You can endlessly debate whether or not this is a universal truth. AltaVista Mail takes something of a minimalist approach to Web e-mail. It offers only the most common functions sending, receiving, and storing messages. Beyond the graphical interface, there s little that any other service doesn t have. One difference is AltaVista Mail s Alternate Address function.
Human beings tend to forget things like phone numbers, names, and especially passwords.
This could be a mail account with an ISP, or your address at school or work. After you log in, you arrive at a splash screen. While you can access various folders and functions, most of this screen is taken up with ads for AltaVista s pay services. You have to click to get to your in box. This adds an extra and unnecessary layer of complexity to the process.