Free email has been subject to several embarrassing glitches. Just last month, for instance, Hotmail and other Web-based providers were faced with two potential security breaches. Click for full story . POP-mail providers have had their own problems, from swamped servers to hack attacks to outages. Questions About Popularity.
Some people sign up for free email on a lark, but never really use it.
What started out as an interesting idea has quickly devolved into a commodity business. For instance, the Free Email Address Directory now lists more than 400 sources of free email. Click to visit the directory . With free email so pervasive, it's getting hard for these businesses to show a unique selling proposition. Indeed, many of the email services that started the trend have since been sold to portals such as Yahoo, Netscape and Microsoft.