A problem with instant messaging is that it can be tough to get the same screen name on all services you use. Most people these days choose to employ the use of a multi-protocol instant messaging program such as Digsby, Trillian, Miranda, Adium or Pidgin, and having all those different names can be aggravating for others to remember. You can, however, use your email address as your screen name for just about every single IM service there is.

Before telling you how this is done per each service, there are a few things to bear in mind.

The email address you choose as your screen name must be one that you own and use regularly. In other words, don’t use your work email address.

Don’t use an email address that is "tied" to your ISP, because at some point in the future you may change ISPs.

Try to use an address that doesn’t have any dots, dashes or underscores in it. If you can’t do that, that’s understandable, but be aware that some IM services won’t permit usernames that contain characters like that.

How to register your email address as your screen name in..

MSN/Windows Live

1. Go to www.live.com.
2. Click the Sign in link at top right.
3. Click the Sign up button on the left.
4. The first field will be Use your e-mail address. Proceed from there.

AIM

1. Go to www.aim.com.
2. Click Get a screen name at top right.
3. Choose Use an existing email address as a Screen Name. Proceed from there.

Google Talk

This one takes a few hoops to jump thru to get this working, but can be done.

1. Go to www.google.com.
2. Click the Sign in link at top right.
3. Click Create an account now at bottom right.
4. Use your current email address as your screen name on the next page and continue sign-up.

The hoops you have to jump thru at this point are that after you’ve created your Google account, you will need to also create a Gmail account in order to use the Google Talk service. Once you’ve finished signing up, go to www.google.com/accounts and add in the Gmail service. Yes, you will have to create an Gmail account "on top of" your Google account, but both will be "tied" together afterward. Then people can start sending you instant messages via your Google Talk account.

Yahoo!

This IM service doesn’t allow the creation of accounts using your email address, however, being that MSN/Live accounts and Yahoo! accounts can interact with each other easily, all anybody has to do is send you messages to your MSN/Live account via the Yahoo! service and you will receive them, so the creation of an additional Yahoo! screen name isn’t necessary.

Advantages of using your email address as your screen name

1. It’s guaranteed to be available.

In order to use an email address as a screen name, it must be validated on sign-up by sending a confirmation email to that address. What this means is that the only person who could use your email address as a screen name is you, so it’s guaranteed to be available.

2. It eliminates a lot of confusion.

One screen name for all your IM services you use is mighty convenient. It’s also easy not only for you but for the people you chat with.

3. It makes it easy for people to know what your email address is.

Your email address is your screen name, so those you chat with don’t even have to remember what your email address is, because it’s already in their contact/buddy list.

Disadvantages of using your email address as your screen name

1. It makes it easy for people to know what your email address is.

Yes, this is listed as an advantage but it can serve to be a disadvantage, because maybe there’s certain folks you don’t want knowing your email address.

2. Slight possibility of confusion.

If your screen name is you@hotmail.com, and a contact wants to communicate with you over AIM, you may have to convince them, "Yes, that is my screen name. Seriously. It does work. It’s not just MSN/Live." People aren’t used to seeing a screen name as an email address.

3. You will have to tell everybody to switch over to your new IM screen name(s).

There’s no way around this unfortunately. However when you do get everybody to know your new screen names, it’s well worth it.

Why bother doing this at all?

Ultimately it’s the most convenient way to handle your email and IM communications. Everything is centralized around one screen name. The best part is that you don’t have to radically shift around anything. You can still use the same email and the same IM clients you’ve always used. The only thing changing here is your screen name and nothing else.

And as stated above, nobody on your buddy/contact list has to hunt for your email address. They know what it is right up front.

In fact, if you used this in concert with your social networking profiles (which all have the ability to find contacts by email address,) this even furthers the convenient use of your email address as your one screen name.

Who would have guessed that the email address was the best screen name all along?

Knowing how to check the source, as in the raw "code," of an email is important because there will be times when you need to do it. Why? To check authenticity of an email. Spam and phishing emails are getting more tricky to identify all the time, and your best weapon against this is knowing how to check the source of an email.

