How long have you been using your email services?

[TenFour]

What is your current email service you have been using the longest? In my case it is Gmail since 2006, so about 18 years. I used various other services before that, including Fastmail, but none of my current services have been in use as long as Gmail.

[Berenburger]

Gmail since 2004.
Pobox since 2012.
Fastmail since 2021.
Hey since 2021 (current).
Black.com since 2023 (playground/testing).

[jeffpan]

Gmail - 20 years my fullname
Yahoo - 20 years my fullname
iCloud - 12 years my fullname
Pobox - 16 years
GMX - 14 years
Proton - 8 years

[n5bb]

The longest continuously used email service I have used is Fastmail (paid account in April 2004). At work we used various internal early email systems in the late 1980’s before the internet as we know it now was popular. My other personal accounts (Microsoft, Yahoo, Gmail) were activated later. I purchased my personal domain in 1999, and for 5 years used my domain reseller NameSecure to redirect email and website for my domain to the ISP host. Email for my personal domain has been hosted directly at Fastmail for years.

Before that I used various ISP email systems and played with AOL and Compuserve. Before that dial-up BBS messaging and an early Western Union digital store and forward messaging system.

I’m an Amateur Radio operator, and starting in 1970 (54 years ago) I was sending Radiograms via digital means over radio via CW (Morse Code) and RTTY (RadioTeletype). The Morse Code messages were manually generated and received by ear, while the RTTY was initially sent by an electromechanical apparatus (Teletype) and later from a pre-Windows PC. Later I also used other digital RF techniques with a PC such as AMTOR and packet radio). These were used to communicate with random text (similar to texting) and also for messages with a defined format (somewhat similar to email). These Radiogram messages were usually forwarded by others to the final destination, similar to email delivery but with humans rather than servers.

Bill

[hadaso]

Fastmail: since 2002 that is 21 or 22 years. that's practically the only one I use regularly, and my domains are hosted there.



Gmail: since June 2004 that is 19 and a half years. I use it mainly as a Google account and not for the email' and I have cross forwarding set with the Fastmail account, so it's sort of a backup.


My current employer: I have a work email address since 2003 (more than 20 years).


Yahoo: since September 1998, so that's about 25 years. I don't really use it. Just keep the account alive so they don't close it.


Hotmail: a few months after Yahoo, so it's also 25 years. I POP that address into my Fastmail account and get only messages from Microsoft and some very little spam.


I had some other addressees form previous employers, that were all closed more than 20 years ago. The earliest in 1991. Technically I also had an email address I could use in 1979 on BITNET when I was in youth activities is Weizmann institute of science, but I had no one to correspond with so I didn't use it for email.



I had addresses from some other services, also closed more than 20 years ago. The one I used most seriously was from Onebox, that offered an email service with a phone number (a voicemail box in the USA). I move to Fastmail when Onebox closed.

[babybat]

Hotmail since 2000
about 24 years now

[somdcomputerguy]

I've been using Fastmail for close to 20 years now. I have an email account as part of my web hosting package, I've had that for close to 25 years. I have both Squirrelmail and Rainloop installed (by me) in that web host.

- Bruce

[TenFour]

I should ask the follow up question. What email service do you currently use that you trust to still be in existence after you die? About the only one I can name is Gmail--too big to fail, and it has a legacy option where you can have chosen contacts notified in case your account becomes inactive and they can have access to selected data. I know that many on here say that email at your own domain is the longest term email, but I'm not so sure. Let's say I become incapacitated and the bill at the domain host or the email provider doesn't get paid. Plus, adding more companies, logins, accounts, etc. to the mix just adds more points of entry for hackers or just system failures.

[hadaso]

Personally I trust Fastmail to stay. They are 25 years old and are still in their growing phase. They don't rush anywhere: they build their service slowly.


I'm quite sure Gmail is here to stay: that is unless Google will come up with something that can replace email and they can make it happen (unlike Google Wave). If anyone can make something like this happen, it's only Google, and if they can they will, don't believe this can happen in my lifetime.


Hotmail (and it's various synonyms such as MSN, Live, Outlook etc.) is here to stay as long as people use email. I don't believe that Microsoft will be the one to replace email by something else.


Apple mail probably also is here to stay, and Apple will not be the one to replace email since they are a closed network.


Another one I use and I forgot to mention: Spamgourmet: it almost died with the person operating it, and it was saved by someone who volunteered to keep it going, and I don;t think it would go away any time soon, and when the comes another volunteer will take it.


If you mean which one of my email accounts would outlive me: I guess my own domain. My kids are also using it for their main accounts, and they would keep it going.

[TenFour]

I sometimes wonder if Outlook.com will stay around. Sure, the Outlook and Exchange parts of Microsoft 365 will probably continue to exist, but Ms is so focused on enterprise I imagine Outlook.com is just a pain for them. I could see Apple trying to move everyone to something like Messages and Facetime, and they have a history of just making up a new standard and forcing it on their loyal users. If it weren't for the EU Apple would still force everyone to buy proprietary cables to charge their phones. OTOH, providing email services for Apple and Ms is just a rounding error in their books, so probably not a priority to get rid of the hassle that I suspect loses them money.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by TenFour

... I imagine Outlook.com is just a pain for them. ..., providing email services for Apple and Ms is just a rounding error in their books, so probably not a priority to get rid of the hassle that I suspect loses them money.

That depends on how you count the money. Each of these services has hundreds of millions of users tied to the service because it is part of their identity (an email address that is not easily replaceable). So for each of these companies these are hundreds of millions of guinea pigs they can experiment with, and giving these guinea pigs up is letting go of an important resource that all their competitors have.

[jdtaylor]

I still have yahoo from a good 27 years aprox. It’s mainly newsletters.

[TenFour]

I closed my Yahoo account a long time ago after it collected endless spam. Never had an email address that collected spam like that.

[Kostia]

NETSCAPE 16 years - I've been using NETSCAPE (now AOL) for 16 years as my main email.. It's actually a pretty decent service. Problem in Europe tho (where it's not allowed for some reason...need a VPN). Have always used it exclusively with a mail manager.

YAHOO - have been using Yahoo as my pour-over email (where everything else gets collected) for 12 years

LYCOS - 6 years - I know it's supposed to be dead, but i still use is as my junk email. Pours over into my Yahoo so i don't need to struggle with the LYCOS system (which is pretty bad).

GMAIL - Have had an account for 19 years. Sorry guys, but i just don't get the attraction. I have it set to forward to my YAHOO account.

MAIL.COM - 5 Years - these guys allow you to pick your own email name. Pretty cool. use it for specific stuff in my life (health reports, travel confirms).

PROTONMAIL - this is my fooling around email. Have used it for about 3 years.

As a mail manager, I used Eudora for about 25 years. It was hands down my all time favorite. When their technology began to cause problems, I moved to TB and then Mailbird. Mailbird is pretty rinky dink...amateur hour. Now back to Thunderbird and happy. But it's still no Eudora!

In the mail manager arena, I've also tried The BAT!, Postbox, and BETTERBIRD.. Couldn't really get TheBAT! to work. Postbox seemed worse than Mailbird.

[hadaso]

Originally Posted by Kostia

MAIL.COM - 5 Years - these guys allow you to pick your own email name. Pretty cool....

What's an "email name"?