Myself I think it would be nice to have upload capability without having a static IP. Larger attachments would help with sharing files rather than have everone on Kazaa. Windows Messenger 4.7 for XP has no limit to file size transfers unless you downgrade to MSN Messenger, then its only 2MB.

hotmail accounts will expire if you didn't log in for 30 days....

( http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5245523.html )

I agree with the "how much space do you really need" and the "do you really need more space for spam" sentiments...

I have my ISP space... which is POP3 based. That being said, there isn't a true cap on what I can receive there in many cases... although, conceptually, if I leave huge messages w/ attachments sitting on the server very long and very frequently, they have every right to cut me off at some point for "service abuse".

After that, I have 2 Hotmail accounts. One for annonymous postings on groups and untrusted sources like websites. Essentially it is for spam. My second one I use strictly for MSN Messenger and personal emails from "online" sources that I don't necessarily want to have my ISP address. These accounts are both Hotmail freebies with 3MB of storage (for now).

After that, I still run my own web/mail server on my own domain, so I have yet another source of spam and personal mail. My overal capacity on this is approximately 137GB, since the mail storage is on my 160GB D: drive, and I'm currently using about 23GB of that space for other purposes.

That being said, including spam I receive approximately 100 messages per day. Filtering spam, I receive about 10 legitimate emails per day (on average), 5 of which are newsletters.

Very rarely do they ever have attachments at all (especially since my legitimate file transfers are done via website or Messenger). That being said, the likelihood of exceeding my 137GB capacity are pretty slim.

Now, don't get me wrong... obviously some people are insane and save messages they haven't read in 5 years since they first got it, and others send huge attachments containing viruses and jokes and games... not to mention the business types who resend (and keep) the same attachments with multiple revisions of documents over and over. That being said I can understand how they hit their limit... but... is more space the answer?

I think better mailbox management is a better idea, personally... Save it to your hard drive and delete the server copies that are so old that you haven't looked at them even though you swear you "might need them someday".

Aaron

You know, it's just email right? Another way for people to spam you? Anywho...

Gmail is quite nice, and so is Yahoo. I'm just wondering why no one has said anything about Aventuremail.com - they offer 2GB or storage and a beautiful interface with no ads (all for free). Even the pay service has nice benefits. The free registration is closed right now though. Hopefully they open it up soon. ;)

i prefer gmail and yahoo email and my telus email

If you have a spare computer, a domain, and a broadband connection (even if it is dynamic), you can setup your own email server using the 'qmail toaster' software and get 'unlimited' email space...

1GB of Email space and offers every thing that yahoo does.

Unlike Google's Gmail, Spymac ( http://www.spymac.com/network.php?p=tour ) "currently" offers 1 GB of free email storage, so you don't have to wait.

Furthermore, they have POP3 access. In addition to 1 gb of email storage, they also offer 350 mb of extra space for pictures etc.

100 megs sounds right. Truthfully most won't use more then 20 megs probably unless they are sending huge attachments. I was happy with my 25 meg Yahoo account which is now 2 gigs :) :) :)

Google looks interesting only for it's features and the ability to read messages like a forum.

"We are going to respond in a big way and will eliminate email storage as an issue for our users," said Irving.

Wonder what that statement means.

I wonder that myself, since Hotmail accounts went from 5 or 6 megs down to 2 megs some years ago. They probably thought people would feel compelled to use Outlook to keep the mailbox empty, but it was just stupid IMHO.

