mail.com is a web portal and web-based email service provider owned by the internet company 1&1 Mail & Media Inc., headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. 1&1 Mail & Media Inc. is a subsidiary of
United Internet
United Internet AG is a global Internet services company headquartered in Montabaur, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The company is structured in two business areas, ''Access'' and ''Applications,'' and has a total of 16 brands and numerous subsid ...
Group, a publicly listed internet services company based in Montabaur, Germany.
mail.com offers a free, advertising-supported email service as well as subscription-based premium email and cloud storage plans. Its services are primarily aimed at private users and small- and medium-sized businesses.
On its homepage, mail.com features sponsored news, blog posts and browser games. It also provides a search engine, which is enhanced by Google.
Features
mail.com's email service includes features such as 65 GB of storage for emails, choice of over 200 domains and cloud storage.
Domains
When creating a free email account, mail.com lets users choose from more than 200 brand-neutral email domains that include geographical locations, professions, beliefs and interests, such as email.com, usa.com, religious.com, graphic-designer.com, and catlover.com.
Security
mail.com is one of the last remaining major email providers that does not require a personal phone number to set up an inbox, allowing access to users who do not have or do not wish to provide a phone number to a third party to use email. This allows greater privacy, but prevents users from enabling
two-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...
(2FA), a form of
multi-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...
. Enabling 2FA with mail.com does require verification of a mobile phone number, followed by the configuration of
Time-based One-Time Password
Time-based one-time password (TOTP) is a computer algorithm that generates a one-time password (OTP) that uses the current time as a source of uniqueness. As an extension of the HMAC-based one-time password algorithm (HOTP), it has been adopted as ...
s.
Once 2FA has been enabled for an account, logging in to that email account requires a dynamically generated code.
All mail.com customers’ private data stored in the company-owned data center located in Lenexa, Kansas, United States. mail.com uses
SSL to ensure secure data transfer via the internet. Both in the mail.com account and on the online portal, users’ data is processed in compliance with legal requirements and according to stringent security standards.
mail.com also offers configuration options to control interest-based advertisement and newsletter settings.
mail.com email accounts are protected by an antivirus software that scans through emails and attachments, while only checking for
malware
Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...
. The anti-spam filter also helps detect unwanted junk mail and automatically sorts it into the spam folder. mail.com also provides best-practice tips in order to increase security for mailboxes.
Attachments
With regard to attachment size limits, mail.com is a leader among major free email service providers. It lets users send large files via email, allowing a maximum attachment size of 30 MB. Premium subscribers can send attachments up to 100 MB.
Storage
mail.com offers its users an email storage capacity of 65 GB. On top of that, up to 2 GB of files, pictures and videos can be saved in the mail.com Cloud. This cloud solution also makes it possible to share files online with multiple people at once.
Organizer
The Organizer, also integrated in every mail.com account, lets users schedule tasks and events and sends them automatic appointment reminders as well as daily appointment overviews. Similar to desktop organizer applications, users can set reminders, send event invitations by email, share calendars with others and import and export data to and from the
*.ics and
*.csv formats.
Mobile apps
mail.com offers free email apps for
Android and
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
. Access to these apps can optionally protected by a four-digit PIN. The apps can also be used with non-mail.com email accounts.
Mail Collector
Mail Collector is a feature that lets users merge email accounts from different providers. With mail.com as a primary account, all other email addresses can be imported into the mail.com account. The Mail Collector then automatically forwards all incoming emails into the primary mailbox.
Online Office
Online Office is a free alternative to
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
. It contains a document editor, presentation maker and spreadsheet creator and can be used without installing any software.
Alias email addresses
An alias address allows users to customize the sender email address shown in their correspondence by creating an additional email address within an existing mail.com account. Up to ten alias addresses can be registered at the same time, all associated with the main mail.com email account. This feature enables the use of multiple email addresses from a single mailbox.
Other features
Accounts can be customized with a preferred account language (English, Spanish or French).
Inactivity
mail.com closes and deletes free accounts that have been inactive for 6 months; there is no way to recover deleted free email accounts and the data they contained.
Premium Service
For a fee, mail.com offers an upgrade to a Premium service which provides users with various add-on features.
This package includes ad-free inbox, telephone support, POP3 and IMAP integration, automatic email forwarding to another email address, read receipt, inbox personalization, scheduled sending and email recall, and additional cloud storage.
History
mail.com was originally formed in 1995 as Vanity Mail Services (corporate name Globecomm Inc.),
by Gerald Gorman, an investment banker at
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) was a U.S. investment bank founded by William H. Donaldson, Richard Jenrette, and Dan Lufkin in 1959. Its businesses included securities underwriting; sales and trading; investment and merchant banking; fina ...
, and Gary Millin, a Harvard Business School student at the time.
They spent a majority of Gorman's wealth
[ to register and promote a total of 544 domains, and later began to buy domain names from other companies. At one time the company owned more than 1,200 domains on speculation, including world.com, usa.com, ]india.com
''Zee Media Corporation Limited'' (abbreviated as ZMCL; formerly Zee News Limited) is the news broadcasting company of the Essel Group which is controlled by Subhash Chandra. The company is engaged mainly in the business of broadcasting of news ...
