I've got a possible invite to Gmail (in exchange for a couch I am getting rid of anyways) - I know enough about it about their advertising via scanning your e-mails which supposedly is an acceptable privacy invasion for 1GB of free e-mail storage (currently, my yahoo accounts are 6MB & 4MB accounts) - but then I came across Aventuremail - which I've signed up for (www.aventuremail.com) that'll give me a free 2GB account (and it's still new enough that I go the username I want - like anyone is ever going to pick bhatnasx, but I also got one with my first name & lastname's initial - which for me, is something that no other free e-mail account has been able to give me before!) - but I know nothing about Aventuremail & how they make their money - I understand how Google does it, but not how Aventuremail does it - any ideas? I'd like to turn the Aventuremail account into my primary, but before I do it, I need to know how they make their money. Thanks!

Thansk for the tip, I at least registered a name there I wanted, I already had my preference on Gmail... Gotta get in early

No problem Scott - it seems like they have a decent interface & it'll be a good account - but I just don't see how they can operate on their monthly fees for bigger accounts - it seems like they'd need some sort of additional revenue - advertising, selling of account info, something - just not sure what!

I signed up 2 weeks ago. I learned about them from the spymac.com forum. So between aventure and spymac I have 3gb of online email space which makes me want to delete my puny hotmail account. The name aventure seems a little too awkward to give to peers for communication needs. I can imagine how many people will screw it up. So I will probably use it as the ultimate spam account.

BTW Gmail can go screw itself. I doubt if I will even bother with them except to have another spam-anator account.

Just tell your peers it's adventure without the d.

Well, I've signed up for both, so I guess I'll just play around with each one to see which I like better.

Thanks!

Just out of curiousity, why the animosity?

I am against the whole we will only scan ur e-mail to find better advertisement for u nonsense. They will eventually abuse their technology, all corporations do at some point for the name of profit and competitive edge.

And you are perfectly allowed to decide against using it, but there are plenty of people that are willing to accept some ad's in exchange for the services Google has to offer.

At least Google is honest upfront about using the content to offer ad's.

When hotmail started many years ago they had no banners, no "premium services" and no rules on amount of email sent etc... THEN Microsoft took over. I'd much rather have honesty upfront with the option not to participate than be screwed over afterwards.

We are currently not accepting new registrations. Accounts can be purchased in our store (http://www.aventuremail.co.uk/store) in the mean time.

darn, wish i saw this earlier . i used to run out of yahoo space all the time until they started to count spam separately. still, 6mb is puny.

i've never heard about adventuremail until now (will check it out), but i have to say that i'm really happy with gmail. they can search all they want for all i care; i find the UI far less intrusive than even yahoo. plus my outgoing messages don't get tagged with any crap like that on my supposedly ad-free stanfordalumni.org account.

all that aside, the organization is tight, search functions are awesome, and i really like the whole idea of storing conversations as strings rather than disparate emails.

in short, my flash disk allowed me to leave my laptop behind and now gmail has allowed me to ditch the flash disk as well and stay relatively organized at the same time.

If you have a yahoo account - login & check it out - whos wants my attention more? 100MB is plenty, IMHO, so now I may actually stick with my yahoo & go with yahoo & gmail & use aventuremail for spam & other stuff

for the 20$ a year they are now charging, getting 2 GB, and getting POP access makes it worth while for me.

I do use aventure, but find their interface poor and servers slow. I like the spymac account and since it is POP3 accessable, it is worthwhile.

I don't think I will use gmail for anything, but spam account

i just noticed that my yahoo account has been enhanced -- the wonders of competition.

i still don't understand the open hostilities towards gmail being promoted here. as i said before, the interface is really slick imo (much better navigation and functionality than yahoo, hotmail, mail.com, etc).

as for pop access, that has kept several of my friends on the sidelines as well, but i personally prefer web-based mail so long as quota isn't an issue.

it will be interesting to see google's competitive response to the new yahoo offering.