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In 1996 I'd say most people got their email address through a large institution and had to change email addresses every time they changed institutions. For man

In 1996 I'd say most people got their email address through a large institution and had to change email addresses every time they changed institutions. For many that was their work or school email address. For the average folks that was their ISP. It's one of the huge reasons there are STILL people using AOL. Running your own mailserver has always been difficult (depending on your skill level). Gmail came out and provided people an option for an email address that was highly portable and accessible. The family box is a nice idea, but relying on the goodwill of the family computer whiz is unlikely to provide people with a stable email server.

digisign 12y ago
Gmail? Hotmail came out in '96, Yahoo mail not long after. The opportunity regarding the family appliance, if there is one, is to make it self-managing.
- manachar 12y ago
  Ah, yes, very good point. I didn't mean to insinuate that Gmail was the first. Hotmail rocked when it came out and made me a happy customer when I could have a personal email address that wouldn't change. Gmail entered later in the game and "bought" new users with massive free storage and a more modern web interface.
- tacostakohashi 12y ago
  It's true that Hotmail & Yahoo were available well before Gmail, but pre-AJAX webmail wasn't fit for serious use - it was more of a backup for people traveling, or for ad-hoc use, and most email use was from desktop software (Eudora, Outlook Express, etc). Gmail was really the first webmail usable as a person's only email address, lot least because of the 1G storage on offer.
  - digisign 12y ago
    Not sure I agree. Webmail has always been usable for normal people, while power users could and do use a dedicated program. Gmail did bring innovations, of course, but competitors copied them. I've noticed Gmail users tend to be unaware of alternatives and always wondered why that is.
  - Al-Khwarizmi 12y ago
    I was a user of Yahoo mail from 1996 or so, and it fit my bill just fine. I preferred it to POP and IMAP clients as I could use it from anywhere without worries. The pure HTML interface was much leaner and faster than the bloated Ajax versions that came later, and I kept using the old HTML version and disabling new versions until they definitely phased it out. I did switch most of my use to Gmail when it came out, but it was due to superior search and more space, not due to Ajax.
  - slavik81 12y ago
    I signed up for hotmail in 1998 and didn't use a desktop client for it until maybe 2008. It was perfectly fine for me as a student, though I did wish I could attach larger PowerPoint presentations.
gingerlime 12y ago
I also run my own email server, but it's not something I would easily recommend. In 1996, the anti-spam measures were totally different. Notice I'm saying anti-spam, not spam (even though of course there's no one without the other). Getting a "clean" IP today on providers like DigitalOcean, is far from trivial. Several big players (from my personal experience, yahoo) will likely blacklist the entire net range with little or no options to get it unlisted. So sending out emails is a gamble. Setting up DKIM / SPF is also a minor hurdle and won't necessarily help that much. And that's just outbound emails, not to mention fighting incoming spam... If we're talking about family (which is what my own mail server is used for) - they too are used to things like Google, so it's hard to compete in terms of integration and ease of use there. Explaining to my sister how to set her iPhone, or to my brother and his wife who want to access the same email account on two computers... things get tricky very fast...
- danieldk 12y ago
  Explaining to my sister how to set her iPhone, or to my brother and his wife who want to access the same email account on two computers... iPhone supports IMAP just fine, so that is not much effort :). But your point is true, operating a mailserver with reliable delivery is difficult, given the importance IP reputation. Badly maintained family boxes would just be a spam-nest. Also, for the $40 per year I spend on Fastmail, it is not really profitable for me. Though I had a mail server for a while, when it was still fun ;).
  - schrodinger 12y ago
    > iPhone supports IMAP just fine, so that is not much effort :). What about password resets? Two factor auth? It's not just the email that's hard!

digisign 12y ago

Gmail? Hotmail came out in '96, Yahoo mail not long after. The opportunity regarding the family appliance, if there is one, is to make it self-managing.

manachar 12y ago
Ah, yes, very good point. I didn't mean to insinuate that Gmail was the first. Hotmail rocked when it came out and made me a happy customer when I could have a personal email address that wouldn't change. Gmail entered later in the game and "bought" new users with massive free storage and a more modern web interface.
tacostakohashi 12y ago
It's true that Hotmail & Yahoo were available well before Gmail, but pre-AJAX webmail wasn't fit for serious use - it was more of a backup for people traveling, or for ad-hoc use, and most email use was from desktop software (Eudora, Outlook Express, etc). Gmail was really the first webmail usable as a person's only email address, lot least because of the 1G storage on offer.
- digisign 12y ago
  Not sure I agree. Webmail has always been usable for normal people, while power users could and do use a dedicated program. Gmail did bring innovations, of course, but competitors copied them. I've noticed Gmail users tend to be unaware of alternatives and always wondered why that is.
- Al-Khwarizmi 12y ago
  I was a user of Yahoo mail from 1996 or so, and it fit my bill just fine. I preferred it to POP and IMAP clients as I could use it from anywhere without worries. The pure HTML interface was much leaner and faster than the bloated Ajax versions that came later, and I kept using the old HTML version and disabling new versions until they definitely phased it out. I did switch most of my use to Gmail when it came out, but it was due to superior search and more space, not due to Ajax.
- slavik81 12y ago
  I signed up for hotmail in 1998 and didn't use a desktop client for it until maybe 2008. It was perfectly fine for me as a student, though I did wish I could attach larger PowerPoint presentations.

gingerlime 12y ago

I also run my own email server, but it's not something I would easily recommend. In 1996, the anti-spam measures were totally different. Notice I'm saying anti-spam, not spam (even though of course there's no one without the other). Getting a "clean" IP today on providers like DigitalOcean, is far from trivial. Several big players (from my personal experience, yahoo) will likely blacklist the entire net range with little or no options to get it unlisted. So sending out emails is a gamble. Setting up DKIM / SPF is also a minor hurdle and won't necessarily help that much. And that's just outbound emails, not to mention fighting incoming spam... If we're talking about family (which is what my own mail server is used for) - they too are used to things like Google, so it's hard to compete in terms of integration and ease of use there. Explaining to my sister how to set her iPhone, or to my brother and his wife who want to access the same email account on two computers... things get tricky very fast...

danieldk 12y ago
Explaining to my sister how to set her iPhone, or to my brother and his wife who want to access the same email account on two computers... iPhone supports IMAP just fine, so that is not much effort :). But your point is true, operating a mailserver with reliable delivery is difficult, given the importance IP reputation. Badly maintained family boxes would just be a spam-nest. Also, for the $40 per year I spend on Fastmail, it is not really profitable for me. Though I had a mail server for a while, when it was still fun ;).
- schrodinger 12y ago
  > iPhone supports IMAP just fine, so that is not much effort :). What about password resets? Two factor auth? It's not just the email that's hard!