AOL Launches Free Webmail Service

kmilani2134 writes "America Online is moving into the Web-based e-mail market on Wednesday by tying e-mail into its popular AOL Instant Messenger service. Called AIM Mail, the service marks AOL's latest attempt to reposition itself as a broad portal rather than a subscriber-based service. It also will compete more directly against Yahoo Inc, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN division and Google Inc., all of which have battled over Webmail storage and features over the past year. This was covered by both eWeek and InternetNews.com. Of note, they seem to have incorporated the Mailblocks spam filtering and tracker addresses into their service. It will be interesting to see how long before these new 2 GB accounts are inundated with spam."

Comments

MOD UP PARENT AS "FUNNY"!! :)

[simos]

MOD UP PARENT AS "FUNNY"!! :)

real email?

[krunk4ever]

Now you can also use your AIM screen name as your e-mail address*
Enjoy the convenience of using your AIM screen name as your e-mail address-and take advantage of new and improved features, like:
Spam and Anti-Virus Protection: Industry-leading security tools help keep your mailbox free of annoying junk mail and harmful viruses.
Seamless Integration: Save time by sending an e-mail from your buddy list or replying to an e-mail with an IM.
Message Status: Easily check the status of the messages you send to other AIM or AOL Mail users to see if they've been read or not. You can even "Unsend" one of these messages if no one has read it.
Additional Features: Get all the features you expect, including enhanced spell-checking, auto-addressing, rich-text formatting, message signatures and more!
* If you have an AOL screen name, you can already enjoy all of these benefits and more using AOL.com mail.

first of all, are we getting a real email address? ie (screenname@aim.com) which you can give to people where they can email you directly without going through aim.

second the feature sounds awfully like icq or msn where when someone's offline, you can send them a message to their inbox.

third, will i be able to access the email without using aim's software (ie through webmail or a pop3/imap client). i'd hate to be restricted to 1 program for my email.