Mail Wars

I've been with hotmail for years - I stay there for one reason and one reason only - because it's a pain to change my email address. I like being connected and changing addresses can limit that ability. I'd like to see some competition - it will provide a better product.

What do I want from Internet Email? I want to know this: Why should I have to search?

Google hypes their search feature for email, but I can use Outlook to search anything that comes down the pipe anyway. Plus I'm sometimes faster searching my own folders than a search engine because I know me I know how I organize.

BUT WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO SEARCH AT ALL??

I mean if Google can cookie me and list "most relevant" ads on the exact same page where I search my email...
... then why can't they cookie my email and make my correspondence work for me?

Here's what I want:

Say I'm having an important email conversation with a client or with a key project leader. Then I want my email service to cookie the conversation and automatically provide links to say the top 10 (or whatever setting I choose) most relevant emails in my storage.

It should search among all my previous email from any user, sent or received, so that I always have the answer one click away. So that I don't ever have to type the words "Oh yeah I forgot about that."

And of course I want privacy, so I need to be able to turn it off when I want.

What I love about Amazon is that half of what I find I didn't have to search for. I can even go in and tweak the system to make the recommendations work better. It's like they know me.

In fact I love it so much I freaked out the other day when my wife did an Amazon search under MY USERNAME. OMG!!! All of these books popped up that had nothing to do with me. I was pissed.

It's like amazon really knew me, and when they suddenly didn't, then I realized how important that was to me.

Everybody wants to sell me, but who wants to know me?

I use yahoo myself. I keep a few different email addresses and I like the filtering features on the POP3 service. The spam filters seem to have become less meaningful lately. I use the folders well, so for me a search takes longer than just going where I know to go.

But if Google could show me that they really want to know me and be useful to me...and if they told me I could drop the searching and drop the folders...then I'd definitely switch!

I want Web base email that is encrypted from end to end, so that, when I use an internet cafe or wireless connection, it is still safe. For the times when you are travelling and want to pick up an email from the office that really shouldn't be read by the next surfer to drop by the net cafe who knows how to get at the cache (many cafes disable the ability to clear the cache on exit - thanks, guys). Actually, Hushmail (www.hushmail.com) provide this offering, but it hasn't caught on as much as it should.