Before Gmail there were a multitude of ways to get free email accounts, their big thing was it wasn’t tied to your ISP or whatever (like a university) so you di

Before Gmail there were a multitude of ways to get free email accounts, their big thing was it wasn’t tied to your ISP or whatever (like a university) so you didn’t have to worry about losing access when you switched providers. Also, back in the day, a lot of the websites were advertising for real life things like magazines. Somewhere along the way, dot-com boom I’m guessing, it all shifted and there’s no way you’re getting that cat back in the bag.