Email R.I.P. - The Free Email Death-Watch
Chronology tracking the major service changes and closures in the free email industry since 2001.
NOTE
The listed dates are based on customer service announcements from each service provider to their user base. In practice, the effective closure date may be different from the announced closure date since services are not necessarily switched off exactly on the pre-announced date.
JUNE 2011
- 1 June 2011: MyRealBox.com email service - shut down
- 1 June 2011: IMAP4All email service - shut down
AUGUST 2010
- 31 August 2010: Portalen.no email service - shut down
FEBRUARY 2010
- February 28: Zenbe.com email - for fee only
JANUARY 2010
- January 20: DaCafe.com email - shut down
DECEMBER 2009
- December 15: AlloyMail.com email - shut down
March 2009
- March 30: Yahoo Briefcase online file storage - shut down
- March 18: Yahoo MyWeb online bookmarking service - shut down
February 2009
- February 15: Lycos.co.uk email service - shut down
January 2009
- January 12: XDrive online file hosting service - shut down
June 2008
- June 20: BlueBottle email - for fee
January 2008
- January 20: Piazza Dell'Arte email - shut down
November 2007
- November 30: SwissInfo.org Email - shut down
July 2007
- July 1: XS2Mail - shut down
May 2007
- May 31: iHEKA.com - shut down
- May 7: Dongo.com Mail - shut down
April 2007
- April 30: WorldEmail.com - shut down
March 2007
- March 16: CollegeClub - shut down
- March 15: TakeMail.com - shut down
February 2007
- February 23: Canadian.com email - shut down
- February 16: Cashette.com - shut down
November 2006
- November 30: SmartGroups.com - shut down
- November 1: Freemail.nl - shut down
October 2006
- October 27: MollyMail - shut down
July 2006
- July 7: BigMailbox - shut down
June 2006
- June 30: POP3Now - shut down
December 2005
- December 24: PumaPost - shut down
November 2005
- November 16: Mailblocks - shut down
September 2005
- September 25: Postmark.net - shut down
June 2005
- June 30: ZipLip.com free service - shut down
November 2004
- November 5: JLMail - shut down
October 2004
- October 7: Tmicha.net - for fee
August 2004
- August 9: Inbox.com - shut down
- Early August: Mailblocks - for fee
June 2004
- June 12: Neustreet - for fee
May 2004
- May 31: AngelFire Email - shut down
April 2004
- April 30: JungleMate - shut down (for new registrations. Existing users can keep their email accounts by paying to upgrade before the shutdown date)
- April 25: BurntMail.com - for fee
- April 9: GeekMail.com - shut down
- April 1: FuseMail.com - for fee
March 2004
- March 31: JMail.co.jp - shut down
- March 5: MyInboxPlus.com - shut down
- March 3: DigitalMe.com - shut down (Active account names may be preserved if action is taken before the shutdown)
- In March: BurntMail.com - for fee
February 2004
- February 1: Lycos Communities (chat, message boards, clubs, image galleries) - shut down
January 2004
- January 31: NewMail.net email service - shut down
September 2003
- September 30: PaxEmail.com shut down
- September 1: Graffiti.net POP3, IMAP and email forwarding goes for fee - only web-based email remains free
August 2003
- August 15: 852.net shut down
- August 11: PrivateMail.com shut down
July 2003
- July 31: Counter.com goes 100% for fee, LoveMail.com shut down
- July 11: Dygo.com goes for fee
June 2003
- June 25: MSN Calendar service goes for fee
- June 8: 21Box.com email service shut down
May 2003
- May 31: Dog.com email service shut down, DayDiary.com goes for fee
- May 30: Canada.com's email forwarding service goes for fee (web-based email remains free)
- May 21: MSN Photos photo storage service goes for fee
- May 15: Crosswinds.net goes for fee
April 2003
- April 21: NetPen.net, Konzoo.com email services shut down
- April 7: MagicalDesk.com email service goes for fee
March 2003
- March 31: IMGStudio.com free online photo storage shut down
- March 24: MySun free email service shut down
- March 23: Mbox.com.au goes exclusively for fee
