Bigstring.com

All I've heard about it was simply the 'recall' feature of email. I've had an account with them, and currently just use it for bothersome places that need more interaction than what I could bother with from spamgourmet (or similar).

What no one seems to be talking about is the abysmal interface. It really sucks. I can't believe nobody else is annoyed with this. Large, obtrusive adspace on the right side. Email that opens in a tiny window. The interface is somehow... slower than other mail providers I use. Yes, I use different providers. This is because I must occasionally use an unsecured or untrusted network. So, I make my webnotes and similar with an account I could stand to have it compromised - birstring!

Tabs, to be sure, are a nice feature. You can change between an email and the main folder easily enough.

Mail receiving also seems delayed. An informal test showed me that bigstring publishes(?) its mail slower than a real provider, like fastmail.fm or gmail. And you can't convince me that bigstring is sifting through more Bayesian filters or malware scanners than Google.

I find it hard to stomach, but I'd even recommend hotmail over bigstring at this point, despite hotmail also having annoying ads.

Anyway, I hope you take something useful away from my first review.

Bigstring's weakness is in it's ability to manage incoming mail as it lacks the ability to sort and filter when compared to other services I've used and it's user interface is a little clumsy. But it does have some novel features for outgoing mail. It allows you to track and edit messages after they've been sent and has a fun customizable self destruct feature which is something I haven't seen available anywhere else. If you purchase a premium account you get extra features like video email and pop3 access but I've only used the basic free account so I couldn't tell you if it was worth the cost or not. But the free account is totally worthwhile as far as I'm concerned, being able to send a message that will burst into flames after it's read is just too fun to pass up.