Free Email R.I.P.
The Free Email Death-Watch
Chronology of major changes in the free email industry
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 differ from the announced closure date since services are not necessarily switched off on the pre-announced date.
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
November 2006
October 2006
July 2006
June 2006
December 2005
November 2005
September 2005
June 2005
November 2004
October 2004
August 2004
June 2004
May 2004
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
January 2004
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
July 2003
June 2003
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
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
June 2002
May 2002
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
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
August 2001
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
April 2001
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