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.

GMX is "Global Mail Exchange", found at www.gmx.com. This is a free e-mail service chock full of features and goodies that, said honestly, surprised me at how good it is.

A few of the features:

• Ability to choose an address ending in gmx.com, gmx.us or gmx.co.uk.
• Can import mail over from several popular e-mail services including Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL Mail and a ton of others.
• You can add up to 10 additional GMX mail accounts right from within your primary account, all with separate e-mail signatures.
• Has autoresponder and forwarder capability.
• Has the ability to delete mail on a schedule. You can create a custom folder and instruct GMX to "Delete mails after [this] many days". Very, very trick.
• Full right-clickability inside the interface.
• 5GB storage

When I say I was surprised at how good this mail is, I meant it. Absolutely none of the other webmail providers have everything GMX has.

Check this out:

Above: When I right-click an e-mail, look at how many commands are assigned to literal keyboard shortcuts (that work). In addition, look at all the options I have. I can blacklist/whitelist/filter/spam/move all from just this menu.

You’re probably saying to yourself "Wow, looks just like an e-mail client". You’re right, it does – and GMX does it right.

Above: In the options panel you get way more control compared to the other guys…

GMX is really fast and has tons of good names still available, but what surprises me more than anything else is how GMX was literally able to produce a truly kick-ass webmail that obliterates everyone else in the functionality department.

This is the first webmail I’ve seen besides Yahoo! Mail that truly feels like a local e-mail client – with the speed of one.

In addition to that, it’s stupidly easy to use.

You seriously need to check out GMX. Even if you don’t want another e-mail account, get one anyway and try it.

I signed up two of them.

Thanks for the tip, Drew!