Unfortunately it is the case where the process of getting the source of an email is distinctively different per provider or mail client, so here’s a quick cheat sheet on how to do it:

Hotmail

1. Right-click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Left-click View Message Source.

Example:

Important note: This can only be done when your emails are shown as a list. If you double-click to open an email whereas the message list is not seen, there isn’t a way to view the message source from there. You must right-click specifically on the email in list view (regardless of whether the reading pane is on or off.)

Yahoo! Mail

There are two ways in Y! Mail to view the source.

1. While in list view, right click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Left click View full headers. It will be last in the list.

Example:

or..

Whether reading a message or having it highlighted in list view, click the Actions button then Full Header.

Example:

Yahoo! Mail Classic

1. Open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Scroll all the way to the bottom and look for the tiny text on the extreme right that says Full Headers and click it.

Example:

Gmail

1. Open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Click the small down arrow on the right to drop down a menu.

3. Select Show original.

Example:

Windows Live Mail or Microsoft Outlook Express 6

The super-annoying long way

(This is not the way you want to do it because it takes too many steps. See super-easy way below this.)

1. Right-click the email you want to view the source of.

2. Select Properties, like this:

3. From the window that opens up, select the Details tab, like this:

4. In that same window, click the Message Source button, like this:

The super-easy way

1. Highlight or open the email you want to view the source of.

2. Press CTRL+F3

The F3 method is a completely undocumented feature, both in OE 6 and WL Mail. But trust me, it’s there. Try it for yourself.

Mozilla Thunderbird

1. Highlight any email in the message list or open an email.

2. Click View then Message Source.

Example:

or..

1. Highlight any email in the message list or open an email.

2. Press CTRL+U

Incidentally, this is the exact same keystroke used to view web page HTML source in the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

What headers should you check in the source?

Okay, so you know how to view the source of an email, but what do you look for?

The easiest thing to check is the Received: header. This will tell you up front where the email came from originally. The part that’s most important is the very end of the line where the dot-com/net/org is.

Example:

This email came from google.com (it was a Gmail address,) so I know this email is safe. What’s before the google.com doesn’t matter much as it’s the tail that counts. Spam and phishing attempts will attempt to fool you into thinking the mail was delivered from a trusted domain by inserting said domain in the middle. For example, a spam/phish would show as google.com.some.bad.site.ru or something similar. The google.com is in there, but not at the tail. That’s bad and it’s a spam/phish attempt.

Keep an eye on the tail side of a Received: header and you’ll easily be able to identify true trusted domains from spam and phishing attempts.

Note that this is for the web-based version of Hotmail. If you are using Hotmail with the Windows Live mail client, see this instead.

Hotmail does allow for the use of limited HTML in email signatures, and this does include the use of images as long as they are hosted in a public place.

All that’s required for you to do this is the following:

1. Use a free image hosting service and upload your image there.
2. Get the direct link to the image from the image hosting service.
3. Input this link into your signature using the HTML <img> tag.

Here’s how that’s done:

First, get your image. Use whatever image you want.

Second, host your image. For this example I will be using ImageShack because it has a super-friendly auto-resize feature. Simply check the box for "resize image" and select "100×75 avatar." This is absolutely perfect for signatures as it’s just the right size so it won’t annoy people you send mail to.

For my example I will use an image of a disgustingly ugly pair of dopey pants:

After you upload your image to ImageShack, you will see a screen for a "Direct link to image," like this:

Click the word "link" to the right of "Direct." You will then have the full direct link to the image in your address bar:

Leave this open for now because you’ll need to come back to it in a moment.

Open a new tab in your browser. This is done easily with CTRL+T.

Go to www.hotmail.com and login to your Hotmail account.

On the far right, click Options then More Options, like this:

Select Personal e-mail signature under Customize your mail, like this:

In the email signature editor, select Edit in HTML, like this:

In your email signature, type:

<img src="">

..like this:

Go back to your other tab where your ImageShack hosted image is. Highlight all the text in the address bar and press CTRL+C to copy.

Now go back to your email, click between the two quotes and press CTRL+V to paste.

