Gmail

I recently managed to get a Gmail account, and its a hard process to get an account, unless you live in the USA and have a mobile phone that accepts SMS, as GMail accounts are not available to anyone with an invitation. I managed to get one by doing a web search in Google and A9.com for a Google invite.

I think its the best webmail account I have used, as it so much better than the offerings from Microsoft (Hotmail) and Yahoo! For a start you don't get loads of banner advertising on any of the page, just standard Google text adverts down the right hand side of the screen, and they do not interfere with the interface. You can access your e-mail via POP3 (ie getting access to your e-mail through any e-mail client) at no extra charge.

One thing that is different to most standard webmail / e-mail programs is that Google do not use folders, but labels. Labels are much better, as they work the same way as folders but you can have more than one label attached to an e-mail, making viewing of e-mails better.

I think Google are on to a winner here, as there e-mail system is so much better than the competition. I also like the fact that you can only sign up by asking Google to SMS you in the USA or via invite, as that stops people signing up for Gmail accounts that they may never use, and means that there will be plenty of good addresses available.