AOL has recently launched yet another web-based email service. Occasionally, when I am on the air I use AIM Express while in the studio. Whoever is in control of the computer there has permissions locked down, and Messenger is not installed (and, sadly, neither is Firefox) and I sometimes have reason to IM with folks.

Because of this, I received, today, in my regular email account, a notice from AOL that the new mail service had been launched. To save the rest of you the hassle of signing up for an account to take it for a test drive, I’ve done it for you. Login to this AIM Mail account I created with the following:

screename=not5real

PW=aimmailsucks

You can see for yourself what I mean.

My initial thoughts are, well, look at the password I provided, and you can tell my initial thoughts. And here’s why:

1. Gmail does it best
2. Even Hotmail is better than AIM Mail
3. OK those weren’t really reasons
4. Neither is this: I am just acknowledging that I was merely pointing out what AIM Mail is not
5. AIM Mail’s advertising is too in-your-face
6. Limited functionality: 2G of storage — so what? Where’s my free email FWDing? Where’s my free POP?
7. Composing a message opens a pop-up window
8. The GUI is intuitive, but the pageloads are slow, and I tested from a T-1 line
9. Did I mention Gmail?
10. It’s AOL for crying out loud! One of THE WORST service providers around.

Google has raised the bar for web-based email ridiculously high, and I cannot fathom how a better free web-based service would look.

So do yourself a favor, if you had any inkling of giving it a try, use the above login to take it for a drive first.

BTW, if anyone needs an invite, let me know and I’ll get you one. It may not come directly from the linked address, but you’ll get one.