Tools for Evaluating Email Providers

Research carefully before deciding on an email provider.

Your email provider is a portal to your online life. Along with social networking, email provides the predominant method of your virtual communication. Find an email provider that fits your lifestyle and preferences. Most email providers allow free signup, so to prepare for your evaluation, sign up for accounts on multiple sites. Until you know what is available, you won't know what you might be giving up --- or what you might want to avoid.

Ease of Use

Use each provider for a week or two, and you'll begin to appreciate the patterns for common processes. Which one feels the most intuitive to you? Some providers allow for drag-and-drop email organization; others require an extra click or two when moving a message to a folder. Some pop up with contact addresses as you begin to type them; with others, you must open your address book every time you don't remember an address completely.

Contact List

Transferring contacts from a previous provider to a new one can be time intensive, depending on the length of your list. Some providers will allow you to import your contacts from other services --- potentially a major factor in your decision. If a provider permits imports, follow the steps to attempt the import. You may find that the import does not function as stated, or that the information does not appear not in the proper locations. Compare the depth of information you can store in your contact list as well. Some providers allow for more detail than others, such as birthdays, alternate addresses and photos.

Multiple Devices

If you commonly use a cell phone, test your different email accounts to verify that you can check all of them using your brand and service provider. Some mail providers will function better with certain phones, and until you actually try it, you won't know for sure how well it will work. Work through the entire interface, from reading messages to sending them to adding a contact to the address book. Email can function extremely differently on your phone from the way it functions in a typical computer-based browser.

Extra Features

Some email providers include a calendar, while others include games or other integrated applications. Check the calendar feature, if it provides one, to see whether it can send you reminders of important dates or meetings. Some providers allow you to take advantage of a variety of services when you sign up for email, such as free online word processing or Web page hosting. Many email providers also include an instant chatting service, accessible directly in the browser, to chat with others online who are in your contact list, and using the same provider.

References

• Consumer Search: Webmail Reviews