Webmail
A webmail is a web interface (usually a website) that allows users to read and write email using a Web browser.
The user receive a login and password (after signup) that allow him to manager its emails.
Most webmail have the following features:
- folders
- filtering (incoming email to dispatch to related folder)
- trash folder
- address book
Several webmail offer the following features:
Advantages of webmails are:
- you can manages your mail from anywhere without any Email client
- no need to download all your email, you can simply delete mail by looking at their header (from, subject,...)
Disadvantages:
- you need to stay connected while reading and writing your mail (no offline work possible)
- total amount of stored email allowed depends the webmail service chosen
- if you need to read a large amount of mails using a slow connection can become tedious
Historically, the first webmail was Hotmail (which later became MSN Hotmail).
Now, a lot of webmail sites exist. Most of them are still free. Webmail softwares also exist that allow everyone to create its own webmail server.