, europe.com, asia.com, doctor.com, scientist.com, and lawyer.com. To raise money to pay the yearly domain registration fees, they offered vanity domain
In the Domain Name System (DNS), a vanity domain is a domain name whose purpose is to express the individuality of the person on whose behalf it is registered. This contrasts with domain names which resolve to an organisation (e.g. a company) or ...
email services to the public from the domains they owned under the brand name iName,[ and later began hosting mail services on behalf of the owners of other domains, and for ]Internet service providers
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privatel ...
. The speculation was often successful. In 1999 the company sold kosher.com, london.com, and england.com for $2 million.
By 1999 the company had raised venture financing
Venture capital financing is a type of funding by venture capital. It is private equity capital that can be provided at various stages or funding rounds. Common funding rounds include early-stage seed funding in high-potential, growth companies ( ...
from Primus Capital Funds and Sycamore Ventures, and changed its name to mail.com. It conducted an initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
in June 1999. By 2000 it was supporting 14.6 million email accounts, mostly for free, and remained unprofitable.[ It sold the mail.com domain and consumer email services division to ]Net2Phone
Net2phone provides VoIP and cloud computing-based telephony products and services. The company is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation.
History
Net2Phone was founded in 1990. On July 30, 1999, during the dot-com bubble, the company became a public com ...
, changed its name to Easylink, and changed its business operations to focus on managed file transfer
Managed file transfer (MFT) refers to a technology that provides the secure transfer of data in an efficient and reliable manner. MFT software is marketed to companies as a more secure alternative to using insecure protocols like FTP (file transfe ...
services in April 2001, after acquiring Swift Telecommunications, which in turn had spun off the "Easylink" business unit from AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
.
In 2002, AltaVista
AltaVista was a Web search engine established in 1995. It became one of the most-used early search engines, but lost ground to Google and was purchased by Yahoo! in 2003, which retained the brand, but based all AltaVista searches on its own sear ...
quit the email service business they had served together with Mail.com under its i-name branding. Addresses using "AltaVista" domains were eventually closed; other email domains once offered by AltaVista remain operational through Mail.com.
In 2004 Jay Penske
Jay Penske is an American media and publishing entrepreneur and auto racing team owner. He is the Chairman and CEO of Penske Media Corporation, a digital media and publishing company he founded in 2004.
Early life and education
Born in New York ...
, son of automobile racing
Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition.
Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organi ...
figure Roger Penske
Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, t ...
, joined and became CEO of Velocity Services, an affinity marketing
Affinity marketing is a concept that consists of a partnership between a company (supplier) and an organization that gathers persons sharing the same interests to bring a greater consumer base to their service, product or opinion. This partnershi ...
and Internet services company operating as Interactive Digital Publishing Group. The company acquired the mail.com domain, and re-launched it as a new service in 2007. Parent company Mail.com Media
Penske Media Corporation (PMC) () is an American digital media, publishing, and information services company based in Los Angeles and New York City. It publishes more than 20 digital and print brands, including ''Variety'', ''Rolling Stone'', '' ...
Corporation (MMC) went on to acquire content websites such as ''Deadline Hollywood
''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...
'', Movieline
''Movieline'' was a website, formerly a Los Angeles-based film and entertainment magazine, launched in 1985 as a local magazine, which went national in 1989. Known for its cult status and popularity among film critics,Saba, Michael''Movieline'' m ...
and the Boy Genius Report
Boy Genius Report (also referred to as BGR) is a technology-influenced website and covers topics ranging from consumer gadgets, to entertainment, gaming, and science. Founded in October 2006 by anonymous web personality Boy Genius (also referred ...
.
In September 2010, MMC sold the mail.com email and portal service to United Internet
United Internet AG is a global Internet services company headquartered in Montabaur, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The company is structured in two business areas, ''Access'' and ''Applications,'' and has a total of 16 brands and numerous subsid ...
, at the time already Europe’s largest internet company, which intended to operate mail.com on its GMX email platform. While existing accounts could be accessed from anywhere, users accessing the site from German-speaking countries could no longer sign up and were instead invited to use United Internet's GMX services geared to those markets (gmx.de, gmx.at, gmx.ch). In purchasing the mail.com brand, United Internet was aiming to leverage the unique character of the mail.com name and its many domains as part of its push for international expansion. At the time of the purchase CEO Jan Oetjen noted, “On the highly competitive international e-mail market, we perceive mail.com as a unique opportunity for differentiation which cannot be copied."
In the first quarter of 2016, mail.com launched a new support and contact portal, offering improved usability and FAQs for its customers. The first mail.com mobile email app for Android users was released in February 2016, complementing its iOS app. A mobile webmailer was also rolled out for users who did not have the app installed.
In June 2020, mail.com celebrated its 25th anniversary.
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References
{{Reflist
External links
mail.com Email
Internet technology companies of the United States
Internet properties established in 1995
Webmail