It should look something like this when done:

Now click Edit in HTML and change back to Rich Text. Your image will now show in your signature. Click once after the image to see your blinking cursor, then type whatever text you want to appear.

Example:

When finished, click the Save button at bottom right.

At the top left of the next page, click Go to inbox to go back to your mail.

Click New to compose a new email.

You’ll see something like this:

..and that’s all there is to it.

A few quick end notes:

• If you’re thinking about using Flickr to host your email signature image, don’t. Having a direct-linked image with no link-back to Flickr is a violation of their community guidelines.
• Sometimes when loading your signature, the image may not show up instantly as it has to "call" it from another server every time it loads. This is usually just a very short pause since the image is small.
• Being that your image is hosted elsewhere, there is the chance that it will get deleted after a certain amount of time. This is easily remedied by simply re-uploading the image and re-editing your signature to reflect the new location. Be sure to save whatever image you use for your signature somewhere local (like a USB stick for example) just in case you have to do this.
• DO NOT direct-link from somebody else’s web site, because that’s just plain rude and it "steals" bandwidth. Either host it with a free image hosting service, put it on your own web site, or don’t do it all.
• No, those are not my pants.

Notes for Yahoo! Mail users:

I know this article is about Hotmail, but believe me, if there were a way to do this in Y! Mail, I’d happily instruct you how to do it. Y! Mail currently does not allow any HTML whatsoever in their email signatures, however, something in the back of my mind distinctly remembers that they used to allow it.. I’m pretty sure of that although I can’t prove it.

When Y! updated their mail system fairly recently, a few things in the mail signature section broke.

For example, if you try to insert an emoticon, which is a direct-use Y! feature, you get this lovely little message:

Yahoo evidently likes dangling the carrot for its mail users. The stationary (as in the last icon on the right in the signature editor) doesn’t work either, by the way. Gee, thanks Yahoo.

This is a response article to Jessica E. Vascellaro’s article, Why Email No Longer Rules.

For years I have been hearing over and over, "Email is dead." This is absolutely not true and probably never will be. The reason is because there has been absolutely nothing introduced to messaging which works better than email.

Jessica cites Twitter and Facebook several times. Both of these are cloud-based, and are therefore stupid because there is no way to save your messages locally and back them up. And when the cloud goes down, guess what? So does all your messaging. Nobody in their right mind would use Twitter, Facebook or any other cloud-base as their primary messaging system. Do so and you’d be a fool.

She did not mention anything about the cloud whatsoever (it’s mention nowhere in her article,) or how unbelievably dangerous it is to use. I think the debacle with T-Mobile Sidekick exemplifies in grand fashion why cloud-based messaging just plain sucks.

There is absolutely no way business can run without email. It is a messaging system that is proven to work. Twitter is plagued with outages. Facebook is plagued with social media "badness" in the form of phishing. Business has enough issues dealing with spam, and you want to tack on cloud outages and phishing on top of that?

I can say with utmost certainty that social media style messaging absolutely will not replace email, nor "dethrone" it, as it were.

Something eventually will replace email, but it certainly won’t be Facebook or Twitter. Not by a long shot. Email is still king of the mountain.

Whenever you send an email that is confrontational, emotional or otherwise uncomfortable, it can be beneficial to have a neutral person read over the content before you send it.

Since email has no inflection, by having someone who is not involved or invested in the situation read over the content, they can give you a good feel as to the tone and message you are sending. At the very least, you can gauge if you are conveying the message you want or are coming on too strong.

For this type of email, it is best to be safe before sending because you typically do not want to write based on pure emotion.

For those that use an @aol.com email address, you might have noticed an email that appeared to be spam, but it wasn’t. It came from the sender "FooterSettlement" with subject line "OFFICIAL NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF CLASS ACTION AND PROPSED SETTLEMENT", and looked like this:

This is not spam. In short, what it means is that you now have the ability to opt out of footer advertisements in the emails you send. All you have to do it login to your AOL Mail first, then go to the web address http://footer.aol.com and simply uncheck the box, like this:

..then click the Save button.

