Question re: email addresses

[missflick]

I have a gmail account which I use for personal email. And I am happy with it. I also have one from my local telephone company, which I use for personal business (e.g. emails from my bank) but it has very limited storage. So I would like to get another.

I don't want Hotmail as the last time it got very spammy. I know that can potentially happen with any of them, but I would like one quite different. Which ones would you guys recommend?

[luna_skater]

What would you be using the additional email address for?

I have the following:

1. Gmail for personal/professional use (i.e., on resumes)
2. Work email for, well, work.
3. Yahoo to connect to things like Facebook and Twitter.
4. Hotmail for MSN.

I find Gmail by far the best out of all the ones I have. I love the filtering and folders, and have never even come close to running out of space. I was happy with Yahoo for years until I got Gmail, however.

[Vash01]

I have hotmail for my personal/home email, and one work email. This works for me.

I had bad experiences with yahoo. The security was just awful. I will never open an email account with yahoo.

From all accounts gmail sounds OK, though I rarely use my gmail account. Others I know are happy with it.

Definitely avoid gmx mail. It's too slow. It takes forever just to get into the account. I have an account but I have not used it in probably a year.

[numbers123]

I have several email addresses (maybe more, I forgot about ones that created to vote in DWTS)

1. Private account that is connected to my husband's domain. He has his own domain because of some businesses/consulting that he owns. He has created accounts for all of us. I use that one for my business and other sites, like Walgreen's.
2. gmail address that I use for church volunteer activities
3. gmail address for my android
4. gmail dummy account that I give to people or organizations that I may or may not want to hear from
5. gmail dummy account for DWTS voting
6. A couple of other gmail accounts

Since I have a fairly secure private account, I am not so worried about losing my gmail addresses.

[rjblue]

I also have a private account from my local telephone company, but limited storage isn't an issue because I used Outlook express and downloaded the mail directly to my computer. All the mail I want can be saved forever, if I archive it and back it up. I recently switched to mozilla thunderbird for my mail program and I like it quite well.

[KHenry14]

Twice in the last year my AOL account was hacked and emails were sent out to everyone I've ever emailed to get them to buy viagara. I'd change from them if I haven't used them for the last 16 years. I'm sort of indeep with them....

[algonquin]

I have the following:

1. gmail account for Facebook, and all other on-line stuff
2. Account from the phone company for personal email.

I recently deleted my hotmail account, too much spam. I am happy with gmail.

[Vash01]

Twice in the last year my AOL account was hacked and emails were sent out to everyone I've ever emailed to get them to buy viagara. I'd change from them if I haven't used them for the last 16 years. I'm sort of indeep with them....

Same thing happened to my yahoo account last year. This year same thing happened to two of my friends that had yahoo accounts. No, it wasn't about Viagra but about something else.

[Angelskates]

I have two gmail, one for personal and work (it doesn't look like it's from a gmail address) and a yahoo one for subscriptions and crap. Love gmail.

[FigureSpins]

We had AT&T emails for over 20 years, even paid a $6 fee to keep them, but AT&T discontinued the plan in a weasly way, so we finally started using the ISP's accounts for some things. AT&T "converted" their IDs to Yahoo!, even porting our contacts and messages, so we have a few of those kicking around.

The kids set up gmail accounts because their friends were on chat. I hate it.

I had a hotmail account at one point, but I closed it because the incoming spam was terrible. Spammers troll their directories, so you have be quick about locking down your being "published."

I know 10-12 people whose gmail and hotmail accounts were hacked or cloned. For some reason, they ended up having to abandon the accounts.

Last year, I found that Yahoo! had a glitch - if you accessed your account from two different IP's at the same time, their monitoring programs assumed that the account was compromised. They would lock down one IP when there was really nothing wrong. They fixed that problem about six months ago. Really annoying, but I've never had a problem with Yahoo! other than that.