However, it would be funny if GMail never took off, and everybody increased their mailbox size fearing that 1 Gig that would never arrive :)

I've often pondered about this myself. I have quite a few email accounts, both POP and web based, and I've run into issues with mail storage space before. My pop accounts are school and two free accounts from an ISP I used to have. I'm not sure what my university limits mailbox space to, but my pop accounts are about 10 megs. For the average PC user, or even power user, thats probably more than enough. But using just myself as an example:

I create websites, graphics, spreadsheets, and various other files. I receive tons of emails and newsletters from various companies and I opt for the HTML letters instead of the boring plain text. You might not realize it but when your word documents start getting above the regular 3-6 pages of text, they begin to add up in size, especially if you import graphics into them. I find emailing my documents to my email address (usually hotmail) is great incase my floppy doesn't work, or the computer I'm using doesn't have a cdrom for some reason, or whatever might be the case. I design my sites completely in photoshop, save the psd file, and email it to a client. Sucks when I get a reply saying, "The file was too big so it wasn't saved. Can you mail it to me on a cd?" Hotmail also used to have it bad about locking your email account if it reached 100%. They then tried to force you to pay for larger space or you coud reactivate your account and lose all your emails. Thats not good if you subscribe to a lot of forums or newsletters and get spammed on top of this. Sometimes you just don't have time to check your email EVERY day. So for people like me, it'll be a great benefit to have a bunch of storage space for our emails.

I'm really excited about this google mail deal. I just got my invite to beta test it yesterday. I've sent a few emails and I'm rather impressed. It was a little odd getting used to not seeing "Delete" as an immediate option, but instead "archive." Until these other guys can show me a better reason, I'm giving up on my hotmail and yahoo accounts, and only using my POP accounts when I have to (email address other than a free service). I love google services, all of them, so I'm sure this is gonna be a definate great tool for the public.

"They probably thought people would feel compelled to use Outlook to keep the mailbox empty, but it was just stupid IMHO."

No, they felt people would feel compelled to sign up for "Hotmail Extra Storage". $30 A year for 10M, or $70 for a whopping 100M.

It's nice to see a business model like that blown out of the water by a company as great as Google.

Do you think that MSN and Yahoo will charging that many people for extra space -- enough to call it a business model?
-Jason
http://artificialnature.blogspot.com

So you're using the extra plan on Yahoo? Does this give you POP access? And, in your opinion, is it worth the price?

Thanks!

-banjk

G-mail has some awesome features such as the converstaion feature which lops all your replys in to one "conversation."

and one ? is this MSN that is going to have 100mb or HOTMAIL that is going to have 100mb?

Actually, I agree with someone said that it'll be funny if Google now decide that they will halt the plan to launch their email service. Anyway, we have to thank Google that they help us have more storage for our emails.

Comparing Yahoo mail service and Hotmail: I think the interface of Yahoo mail will be the best if they remove the banner ads. The interface of Hotmail is overwhelming and a little slow.

And also, the disadvantage of Yahoo mail is that it doesn't enable POP for normal users (although Hotmail also disable the POP feature, it still permit user to get email by Outlook). For people who want to get email from Yahoo, YahooPOP will be helpful.

For Gmail, for what I saw up to now, their interface is really exciting. Let's see if they let user download email to Outlook or not.

I have a similar question open at:

http://geeqs.net/DotText...ive/2004/06/19/167.aspx

Basically, 1GB of email is a really large amount. Hotmail currently seems like the worst email offering available due to it's limited space and attachment size, but what would it take for you to STAY on Hotmail?

Is space that important? After a certain point, it shouldn't matter anymore right? So what else matters?

I think a lot of people are focusing on the numbers (size of storage) but dismissing usability issues.

Would you stay with a lower storage size service if it was more usable?

i keep on asking the same exact question. what is so complicated to make big company such Google keep on 'testing'? holy crap.
people, just go to www.spymac.com
forget 100mb, forget ever-testing gmail, get spymac!

"You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much storage space."

well, the two things I did not like about gmail is that:
1) they don't allow to send exe or zipped exe files!
2) the point that the user name has got to be atleast 6 characters long.

Yahoo Brazil has POP3 mail for free.. I'm Brazilian and I have an Yahoo! account. I prefer 1000x Yahoo than Hotmail. I have a Hotmail e-mail just because MSN Messenger...

In fact I already have a Yahoo mail and I have the posibility to use the POP service in my Outlook 2003.