- March 14: UniversalPostOffice goes for fee
- March 13: iVillage email service shut down
- March 11: Subdimension email service shut down
- Also in March: eOrders email service shut down
February 2003
- February 18: Toast.com, Devil.com services shut down
- February 15: MailandNews.com email service likely to go for fee (date approximate)
- February 7: WebSpawner.com email service goes for fee (all existing emails will be lost)
December 2002
- December 20: Altavista.co.uk, Altavista.fr, Altavista.de email services shut down
- December 15: GeoButton visitor tracking service goes for-fee
- December 12: Evil Email goes for-fee
- December 8: KTurn.com online file storage service shut down
- December 1: Law.com email service shut down, Atelo.com unified messaging service shut down
November 2002
- November 30: Locos.com email shut down
- November 22: FishingLife email shut down
- November 8: SuperMail.com goes for-fee (all free service user emails were deleted)
- November 4: JoyMail shut down
- November 1: NamePlanet.com, PakistanMail.com go for-fee
October 2002
- October 31: Highabove email shut down
- October 1: DNS2Go goes for-fee
September 2002
- September 30: Mac.com iTools service goes for-fee
- September 9: ZZN Mail's POP3 access goes for-fee, web-based email still free
- September 1: Eurosport.com, Space.com shut down; Ematic.com goes for-fee
August 2002
- August 26: BeSeen.com shut down
- August 22: HyperOffice.com goes for-fee
- August 5: TalkCity.com shut down
July 2002
- July 1: AnytimeNow.com goes for-fee
June 2002
- June 30: Suite101 Email shut down
- June 2: Start.com.au shut down
May 2002
- May 15: StorageVault goes for-fee
- May 15: Media1st.com shut down
April 2002
- April 30: USA.net-powered AmexMail goes for-fee
- April 24: Yahoo! Mail POP3 access and mail forwarding go for-fee (web-based email still free)
- April 15: OneBox goes for-fee
- April 7: KeftaMail shut down
March 2002
- March 31: Altavista Mail, MomsLife.com Mail shut down, ItList (bookmark service) goes for-fee
- March 15: OperaMail changes service providers and scales back service offering, preserving user accounts but losing all existing email messages
February 2002
- February 28: NameZero (free domain name service) shut down, MailAndNews supposed to stop, but is bought out and re-started with 24 hours notice to users
- February 18: Another.com goes for-fee
- February 15: NetIdentity/Friendly Email goes for-fee, NamePlanet mail forwarding goes for-fee web-based email still free)
January 2002
- January 15: N2 Mail shut down
- January 14: Ireland.com e-mail goes for-fee
- January 11: Freeze.com Mail goes for-fee
December 2001
- December 31: Geek.com goes for-fee, Excite UK Mail, StarTrekMail.com shut down
- December 21: Visto/MyVisto service shut down
- December 1: Mail.com/Email.com and Mail.com-powered forwarding services go for-fee (web-based email still free)
- Also in December: AT&T "kills" 1 million+ addresses by switching users from @home.com to @attbi.com domains - without forwarding mails addressed to @home.com!
November 2001
- November 15: BN3 shut down
- November 1: ApexMail goes for-fee, ZXMail goes for-fee
October 2001
- October 31: Valise shut down, Stoned.com shut down
- October 1: 2ndMail goes for-fee, Runbox goes for-fee
- Also in October: USA.net/NetAddress goes for-fee
September 2001
- September 28: WorldMailer shut down
- September 7: Box.com shut down
August 2001
- August 1: Mail Options (MailOps.com) goes for-fee
July 2001
- July 27: eVoice (free voicemail) shut down
- July 1: MacBox.com goes for-fee, FirstName.com goes for-fee
- Also in July: NetAddress goes for-fee
June 2001
- June 30: ChickMail shut down
- June 18: GameSpot Mail shut down
- Also in June: Celtic Mail goes for-fee
May 2001
- May 11: Coolemail.net (PlanetaryMotion) shut down
- May 10: ZKey (email and file storage) shut down
April 2001
- April 27: XDrive (file storage) goes for-fee
- April 15: Looksmart Mail shut down