From that point, no footer ads will be sent in the mail you send from your AOL email account.

It’s about time.

If you use AIM for instant messaging, any AIM account has the ability to send email. Your email address would be your-AIM-screen-name@aim.com. This has the same ability to opt out of footer ads just like @aol.com addresses do. To access and start using mail for an AIM account, the address to go to is http://webmail.aol.com. Login using your AIM credentials.

Are footer ads in outgoing emails good revenue generators anymore?

No. In order for free email providers to keep existing users and moreover attract new ones, the content of the communication sent to and from people must be absolutely ad-free. The biggest reason for this is SMS (Short Message Service) compatibility. Many of us use our email to send in the form of a short text message to cell phones. An email system that forces footer ads on all outgoing mail literally prevents you from sending any SMS at all, due to the fact you trip the 180-character-or-less limit every time you attempt to send a message.

Yahoo! Mail hasn’t had any footer ads on outgoing mail for some time and Gmail never has. Hotmail/Windows Live Mail does but only if you use the free web-based version. However I’m certain Hotmail will eventually drop the footer ads as well; it’s only a matter of time.

Any free email provider today that uses footer ads on outgoing messages is, pun intended, shooting themselves in the foot. Ad-supported free email should show ads in the web interface only and nowhere in the body of any message. This allows the user to send mail to anybody on any device, including mobile devices, without restriction.

At present, the most SMS-friendly free email providers are Google, Yahoo! and now AOL. Hotmail isn’t SMS-friendly only for the reason their free web-based version forces footer ads on outgoing messages. You can get around this by using the Windows Live Mail email client (mail sent from the client does not include footer ads at all) or by having a Hotmail Plus account, but it would be nice if Microsoft followed the lead of Yahoo! and AOL and dropped the footer crapola altogether.

The time for footer ads in email is over. The companies who choose to remain with it will have their users abandon the service in favor of footer-free email.

If you use a Windows Live email address, that being any address that ends in @hotmail.com, @msn.com or @live.com, you can access the account right now in the Windows Live Mail client.

The immediate advantages of using WL Mail:

• No ads anywhere in the client
• No ads sent on outgoing mail
• Allows for local caching of mail for faster access and being able to read your mail offline
• Easier to attach files
• Faster than using the web interface

There are more but those are the biggies.

The way a Hotmail account is configured in WL Mail by default is to download a copy of every mail in your account (and no that does not mean once downloaded it deletes from the web version.) This unfortunately includes the Junk and Deleted folders, so every time your perform a mail check, anything in those folders is downloaded as well.

You can easily configure Hotmail to download only the headers by simply right-clicking on the folder and choosing the appropriate option.

It’s as simple as this:

Pictured above is done by doing the following:

1. Right-click the Junk e-mail folder.
2. Hover over Synchronization settings.
3. Click Headers only.

What this will do is download just the header and not the actual message. You will see the subject line but the mail will not be downloaded unless you actually open it.

I suggest doing this for both the Junk and the Deleted Items folder, because when you delete something you obviously don’t want it locally cached. Don’t worry, your deleted mail will still be there on a server level for 30 days unless you specifically choose to empty the Deleted Items folder.

Any folder in your Windows Live mail account can be set to Headers Only. This may prove to be an advantage for those that have bandwidth caps imposed by their ISP, or a slow internet connection. Headers are nothing but very small files and download almost instantly.

The WL mail client has no ads anywhere in it. Using it in combination with the headers only option makes it one of the speediest mail systems you can use.

Quick questions answered

Does the Windows Live Mail client use IMAP for Windows Live accounts?

No. Windows Live mail uses a proprietary protocol by Microsoft called DeltaSync. It allows for two-way synchronization of mail/contacts/calendar/notes, so it in fact does a whole lot more than just mail.

If I have a folder set to headers only and I delete a mail, does it get moved to the Deleted Items folder even though I don’t have to re-download it?

Yes. The way in which it works is that the WL Mail client has seamless synchronization with the web-based version. When you delete a mail and then click the Sync button (or just wait until the client performs another mail check), what you do on a local level will be reflected exactly in the web-based version, and can be loaded the same way on either platform. Even if you did not read the mail and deleted it, it will still be moved to the appropriate location.

