alternative email providers?

[metaphortunate]

Nice timing, since my last post. What email providers do people use other than Gmail? I think it's about time to take some of my accounts off of Gmail.

Comments

[kore]

Google can take information you provide on your Google Profile, including your name and photo, and use it on all your other Google products like Gmail -- and can replace past names you used, so you're the same on all sites.

....Hoo boy.

[submarine_bells]

They've been doing that for a while; it's only now they're actually admitting that they're doing so and making it "official".

As I said in reply to another post elsenet about Google's recently-slightly-updated policy on pseudonym use on G+:

It was the nymwars that started the souring of my feelings toward Google. But what really cemented it, and what I don't think they're likely to change, is their attitudehostility toward privacy: stuff like their auto-linking of accounts on different services that they deemed to be owned by the same person, without any input or option by the user (that happened to me and I was unable to reverse it without giving them even more personal private data, which I declined to do); their emphasis on users having ONE AND ONLY ONE ACCOUNT for all their services, all linked up; the impossibility of participating in G+ without having every comment one makes in discussions findable in a google search regardless of the privacy settings one chooses for one's own G+ account (yep, I tested that one too), etc etc. It doesn't really matter if I make a Google account under [wallet name redacted] or as Gertrude Brussel-Sprout - Google will still insist on and enforce me having all my accounts and data under one profile, one unified persona. They've been being downright aggressive about that; and this, more than the nymwars thing, is why I will have no truck with their datamining any more, and am now even using their search engine via an anonymiser (which also has the pleasant side-effect of opting me out of their non-optional adjusting of search results according to geographical location, which can often be beyond annoying).

[metaphortunate]

So, what email provider do you use? And do you like it on mobile?

[submarine_bells]

I'm old-fashioned - I get my email through my ISP, and I don't access it using my mobile. I could if I wanted to - it's a matter of setting up the account on my cellphone, if I could be bothered. But since I'm sitting at my computer all day (most of the time, anyway) I can get my email there - I have no need for mobile email at present. If it's *that* urgent, they can txt me. :-) And when I'm travelling, I tend to use a netbook rather than a cellphone for webstuff anyway, due to the nicer form-facter.

[submarine_bells]

And re email on the netbook - webmail sux, but it suxs substantially less than Google and their pernicious ways. So much for "don't be evil"...

[snippy]

Thanks for the notice, I needed it. Now to wait for the spoons to change everything over to my Panix account.

And by the way, I can recommend Panix as an email provider. You can get a shell account (that is, no dial-up or other access, you have to get online some other way) for a little over $100 per year. They have webmail and you can POP or IMAP your email, too. And the $100 per year includes Usenet. :)

[brainwane]

I use Panix too and it's well worth it. And there are fannish people there.

[khedron]

(which also has the pleasant side-effect of opting me out of their non-optional adjusting of search results according to geographical location, which can often be beyond annoying)

To this specific thing, I've been mostly pleased with location-adjusted searches. When I search for a restaurant, it's unlikely to be the same restaurant my Australian co-worker is searching for (and if it is, I can adjust the search to say so).

I did have a "holy WTF?" moment the first time I saw it in action, though. My mother was in town visiting, and she did a search for "123 N. High Street", no further info, and Google Maps led her to the right address. "How did it do that?" "What do you mean?" "It had to know that you were visiting Ohio to do the right thing there!"

Mostly useful.

[submarine_bells]

I'd like it better if it were optional. Sure, on the rare occasions that I'm looking for a restaurant on Google, result localisation might be handy if I can't recall the full address of the place I'm after; but the rest of the time it's a huge pain in the ass, especially if I'm trying to find stuff that isn't local.

For example, I was recently trying to find some specific road accident stats for some non-Australian country (might have been the US) using Google, and it downright refused to give me the stuff I was after, instead insisting on showing me Australian links regardless of the search terms I used. That really infuriated me.

And there's been a ton of times when I've been trying to find a specific page that a friend overseas is referring to, which is straightforward if they give me a direct URL; but if they say something like "google "blah blah blippety", in quotes, then look at the fourth entry on the first page" (as they sometimes do) the results I get are utterly different to what they're seeing. Which is an outcome that just doesn't occur to folk if they haven't realised that Google do this.

So while there are times that localised search can be handy, I'd much rather be able to switch it on and off depending on what I'm looking for. And Google won't let me. (believe me, I've tried!)

[khedron]

So while there are times that localised search can be handy, I'd much rather be able to switch it on and off depending on what I'm looking for. And Google won't let me. (believe me, I've tried!)

I hear you. Reproducibility goes out the window. And I do want to be able to turn it off sometimes, simply because I always want options and this is out of my control. And while I do restaurant searches every 2-3 weeks, it looks like I do a dozen or more other searches a day.

For example, I was recently trying to find some specific road accident stats for some non-Australian country (might have been the US) using Google,

Funny that you're in Australia -- I picked the right coworker to use as an example!

[serene]

I use my own domain hosting, and can give you a free, unlimited @serenepages.org or @momfoodproject.com email address, either POP or IMAP, if you want.

[brooksmoses]

What I do is take a domain name that I own, and bounce email from there to the email server that my ISP provides.

The advantage of that is that I completely control the email address, and don't have to worry about changing it if I change providers. The disadvantage is that that control only exists as long as I own the domain name, and if for some reason I forget to renew it, it's trivial for someone else to pick it up and start getting all of my email -- including the "please validate that you're who you say you are" emails to change other account passwords.

[serene]

Yep, this is probably why I have occasional severe anxiety moments of OHMIGOD, did I pay the domain registration yet this year??

[dancingsinging]

OMG, how is that not being actively evil!

I vacillate between being about to remove myself from everything on the web and throwing my hands up and just uploading my life to the dataminers. (Once they have everything, then I don't have to fight it anymore, right?)

I srsly can't decide how much time/effort to dedicate to keeping some modicum of privacy on the internet.

I've been using POBOX.COM since 2002

[jesse_the_k]

I paid $25 for 5 years' service back then, before Hotmail/Gmail domination. It's now $20 - $50/year, with the higher price including 10g mailstore and five addresses. They offer POP and IMAP; I IMAP to both my laptop and my iPod touch.

They have actual live people who answer the phone when you're in another state trying to get through a public library's firewall.

Their webmail client isn't as nifty as Gmails', but no ads and promise not to data-mine.

[firecat]

I route my personal mail through my domain host (pair.com) and then send it to panix.com (see snippy's post).

[piglet]

I have 3 paid providers -- I have my own domain, I have a mac.com account, and I have a Panix account. The Panix account I've had the longest and will never give up.

Er, I am also the tech support director there (long-time customer, recent staffer). So. Hi.