AOL Launches Free Webmail Service 207
kmilani2134 writes "America Online is moving into the Web-based e-mail market on Wednesday by tying e-mail into its popular AOL Instant Messenger service. Called AIM Mail, the service marks AOL's latest attempt to reposition itself as a broad portal rather than a subscriber-based service. It also will compete more directly against Yahoo Inc, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN division and Google Inc., all of which have battled over Webmail storage and features over the past year. This was covered by both eWeek and InternetNews.com. Of note, they seem to have incorporated the Mailblocks spam filtering and tracker addresses into their service. It will be interesting to see how long before these new 2 GB accounts are inundated with spam."
Open Mind (Score:5, Funny)
It's good to see you're approaching this with an open mind. Criminy.
Re:Open Mind (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Open Mind (Score:5, Informative)
The AOL spam filters have gotten quite good over the past couple years, better than Yahoo/Hotmail and way better than that of your typical cable operator. The web interface is really nice (Mailblocks). There's free IMAP access. And if you use AIM, there's good integration between AIM and AIM Mail. Clearly I'm biased, but I think it's a great product.
If you have an AIM account, you can try it out at http://mail.aol.com/ [aol.com] . If not, you can create an AIM account at https://my.screenname.aol.com/_cqr/registration/i
Some more info at my blog: http://journals.aol.com/juberti/runningman [aol.com]
Re:Open Mind (Score:2)
Free IMAP access? (Score:2)
If there is IMAP access, what are the server names?
Re:Free IMAP access? (Score:2, Insightful)
"AOL already is planning additional features for the full launch of AIM Mail. The service will support the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) standard so that users can access their AIM Mail accounts from other e-mail clients, Ben-Yoseph said."
I will update my blog when I have more info.
Re:Open Mind (Score:2, Interesting)
As administrator for a mailing list service that has had cooperative whitelisted status with AOL for the better part of a decade, I must report that recent changes to AOL mail have made it impossible for us to offer consistent delivery to AOL customers -- even despite our whitelisted status.
AOL will now block mail due to "malformed URLs" and "URLS with complaints" -- but they won't explain which
Re:Open Mind (Score:2)
Re:Open Mind (Score:2)
Aol blocks so much mail that they end up blocking lots of legitimate emails. And the worst part is they don't even inform the blocked host why. It's a POS service.
Re: (Score:2)
It's just email. (Score:3, Insightful)
IT'S JUST EMAIL!
I store my email on my laptop thank you very much, and I have storage limited only by my free HDD space (of which, I might add, it hasn't approached yet, because I'm sane and use email like normal people do, to send messages and small attachments).
Not that I'm saying that lots of storage is a bad thing or anything, I'm all for it. But I imagine that this is more marketing hype than anything -- I'd estimate 97% of people
Re:Open Mind (Score:2)
Re:Open Mind (Score:3, Informative)
Also, 20MB is actually 20,971,520 bytes (20 * 1024 * 1024) so that makes things confusing too.
Re:Open Mind (Score:2)
The server reported the size limit in bytes, so I checked filesize in bytes (file was lower).
AOL? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
Ah the good old days, where everybody was wondering if Mozilla 1.0 was going to suffer the same fate like Duke Nukem Forever.
Re:AOL? (Score:1)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
Re:AOL? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like a standup company... Please let me know which one it is so that I know not to give them any of my personal details...
JBlowCorpDivX: Hey John, what is Jane Doe's current balance? Account number XXXXXX, SSN: XXX-XX-XXXX
JDoeCorpDivY: No idea Joe, so how about them yankees?
Fantastic. Tell the people in charge to invest in an internal purpose built IM solution. One that doesn't involve using a third party's servers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
Any more "real danger" to warn me about?