Is there any way I can turn off the reading pane so I don’t automatically download an email when I click on it?

Yes, you can turn off the reading pane. First it should be noted that the reading pane is by design disabled whenever viewing the Junk e-mail folder. So even if you have it enabled and go inside the Junk e-mail folder, it will turn itself off when in there. However if you want it off all the time, press ALT+V to bring up the View menu, then click Layout.

You will see this:

Simply uncheck the box for Show the reading pane, then click Apply then OK.

Will adjusting synchronization settings for my Windows Live account affect any other Live or other POP/IMAP accounts I have in WL Mail?

No. Whatever you adjust for sync settings will only affect that specific account. It does not "carry over" to others.

Are headers re-downloaded every time I start the WL Mail client?

Yes. WL Mail ordinarily performs a mail check (what it called a "Sync") on startup unless you configured it otherwise. Being that headers are so small in size this will not be a cause for concern.

Will choosing headers only for specific folders affect the way I search mail in WL Mail?

Yes. Any search performed in a folder you have set to headers only will only search to/from addresses and subject line, but not the body of the message since it isn’t downloaded locally at that point. To perform full searches that include the body of the message, you will have to have full synchronization or use the web-based version.

If I currently have a folder set to full synchronization and switch to headers only, are the local copies removed for the mail in that folder?

No. If you want to configure a Live account with headers only for everything, remove the account from WL Mail and re-add it. On first check of mail, stop the process (click "Sync" twice to see the window and hit the stop button), set all folders to headers only, then perform another sync.

Got another question about Live mail and the WL Mail client? Leave a comment and ask.

For those of you who send emails as text messages to cell phones, you’re well aware that you have to a) send in plain text only and b) count your characters to make sure you don’t trip the 140-character limit.

Setting email to send in plain text in easy. In popular email providers such as Yahoo! Mail there is an option right at the top to change from Rich Text to Plain Text. In Windows Live Mail, when composing a new email you can tap your ALT key, then click Format then Plain text, like this:

When it comes to counting characters it must be done manually. This is a pain in the neck to do. However there are two utilities you can use to somewhat automate this process.

Word Count Plus for Firefox

Site: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4718

This particularly works best if using web-based mail. Type your message. Highlight the entire message using CTRL+A (select all). Then click the Word Count Plus icon. It counts the words. Then hover to see how many characters were used, like this:

This is quick, effective and it works. You see exactly how many characters are used so you don’t go over the 140-character limit when sending an email as a text message to a cell phone.

Important note: This obviously does not take into consideration email that adds in text advertisements to the tail of messages you send out. Gmail does not tag outgoing mails with ads nor does Yahoo – but Hotmail does when using in the browser (but not with Windows Live Mail client).

Notepad++

Site: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

This is for those who don’t use Firefox but still want an easy way to count characters. Notepad++ is a text editor but it counts characters easily.

Open Notepad++. Type what you intend to send as an email in it. Press CTRL+A to select all.

Click TextFX, TextFX Tools, Word Count, like this:

A window will pop up after that:

What to pay attention to is the third line, Characters. That will tell you how many are in use. In this instance, I’m still okay because I’m at 137 which is just under 140.

Copy and paste your message from Notepad++ into your email and send.

Word Count Plus is obviously the easier of the two because it’s right in the browser and stays out of the way neatly when not using it. But for those using email programs, Notepad++ is just a quick hop to a text editor that counts characters quickly which for most people is faster than counting yourself.

When most people think of freely available email on the internet, three names comes to mind: Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail. While it’s true there are plenty of other free mail providers out there, it’s the "Big Three" that people use most.

However there’s a fourth that has been making some good waves, that being GMX.

Ordinarily the case is that whenever a web site other than the Big Three provide email, it’s not very feature-rich and is tacked on as an afterthought.

GMX on the other hand offers email that has some real forward thinking in it just like the other Big Three do.

