using a public computer or shared wireless hot spot and are concerned about exposing the details of your primary account.

Competitive Features - With so many of these service providers competing for users, they now offer additional features such as large amounts of storage, spam filtering, virus protection, and enhanced fonts and graphics.

Additional Capabilities - It is becoming more common for service providers to package additional software or services (e.g., instant messaging) with their free email accounts to attract customers.

Free email accounts are also effective tools for reducing the amount of spam you receive at your primary email address. Instead of submitting your primary address when shopping online, requesting services, or participating in online forums, you can set up a free secondary address to use (see Reducing Spam for more information).