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Say Goodbye to Free Email

Posted on March 23, 2002

in News

by Adrian Roselli (aardvark)

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Adrian Roselli

Member info | Full bio

User since: December 13, 1998

Last login: January 03, 2012

Articles written: 85

Both Hotmail and Yahoo have announced this week that people who want to continue to use some of their services will have to pay.

Yahoo announced on Thursday that it will begin charging for POP3 mail forwarding services. Yahoo originally started charging for some services back in February of 1999, and has continued over the past year to charge for services that are expensive to run. Beginning April 24, the mail forwarding service will cost users $29.99 per year, but those who subscribe before then will pay $19.99 for the first year.

Users who pay the fee will be able to use their Yahoo account as a POP3 mailbox, will be able to send attachments of up to 5 megabytes (instead of the current 1.5MB limit), and will not have the Yahoo text advertisement attached to the foot of every message. There will also be extra storage fees of $24.95 per year for 50MB, and $34.95 per year for 100MB, although users can pay monthly at $2.95 or $4.95, respectively.

Microsoft's Hotmail has taken a slightly different approach. Users who approach the 2MB limit, or don't regularly use the account, may find their inboxes cleared and their account bounces messages. Users are being pushed to upgrade to ensure their mail won't be wiped for inactivity or due to larger file sizes, while they are also being marketed the benefits of the Passport service and other internet services, such as MSN.

Last fall, Hotmail started closing accounts if inactive for 30 days, down from its 45 day policy. Over the summer, Hotmail offered storage space over the free 2MB at a price of $12.95, but raised it to $19.95 by December. Hotmail claims that first trash, then junk mail, then sent folders are cleaned before inboxes, although some users have reported the opposite has occurred. Some users argue that Hotmail has caused people to reach their file size limits by selling their information to spammers.

Recent news pieces:

A founder of evolt.org, Adrian Roselli (aardvark) is the Senior Usability Engineer at Algonquin Studios, located in Buffalo, New York.

Adrian has years of experience in graphic design, web design and multimedia design, as well as extensive experience in internet commerce and interface design and usability. He has been developing for the World Wide Web since its inception, and working the design field since 1993. Adrian is a founding member, board member, and writer to evolt.org. In addition, Adrian sits on the Digital Media Advisory Committee for a local SUNY college and a local private college, as well as the board for a local charter school.

You can see his brand-spanking-new blog at http://blog.adrianroselli.com/ as well as his new web site to promote his writing and speaking at AdrianRoselli.com

Adrian authored the usability case study for evolt.org in Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself, published by glasshaus. He has written three chapters for the book Professional Web Graphics for Non Designers, also published by glasshaus. Adrian also managed to get a couple chapters written (and published) for The Web Professional's Handbook before glasshaus went under. They were really quite good. You should have bought more of the books.

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Thanks for the heads up!

Submitted by aericks on March 24, 2002 - 10:26.

I guess I've been missing some news sources. As a long-time Yahoo account holder (it's backup for when/if my POP accounts fail) I had not heard this.

From the c|net article: "Al Hogan, a Washington, D.C., computer consultant and Yahoo shareholder, applauded the company for finding a price point that wasn't too expensive." That will always be key in getting users to pay for something that was free.

I actually think their service is great. Depending on the costs, I might pony up, as well. I won't, though, if they don't reign in the ads all over the place.

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Ohh Please

Submitted by bs0d on March 25, 2002 - 12:27.

I believe that Hotmail and Yahoo are trying to get a profit over something that should be and is provided free on the internet. It just seems suprising to me that its Microsoft one of the two doing this. Microsoft is the company fighting to be able to keep their software installed on newly bought computers- which is basically free to the consumer. Hotmail will most likely die down just as Napster did and everyone will go somewhere else for free e-mail. And a kindly ol' website will open its arms as Kazaa did with Napster users. This is getting stupid---

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Free?