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
The great thing is, an "investment" isn't even be necessary! If they were to use Jabber they could use a number of free server daemons in combination with free clients such as Gaim (Windows/Linux/BSD), Kopete (Linux/BSD), or Adium, iChat or Fire (Mac OS X.) Obviously nothing is 100% secure, but running this over the internal network along with SSL would be far better tha
AIM Security for Corporations (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
>aol<Me too!>/aol<
Seriously though, I have less respect for people with AOL addresses, especially adults (other students with AOL usually are forced to use it because it's what their parents use, but adults have free will to choose a better ISP), and almost no respect for businesses that have AOL addresses. Getting a better ISP usually costs less than AOL does, and for businesses, getting a domain name with email usually costs less than a dial up account per month.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
I found it much funnier the wrong way. An AOL user wouldn't know the right way to do HTML tags anyway!
Re:AOL acquired mailblocks last year (Score:3, Interesting)
AIM mail is based on mailblocks. Around the beginning of 2004, Mailblocks was gaining a lot of customers. Once AOL acquired it, mailblocks went into a time wrap. Even now the mail quota is a paltry 15MB. I sent 2-3 mails to mailblocks support asking whether they plan to allow mail quotas higher than 100MB. They gave no definite answer.
So I abandoned mailblocks, moved all my m
Re:AOL acquired mailblocks last year (Score:2)
Although I suppose this could start being a pain if you check mail from multiple computers.
Re:AOL acquired mailblocks last year (Score:2)
Re:AOL acquired mailblocks last year (Score:3, Insightful)
I strongly suspect that it will be compelling for all those AIM users. How many non-techies know what POP and IMAP are? In my experience, all they care about is being able to check their email, and webmail access usually does that for them just fine.
I think this was a very smart move by AOL. Although, I do think they're idiots for not doing this long ago. Not that I've been following it closely, but it seems AOL has been lacki
Re: why the heck haven't AOL started offering (Score:2)
"AOL Over [existing] Broadband." I think such a product is profoundly pointless. Heck, I get "unlimited" dial-up internet access with Juno [juno.com] for half the price of this "AOL Over [existing] Broadband." Why on earth would anyone pay for this?
Sorry, I just wanted to rant.
Re: why the heck haven't AOL started offering (Score:2)
I still think "AOL Over [existing] Broadband" is pointless.
Re:AOL acquired mailblocks last year (Score:2)
Re:AOL? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:AOL? (Score:2)
Lots and lots of spam (Score:2, Interesting)
It's also a bit amusing that all these large portal companies like AOL are trying to compete with services like Gmail that don't even provide anything other than email. Google is still not an ISP as far as I know...
Re:Lots and lots of spam (Score:2)
And while Google's not an ISP, if you think the only personal information about you that could be stolen from Google is your email, you're
Will this cost them subscribers? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Will this cost them subscribers? (Score:1)
Re:Will this cost them subscribers? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Will this cost them subscribers? (Score:3, Interesting)
subscription based accounts transferable to free o (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:subscription based accounts transferable to fre (Score:1, Insightful)
Sadly, subscription is permanent (Score:2, Interesting)
Unfortunately, you can't do that. I know this from experience. I was subscribed (via my parents) to AOL, which I used mostly for AIM access. Then we got broadband and got it from another company. We switched to AOL's "Bring Your Own Access" plan for a few months and then eventually canceled.
It was then that I noticed that I could not log on to my screen name anymore. It had been Suspended. What a great surprise to wake up t
Re:subscription based accounts transferable to fre (Score:2)
@aim.com vs @netscape.net (Score:2)
Re:@aim.com vs @netscape.net (Score:2, Funny)
Re:@aim.com vs @netscape.net (Score:2)
Mail sent to myscreenname@netscape.net (and
I then went to mail.netscape.com and discovered that it thinks I *do* have an account there, using this very screen name (and it even knows my home email address, which it likely got from AIM). I logged in and found no messages.
I sent the netscape account another message; it bounced again. I then sent my ELN account a mess
more of the same (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem is, all these new web mail services are offering basically the same thing for the same price (that is, no money, but people pay through the price of ads and such.)
As one can see, I use a gmail account, because it offers the keyboard shortcuts. In all honesty, that's all that's kept me there because it's the only unique feature. I don't mean to be bashing the new services; it just seems as though there's nothing new in each one that pops up, except for the name.
Re:Capitalism isn't really applicable (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd go as far as to say that it isn't so much that the user is the product.