The latest free offering within the GMX mail interface is the ability to connect directly to Facebook from your mail. Not only can you post status updates but also see your Facebook "wall" directly within GMX.

In addition to that, you can login directly to GMX mail using your Facebook account. This is very convenient because it means you can use one login to do two things at once:

(the top-right portion of the GMX.com web site)

If you are already logged into Facebook, going to GMX will auto-login to your GMX mail.

For existing GMX mail users, don’t worry you do not have to sign up a new GMX account. You can continue to use the same one you have all along.

Hotmail not so hot for you anymore?

Yahoo! Mail a bit too bloated?

Gmail screw-ups ruining your day?

Consider GMX. It’s got features that are actually useful and now has easy Facebook connectivity included.

Google’s built in spam protection in their Gmail system is very good. However, some messages manage to get through and clicking ‘Report Spam’ removes it from your inbox but does not necessarily prevent future messages from the sender. The solution is using a blacklist, but unfortunately this is not immediately offered by Gmail.

The solution is just to create your own blacklist using a filter. The linked article walks you through the process of blacklisting some existing contacts you may have, however ongoing you will need to update the list manually. Hopefully, these emails are few and far between so adding a new email to your blacklist is not done very often.

One thing which really amazes me is how many people use (extremely) ‘relaxed’ language in professional communications. Be it email, memos or data entry notes, whenever you are communicating as a professional, take the time to use proper case, punctuation and spell check. It can be a really poor reflection on yourself if you do not.

I’m not saying you need to be anal retentive about it, but taking a few extra seconds to proof what you are about to put your name on is time well spent. When you are sending personal correspondence, use whatever you like, but when you are ‘on the clock’ represent yourself well.

Regardless of how careful you are with your email address, you will eventually get spammed. Have you ever wondered how your address gets on spam lists, then this article titled ‘Catching Spammers in the Act‘ is worth a read.

Basically the findings were consistent with what you would expect. If your email address is posted on a popular site (or any site), you will most likely get spammed (eventually). If you are going to post your email, one thing to keep in mind:

using simple obfuscation techniques–for example, using “-at-” to replace the “@” symbol in an e-mail address. The researchers found that these methods frustrate current spam techniques surprisingly well.

Additionally, they found that submitting your email to a reputable site most like will not result in spam, so your “jun email account” may not be needed after all.

Again, nothing shocking here, just a reminder that you do want to be careful where you post your email.

A very, very old email tip to prevent nasty code executions from spam on email clients was to simply disable the preview pane altogether. But you have to remember back then that email clients were decidedly "dumb". Today they’re much smarter. For example, you can disable/enable the preview pane at whim in Mozilla Thunderbird just by pressing F8. In addition, just about every client has the ability to force-read all mail in plain text; this thwarts almost all spam from triggering web bugs letting the spammer know you opened the mail.

Webmail on the other hand is a different story. Your browser is not an email client by design.

As most people know, spam routinely has embedded images in them and as a webmail user you have no option to force-read webmail in plain text. So on the instances where spam accidentally gets in your inbox with embedded images, spammers are crafty enough where the images will display anyway, send the web bug, and as a result you get more spam.

Fortunately for you, the subject line of spam emails usually make it very obvious what they are. For the times spam lands in your inbox, you can bypass opening it altogether and delete without opening it.

Here’s how it’s done using Hotmail, Yahoo Mail or Gmail:

Hotmail

Change the reading pane setting to Off. This is on the right side of the screen when logged in and looks like this:

When you see a spam land in the inbox, put a check in the box, then click the Delete or Junk link.

Yahoo Mail

In the "new" mode, click View then Reading Pane OR just press v on your keyboard.

When you see a spam, right-click the mail and delete or check the box for the spam and click the Delete or Spam button.

In Yahoo Mail "classic" mode there isn’t any reading/preview pane of any kind. On mails you see as spam in the inbox, check the box and delete or mark as spam.

Gmail

This mail system by default shows all mail as threaded conversations. To see a mail you must click thru. If you see a spam, check the box for that conversation, then click the Report spam button.