Submitted by aericks on March 25, 2002 - 12:44.

Why should it be provided free?

I think consumers are actually getting the short end of the stick with this free stuff. Get Internet Explorer "free" and what power do you have to complain? Get an OS "free" with your computer and again, what power do you have to complain?

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$PAM

Submitted by danfascia on March 25, 2002 - 12:44.

I WILL NOT pay for adverts about penis enlargements, free university degrees and porn...

I think Hotmail have some real guts to even ask people to pay since the service is appalling anyway

I suppose if you pay up they might not sell your address to spammers... how generous, RIP hotmail!

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Email's only the tip of the iceburg

Submitted by damclean on March 25, 2002 - 13:58.

I agree that it shouldn't be provided free.

Everyone on the 'net, it seems, feels that all these companies owe them a favour. "I'm giving you my eyeballs, you owe me something for free." It isn't working that way. Now, granted, I can buy in to the theory that MSFT is selling their lists to spammers to fill Hotmail inboxes, thus convincing people to ante up, but that's just conspiracy theory.

Business models where things are given away on the 'Net are only working for the consumer, not the business. If you want an email address devoid of spam good luck. But seriously, domains are chea nowadays and you can get near-free hosting with POP3. You'll never have to worry about telling someone your address is changing either.

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Hey...

Submitted by animan3 on March 25, 2002 - 20:16.

Thanks for the information. And I'd like to say what a fool they were. Some people are incapable of paying for something like that (credit/money problems, etc.) So, it is likely that many people can not pay for such, and will not continue with there services. So, Hotmail and Yahoo will be unable to recieve the amount of money that they expect.

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Such services should be provided for free

Submitted by prowsej on March 25, 2002 - 21:16.

Email should be free because the barriers to entry into the market are so low. Anybody can set up an IMAP server on their computer if they have an always-on internet connection. Languages like Coldfusion can be used to access such servers to design an interface to your mail. One of the common coldfusion tutorials is to access your email messages - something that first time users learn how to do in 10 minutes.
I'm not suggesting that anybody is going to build this themself - they don't have to. Many services offer all of the features that anybody could ever want. My favourite (free) service is fastmail.fm - it offers a superset of the Hotmail/Yahoo features with the only exception being its limited support for creating HTML email.

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But who's going to pay for it?

Submitted by damclean on March 25, 2002 - 21:54.

Free is a word that doesn't really exist.

evolt.org is a free service to the Web development community, but that doesn't mean it costs nothing to run. Servers, bandwidth and much more need to be paid for. So far, evolt.org has relied on the generous donations of its users, but it has also been supplied by a much less tangible commodity: Volunteers.

Like it or not, Yahoo and Hotmail don't have a volunteer workforce. If you went to work for Hotmail (MSFT) wouldn't you expect to be paid too?

No one has said that Hotmail will cease to exist in a free format. They're simply moving to a business model where freeloaders and those who refuse to delete email are going to suffer somewhat. Besides, as many of you have said, there are other orgs that will pick up the pieces. There was a time, afterall, when MSFT didn't own Hotmail. But there was also a time when a Web site could rely on lucrative banner advertising to keep the cash flowing.

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Low Barriers?

Submitted by aericks on March 26, 2002 - 12:41.

--"Email should be free because the barriers to entry into the market are so low. Anybody can set up an IMAP server on their computer if they have an always-on internet connection. Languages like Coldfusion can be used to access such servers to design an interface to your mail. One of the common coldfusion tutorials is to access your email messages - something that first time users learn how to do in 10 minutes." --

You call that a low barrier to entry? So, for the price of an "always on" internet connection, a computer and software to handle your email plus cold fusion experience: You, too, could be rocking and rolling on the Information Superhighway!

Heh.

Free email providers are a great thing. I can set up an account through my local library and do it all completely free. However, with "free" comes restrictions. If I can get even better service from Yahoo for $2/month, I think that's a bargain.

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