In traditional capitalism, the end user paid money to get a product or service. Now that we are entering more of an information age, the end user basically has to endure advertising instead of paying money. The "contract" is that the information given is good/entertaining enough. The hope is, of course, that the end user ends up purchasing products advertised. But this
"Unsend" (Score:2)
Not bad, though hardly innovative - you can already do something close to that with Exchange and other mail systems. What I'd really like is the ability, within a certain time interval, to yank an IM off someone's window if I suddenly changed my mind about wanting them to see it. Anyone that's accidentally sent an IM to the wrong person knows what I'm talking abou
Re:"Unsend" (Score:2)
Re:"Unsend" (Score:2)
You mean like this? (Score:3, Funny)
<ohm> damn
<ohm> FUCK
<ohm> DAMN
<ohm> i was just in an AIM convo with a chick, and my grandmother's window pops up
<ohm> FUCK
<ohm> i go like this to her
<ohm> "i want to suck on your clit"
<ohm> FUCK
AIM Mail? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Adium for Mac (Score:2)
Re:new aim so bloated (Score:2)
2.5 billion IMs a day in 26 languages. No one who uses the MSN client gives a damn about bloat.
Time for GMail to bump it up (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Time for GMail to bump it up (Score:2)
Re:Time for GMail to bump it up (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Time for GMail to bump it up (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Time for GMail to bump it up (Score:2)
Won't be too bad (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Won't be too bad (Score:2)
If AOL is using this kind of system, it won't hurt them at all to sell the email addresses of people...because their servers will only keep one copy of the message!
Plus, think of all the storage space they would save by only keeping one copy of the:
LOL!!!! Me too!!!!! OMG ROTFL!!!!!!
email...
And addys left at AOL? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And addys left at AOL? (Score:2)
Re:And addys left at AOL? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, of course. BUT, for NEW users, the issue will be the same as with AIM/AOL screen names: Not a lot of human readable ones left, and seems like AOL does not like to free up inactive ones.
Free? (Score:2, Informative)
Or is this another case of great editing?
R.
Re:Free? (Score:2)
Re:Free? (Score:2)
Sorry, AOL (Score:2)
Re:Sorry, AOL (Score:2)
I was just trying to illustrate just how far behind AOL is and remains. People will get their free AOL mail account because they're stupid sheep and will flock to the AOL brand. Incidentally, that's what made AOL so popular in the first place: It allowed idiots who had no business on the Internet to get there.
No thanks! (Score:2)
Besides, do you really want to be associated with Ao-NOOB-l?
Getting a bit out of hand (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose the ability to get a really cool email name creates demand for a new system. Is there really any other reason?
Re:Getting a bit out of hand (Score:2)
Re:Getting a bit out of hand (Score:2)
Re:Getting a bit out of hand (Score:2)
I think we might see more of these web-based on
If you have AIM, you already have AIM Mail (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If you have AIM, you already have AIM Mail (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If you have AIM, you already have AIM Mail (Score:2)
I then went back with AIM set to my other screen name, but it didn't pick up on that. Oh well, it's not like typing my login (or letting Moz do it for me) is all that onerous.
Anyway... while not as feature-rich as GMail, it's somewhat easier to use.
It did recognise both my AIM IDs when I logged in and out with AIM itself (AIM mail can check onli
Yoda says (Score:4, Funny)
Netscape? (Score:2)
Re:Netscape? (Score:2)
IMAP Settings (Score:2, Funny)
What happened (Score:3, Funny)
AOL: ME TOO!!!11!!1!
Must enter with an open mind (Score:2, Insightful)
That's great news (Score:2)
gmail (Score:2)
Re:Hrm... (Score:2)
Re:Damn, already in use (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:real email? (Score:2)
I think I have v4.something on another machine, tho
Re:real email? (Score:2)
I'd never heard anything about 5.x one way or the other. I do have random old versions on different machines and they've all been nothing but well-mannered, so no motivation to upgrade!
Re:ads (Score:2)
Re:AOL Mail access? (Score:2)
One Word, One File (Score:2)
Er... (Score:2)