Let’s get started. According to the WikiPedia, a webmail is a “term referring to an e-mail service intended to be primarily accessed via an web browser, as opposed to through an application such as Mozilla’s Thunderbird, Apple’s Mail or Microsoft Outlook”.
In 2004, Google launched its GMail Beta service and definitely shown to us that webmails are powerful applications that could replace our OS based applications. However, we must admit that the first well-known webmail is HotMail (by Mircrosoft) followed by Yahoo! Mail in 1997.
I reviewed 12 free webmails I found in 3 languages (german, french and english). In the first part of the test, I compared their features then I compared their accessibility and their overall usage in the second one. Here are the webmails which have been reviewed :
Arcor, FreeNet, Inbox and EarthLink are Internet Service Providers but are also offering free mail service.
The latest vesion of the review can be downloaded here : September 2007.
Many thanks to the members of the EmailDiscussions.com community forums who have been great in helping me to make this chart.
Note : I tested the FREE version of FastMail. The Full and the Enhanced versions of FastMail I’m using would have been the best compared to other paid products.