Will you pay to hang on to your Web e-mail address?

[Jake the Snake]

Today I have heard again on the news that Hotmail and Yahoo intend to charge you for using their email services. Some time ago netaddress(usa.net) started charging for their service. Does anyone know what is the percentage of the people that did pay to keep their account there? I think they have had a quite a big subscriber base.
Would you pay to keep your hotmail or yahoo account? Most of my email comes to one of the hotmail accounts but I still can't pay for something that I can have for free somewhere else. Not even a penny. I understand the economics behind this, just wanted to know your point of view.
p.s. Not the April fool crap.

[Dave Vick]

Most of the charges are for special or premium sevices. Read the full story here.
Dave

[Sita Kodali]

I don't mind paying $30 to Yahoo to have the convenience of downloading my emails to my PC using any email client
--
Venkat

[Andres Gonzalez]

We all knew this was gonna happen. The first step was to offer "good" services, in our case offering free e-mail, for free. Now that you got used to it and you really need it, they (microblows,yahoo, etc..) know that most of the subscribers would pay for a service like this. Hotmail, for example, has more than 100 million accounts and many people will pay for it. I'd do it for yahoo .
I'd think the next service they will charge is the microsoft messenger... and I use it a lot...

[Thomas Paul]

Why on earth would I pay for a yahoo or hotmail account? If they charge for that I could simply open a free e-mail account at any of the millions of other free e-mail providers. I have a nice free account at post.cz. (It helps if you can speak a little Czech).
[ April 01, 2002: Message edited by: Thomas Paul ]

[R K Singh]

If there is a free e-mail service available(even with 2 MB space), I won't pay a single penny.

[Nanhesru Ningyake]

I just paid Hotmail $19.95 to increase my mailbox size - I wish there was an easy way to backup my archives to an Yahoo account

[Thomas Paul]

And I recently installed James on my PC. I could always set myself up as an e-mail server and get all the free accounts I want!

[Angela Poynton]

Well I for one have set up a new e-mail account.
I love how Yahoo have mode it so you have to pay to get your mail redirected as well, I don't care though because nobody knows my yahoo address they just know the forwarding address I use!!

[Thomas Paul]

Originally posted by Andres Gonzalez:
I'd think the next service they will charge is the microsoft messenger... and I use it a lot...

Again, if they start charging then I will simply find another provider that is giving it away. Why anyone would drop a dime on these things is beyond me.

[Andres Gonzalez]

Yes Thomas, you are right. But what I think is that small companies will not be able to run these services for free for a long time. Companies like M$, yahoo did it because they have heaps of money. I think this is the trend in internet: get users, offer service for free, and when they have millions of user depending on it, bang! start charging..
I could easily find another e-mail provider for free, I agree with you. But, letting to know everyone that I've changed my e-mail address is a pain in the neck, don't U think?
BTW Thomas, what are the hardware and sw requirements to install James in my PC?? Sounds like a good idea
cheers

[Thomas Paul]

James requires a Java virtual machine. It helps to have a static IP address (cable modem) so that your email can be properly routed.

[Thomas Paul]

post.cz has been giving free email addresses since 1996.
Besides it's good to change your e-mail address every once in awhile. Keeps you ahead of the spammers.
[ April 02, 2002: Message edited by: Thomas Paul ]

[Nanhesru Ningyake]

>Why anyone would drop a dime on these things is beyond me
True. I have no idea why I gave my money to Microsoft either. I did discover MSN Explorer later, a free download, that lets you archive your Hotmail messages to your PC.

[Peter Lyons]

I guess $20 a year doesn't seem so bad for a permanent e-mail address, and I'm thinking of paying it to be able to use my yahoo address using Outlook. Incidentally, the account is still free, it's POP3 access you pay for - after April - I forget the date. I've been using this account for years and it is on pretty much every resume I have in circulation. Plus, free of charge, every day I get tons of information on who can refinance my home, what marijuana substitutes work just great, where to buy Viagra, where to see "hot babes", how to lose 100 pounds a month with no exercise... and Lord knows, I can't afford to cut myself off from all of that!
The jury is still out on this one.
Fundamentally, I don't have a huge issue with paying for this - they are providing a service of some value to me, and $20 bucks/yr. is hardly exorbitant, and I'm getting pretty good at writing rules to filter out the crap.
I just like the permanence of it!

[Valentin Crettaz]

I'm not greedy but I'm never gonna pay for any email services. I've been using Yahoo and Hotmail for over 8 years now, I like the features they are offering for free but if they suddenly decide to make people pay for that, I'd be happy to go see somewhere else. I'm even ready to learn Czech if I have to

[Amitabh Sharma]

I have an hotmail account that I use and I am ready to pay for it. But will they ensure that I dont get any unsolicited mails. My filters are useless.

[Manoj Pandey]

I think may people will pay, as it will become a trend to be associated with paid email

[Valentin Crettaz]

it will become a trend to be associated with paid email
How is that

[Jeroen Wenting]

I don't use my Hotmail account enough for its continuation to be worth money to me.
If I want webbased email I can just enable my own webmail server and use that instead...
Messenger is similar. While nice to have I can easily live without it.