[Alexa5]

I have a msn account I use for online transactions, as those tend to generate more junk emails than personal emails do. I use gmail for my personal email. That combination seems to work well for me. I was using an email account that was linked to my dsl company for personal email but switched to gmail since it works with my phone better.

[Angelskates]

The kids set up gmail accounts because their friends were on chat. I hate it.

What do you hate about it?

[MacMadame]

I'd change from them if I haven't used them for the last 16 years. I'm sort of indeep with them....

There's a way around that. What I've done is create my new email and start giving that out. But I don't get rid of the old one. I forward everything that gets sent to the old to my real email. That way all my email is in one place but people who have the old address can still contact me. Eventually the old email will die out and you can get rid of it. Or not.

[ks777]

I use Gmail for porn and sex sites and hotmail for emails with friends and family.

[TwizzlerS]

To answer Missflick's original question (in case she hasn't figured it out), just open another gmail account with another username. Like the OPs, I have 2 work emails, a personal email for friends and family, and another email account for online ordering. I also have another one that came with the cable internet that I never use. I set it up to forward to one of the emails I do use.

I get both my personal and shopping emails on my Blackberry. One of the things I do when I walk the dog in the morning is delete all the spam and unwanted emails from these accounts. That makes it easier to keep up with all of them.

[FigureSpins]

What do you hate about it?

I hate the chat rooms. Just too open for my taste.

[Angelskates]

I hate the chat rooms. Just too open for my taste.

You mean the gmail chat? I've never turned it on. I thought you meant you hate gmail. You can choose to be invisible (so no one will know you're online and therefore won't chat with you) or choose to turn the chat off.

[Really]

I've found Yahoo to be the spammiest of the bunch. I never see the junk that comes to my Hotmail or Gmail accounts. I get more spam in my supposedly filtered work account. I'm phasing out my ISP account because we could change ISP but Google will go on forever...

[Anita18]

The kids set up gmail accounts because their friends were on chat. I hate it.

My mom and I love it...because that's how we kids talk to her. We're the kind of family who only calls each other if it's an EMERGENCY. Or if we need some info from them RIGHT NOW and they're not online. My mom even answers a call from me with "Yes?"

You could easily turn it off or make yourself "busy" so less people will bug you. (I actually do turn it off when I'm doing something intensive, because the chat actually eats up a lot of memory.) My sister's always "busy," which is why my mom complains she's never available to chat. I tell her I IM her anyway, she'll just take some time in getting back.

[FigureSpins]

You misunderstood: it's my teens on gmail chat and they use it it to yammer with real-life friends. Gmail also has open chat rooms so anyone can chime in, including the predator who asked for a photo of one girl. Fortunately, she got scared, but the dirtbag was still poking around last time I checked (and reported him for something he said to someone else.) There are no settings that I can find that will let me lock them down to chat with only their contacts. So, I have to trust and audit regularly.

I'm hoping that, when Pottermore opens up, they'll migrate to that moderated place.

The only spam messages I get on Yahoo! are in my spam folder, but I've occasionally seen one or two and reported them. I think that's why I don't get very many - others report them before I check my email.

Gmail was nasty porn spam regularly, but I'm sure they cleaned up their act after the exodus. Lots of people left them for other providers.

My only beef with Yahoo! is that they want you to buy their premium version, so they have features locked down in Outlook. YOu have to research the settings, even using non-US settings, to get it to work right.

I've never cared for Google as a company. The "play at work" atmosphere doesn't inspire my confidence and their applications are invasive. My major issue is that they have a continuing tradition, like Facebook, of privacy invasion. It started when their "Google your hard drive" application came out - they were uploading copies of your hard drive directories without your permission and without any way for you to opt out. That "let's cull as much as we can before we get caught" attitude persists today with their advertising and social networking linkage. It's only a matter of time until a tech-head raises a fuss about iGoogle's personal info collection. (And they're looking.)

Not that Yahoo! is much better, but Google is a bigger offender.