Filtering the Inflow - Information Trapping: Real-Time Research on the Web - page 232

Other E-Mail Options

Of course, maybe you're not interested in using GMail. Maybe you don't
think it's that great. Maybe you're not interested in Web-based e-mail read-
ers. Maybe you want to try something besides GMail. I don't want to leave
you out in the cold, so let me make a few suggestions.

For the most part, you have two e-mail options—Web-based (everything
happens on the Web, so it doesn't matter which computer you're using or
what operating system it's using) and client-based (the e-mail program sits
on your computer and therefore you have to be at that computer to access
your e-mail). Sometimes a solution can be both, especially if you use difer-
ent computers between work and home. You can access your mail via the
Web, and then come home and download it to your computer.

Web-based e-mail
Gmail isn't the end of all available Web-based mail services. In fact, it's
barely the beginning. Several search engines and many, many independent
companies ofer Web-based e-mail. Take a look at Yahoo's mail ofering,
and then check with your ISP.

. Yahoo Mail (mail.yahoo.com). Yahoo doesn't ofer as much storage
as GMail does (as of this writing, it has only 1GB of storage) but it
does ofer spam and virus protection, as well as the ability to send
Yahoo Alerts to your cell phone. And while you can only set up to 15
ilters, you can block up to 500 addresses.

Your ISP . Check and see if your ISP ofers the ability to read mail
online—most of them do. Your ISP's home page should let you know
whether it ofers this feature. Oten it's linked from the front page
( Figure 10.6 ).
I ind this useful for when I'm away from home and I've just got to
check on something. I go to a secure computer, log in to my e-mail,
log out, and feel secure in the knowledge that I haven't deleted my
e-mail—I've just looked at it. he message I looked at will still be
there when I go to my main computer later and download my mail.

.