I learned of fixoutlook.org from this article, so I’d like to add into the fray why I don’t use Outlook personally.

First of all, I used to use Outlook. And I’m not talking about Outlook Express here, I mean the full version of Outlook. The client was good but there were certain things about the software that really rubbed me the wrong way.

I couldn’t stand the "heavy" nature of it. Outlook has always been a beast. Yes, I know it has a ton of functionality to it (which is a huge perk), but the tradeoff is that the software is huge not only in size but also in what it eats up for memory.

It’s a target. The only time I ever, and I mean ever, got viruses from emails that actually infected my computer was from Outlook. Being it’s so widely used it is a huge target for getting your computer infected. In an enterprise environment this isn’t really a problem since there’s an I.T. staff ready to take care of problems like that, should they occur. But for the home user, you really have to make sure you’ve got some better-than-average protection specifically for your email when using Outlook.

The Word rendering engine. This is a huge bone of contention with a ton of people and the primary focus for the article linked above. I also hated this because that engine never rendered HTML emails correctly. And for Outlook 2010 it’s probably not going to change.

The reason the Word engine is bad is because it’s the "Microsoft Way" of viewing email which does not follow web standards. And yes, this has to change. Email should be rendered in the client in such a way where it follows standards like everybody else does it.

Do you use Outlook now? Is there stuff about it you can’t stand?

(I’m particularly interested in I.T. guys out there who have to support this thing on an enterprise level.)

Let us know by posting a comment.

The primary email address I use is from my personal domain name. After all, that’s one of the perks of having your own web site, right?

A problem I routinely encounter is getting people to remember my email address. Is it a long address? No. It is difficult to spell? Not in the slightest. But it does have two things going against it. First is the fact it ends in a dot-net and not a dot-com. Second is the fact people aren’t familiar with my domain name in use with an email address.

It’s the second point that matters the most. If you have an email address that doesn’t use a domain people are very familiar with, chances are they won’t remember it easily.

And just what are the most memorable domains for email out there?

Here are The Big 5, from least to most memorable.

#5 gmail.com

This is memorable because it’s short and has the word "mail" in it with a simple g in front of it.

And there are to this day more than a fair share of people who have absolutely no idea Gmail is run by Google.

Part of the reason Gmail isn’t more widely known is simply for the fact it hasn’t been around as long compared to others.

#4 msn.com

MSN is one of those things where people remember it because the formerly named MSN Messenger (now Windows Live) is so widely used. In addition, we’ve seen "MSN" in one form or another ever since Windows 95 all the way up to Windows XP. And being that a ton of people still use XP, that’s well over 10 years of having MSN etched in our brains – even if we never used the service.

If you have an @msn.com email address, it will be remembered easily by others.

Can you get an msn.com email address for free? Yes. This link will get you one, or at least it currently will.

Email addresses ending in @msn.com WILL WORK with the Windows Live Mail email client just like Hotmail and Live.com mail addresses do.

#3 hotmail.com

This is yet another one that’s easy to remember because it has the word "mail" in it, and the fact that a ton of people use this service as their primary email address.

Fun fact: Hotmail was originally spelled as HoTMaiL. The capital letters are HTML, the markup language used for web pages. The mixed case was supposed to signify web-based mail, but nobody ever saw it that way. Instead they said, "Why is it spelled weird like that?"

#2 yahoo.com

Yahoo is memorable because it has a "funny" name to it and is such a well known web brand. When you hear Yahoo, you know exactly what it is.

#1 aol.com

Sad but true, if you have an email address than ends in @aol.com, people will remember it easily. Why? Pretty much for the same reason people remember MSN so much – repetition. While Microsoft blasted MSN to us in the Windows operating environment/system, AOL blasted us on television and in our postal mailboxes with those stupid floppies and CDs. It’s not something you forget.

"AOL" usually can’t be said without "sucks" following it for most people. But even though that’s true, you know what it is, and with the exception of very young internet users, so does everybody else.

Can you get an aol.com email address for free? Yes. Go to mail.aol.com and hit the link that says "get a free e-mail account". You’ll notice on the signup page your new email will end with @aol.com.