[Web4lib] Your preferred web-based e-mail site

[Gillian Wiseman]

I teach library patrons how to use e-mail. I've been teaching Yahoo mail for years, but their sign-up process is difficult - for example, finding a username that isn't already in use is a really time-consuming process - and wading through all the "new features" pages and the "set up your own webpage" pages, etc... can be confusing to new users.

I'm looking for suggestions for web-based mail that would be easy to have patrons sign up for, are reliable, and have enough similarity to yahoo/outlook/other e-mail programs that people can transfer what they learn when they later want to use other tools.

Most of my patrons are seniors or other new computer users who are easily confused by complexity and obscurity as well as computer terminology, so if there's a super simple or super basic site, that would be my first choice.

If you want to reply to me privately, I'll report my results to the list.

Gillian Wiseman
Electronic Resources Librarian
Waco-McLennan County Library
(254)750-5944
gwiseman at ci.waco.tx.us