Another Advert! (another.com)

Member Name: cheekywill

Product:	another.com
Date:	18/09/01 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free

Disadvantages: Advertisements, banners, pop-ups

Another free email provider offering a wide variety of services. This one does have an exceptional difference, but as always there is a downside.

I was one of the early users of another.com, the fact I could essentially 'choose my own domain' name was attractive in itself. I mean I wanted to be the international man of mystery, or I wanted to let a particular someone know that 'ihateyou'. I basically wanted many identities, but an identity which stands out, I mean c'mon it's fairly hard to have a unique identity on the Internet is it not?

This is probably the sole difference between another.com and everyone else. Over half the net population have somethingorother@hotmail.com. But you know cheekywill20093845756@hotmail.com don't quite do anything for me, nor did the alternatives offered.

Why not have iamjusta@cheekymonkey.co.uk, or what about ohwell@theendoftheday.co.uk. See unique they can be!

That is really what another.com is all about, the ability to choose from a multitude of domains and you assign whatever you want in front of the @ sign.

Did I mention a downside?

Afraid so. With the Internet as it is advertising seems to becoming popular everywhere, and since online advertising is now relatively useless or as the men in suits would say going through a downturn, advertisiements are on the increase.

Another.com are into advertisers in a big way. And I can understand their point of view, they are offering a free email service, and someone has to foot the bill. But to the extent they are currently?

On arriving at the homepage this morning I was presented with three pop-ups which are increasing in physical size every day. On the main homepage there are 5 main advertisers on there, each one grinding a dial-up modem to a halt. It now takes at least 10 times longer to load the main homepage than what it did when I first signed up to this service.

It is appallin
g, I am not interested in adverts being thrown in my face, if I want to know about a service or need a service I will go look for it myself.

The advertising aspect is the only real downside. Once your in another.com you have all the many options to keep you in an email frenzy:

Overview
As the title suggests it gives you an complete overview of your account. Your list of folders, with total messages inside them, a list of all your email addresses amongst other things.

Domain Names
This is where you choose your domain names for your email addresses. You are permitted to have upto 20 different email addresses, all of which arrive at the same inbox. From this section of the site you can search through a multitude of names.

Compose Email
You need an explanation? Compose and send your email, including adding attachments, add signatures etc. When composing your email there is a popup menu where you can select the email address you want in the From and Reply-To fields, which is useful if you have 20 email addresses.

NEW! Send Text Messages (SMS)
It seems another.com have partnered up with genie.co.uk to offer free text messaging from your another.com account. Not tried it and probably never will. You do need to register with genie.co.uk to use this service.

Inbox/Check Email
Yep, you guessed it, view your inbox.

Sent
Emails you have asked to be saved when sending get stored here.

Your Folders
Create, Edit, Delete unique folders to store your saved emails. Also has the ability to tell you how much of your mail quota your currently using.

Address Book
Yes your own collection of nutty friends contact details from around the world.

File Store.
Okay adding attachments is slightly different to other email providers. When you attach a file to an email it is actually saved in the file store. You then select the file(s) you want to attach to the email from th
e list given to you in the file store. Also have the ability to upload and delete files directy to and from the file store.

Your Options
Basically your preferences. Choose how you want your inbox to look, your signatures, change your password etc.

Feedback
An option to send your disgust at the amount of advertising they are throwing at us. As well as other things.

FAQ
Need to know something which three billion people have asked before you? Look here!

Help
Did not find what you wanted in the FAQ? Generally the site is not working? Click here!

And finally LOGOUT BEFORE YOU LEAVE (WITH A CATCH)
Yes yet another catch. Before you can log out fully, you need to click and advertising banner!! Hello, seem to remember ranting on about advertising a short while back. Won’t make you endure it again, but you get the picture.

The service on a whole is really not too bad. I have never had any problems sending or receiving emails. Customisation of your account is fairly painless. Email can be read in both text and html format.

But I rarely use the site any more purely because it takes an eternity to load on a dial-up connection. Another.com seem to have lost their way a little, and are putting all their efforts into making users view adverts.

I would rather pay a small fee for ther service.

Incidentally they do offer other things, like the ability to buy a domain name that no-one owns and use it yourself. As well as let your friends use too. Oh and you can order t-shirts with your very own email address printed on it...ummm.

I am going to shutup now, been going on far too much.

In conclusion another.com is up there with most other free email providers. The ability to choose your own domain name and have upto 20 at any time is a big bonus. Although visually and in terms of functionality it is not as slick as other services, it is simple, clear and concise. r><br>
But be aware of the advertising, it seems to be increasing at this time particularly seeing as there was one banner advert on the homepage when I originally signed upto this service over a year ago.

Try it, costs you nothing, and if nothing else you can amuse or annoy your friends with some wild and wonderful email addresses.


*****************UPDATE*********************
Please bear in mind the above opinion was written a good while ago. Since that time you now have to pay for the use of Another.com's services.

Whether or not their services have improved/declined I could not tell you as I declined their introductory offer - pay for email? No don't think so.