Joined on 08-20-2001
San Francisco, CA and the web
I use Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail. Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are my favorites, by far.
I don't believe Windows Live Hotmail should even be in the Top 10. As far as I'm concerned, WLH is just a fancier version of Hotmail, which is very mediocre -- and I'm being nice.
Of my three e-mail services, Hotmail wins the top prize for receiving the most spam and for being the least intuitive of them all. Ironically, I've been using it as my main e-mail account for years. Go figure.
If you're looking for a free e-mail service to serve as your main e-mail address, go with Gmail, Yahoo, or both. I cannot recommend Hotmail, other than using it as a junk e-mail account (i.e., whenever you sign up for things online, special offers, etc.).
For that kind of stuff, always avoid giving out your main e-mail address.
My 2 cents worth.
Yann
I second Yann and I think Google email for your domain is especially attractive for non-profits - it is still free but you look much more professional with emails on your own domain. Many of our clients use that and we have prepared a short tutorial on it:
setup free Google email for your domain
Gmail is nice, I use that for my primary non-work email account. I like the search/label functionality better than filing messages in a folder, but it might take someone a bit of getting used to.
My wife has used Yahoo mail for several years and I think that one is just about as good as Gmail. It has a more traditional interface. Both Yahoo and Gmail do pretty good spam blocking (though the recent "greeting card" ones seem to sneak through a bit better).
I have a fastmail account as a secondary personal email account; I like it because they give you IMAP mailbox access instead of strictly web-based. I've never had any problems with the IMAP functionality. If you don't use the web interface, though, you'll need to roll your own SMTP server or use one provided by your ISP.
I had also used HotPOP a few years ago, primarily just as a forwarding address. Never had any problems with that service either.
For email anonymity, I would also recommend mailinator.com (for temporary throwaway addresses) and sneakemail.com (for redirect aliases that keep your actual address private). In particular, sneakemail is nice and I have several sneakemail addresses direct to my main gmail account.
Joined on 08-20-2001
San Francisco, CA and the web
I've used Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. Never used Hotmail, but most people I know who use it complain about spam. I've never had a problem with spam for Gmail and only minimal spam from Yahoo! Mail.
Of the two, I definitely prefer Gmail. Yahoo! Mail's new design (which you can use or stick with the old interface), I find to be very clunky and frustrating, so much so that I switched back to the old one. By contrast, I've found the Gmail to be clean and efficient to use. Yahoo! Mail has been relegated to my junk email account.
--Megan
I use gmail for any mail I *don't* want to give my personal email out for. I also use it for logins to Adsense, Adwords, and Google Groups. I use Yahoo! for Flickr and as a secondary junk email address.