I'm using GMail since June 2005. I love the sleek interface with no graphics and also the ease of use. I really went after it because it was then offering the highest space for inbox.

I also have a Hotmail Account, eventhough I use Gmail I love Hotmail. The best part of Hotmail is that its spam filters are more strong than that of GMail. I receive an average of 50 spam mails each day, some even skip the spam filter and is displayed in Inbox instead of moviing it to spam folder.

Whereas in Hotmail I seldom get any spam. The inteface is also so good and easy an now the Inbox space is also increased. So now I dont see any reason to say no to Hotmail.

I guess it differs from person to person It's quite the opposite for me. I use GMail on a daily basis for various registrations, as well as communicating with my friends. With all that activity, a piece of spam might avoid being sent to the Junk folder once or twice a month. And those are usually the ones even I, as a conscious being, wouldn't be sure where to put.

Hotmail, on the other hand, is a real menace. Since I started using GMail, Hotmail was left with an MSN-only use. That was almost two years ago. Before that I wasn't so active on the Internet (ah, those dial-up times), and therefore didn't use the Hotmail address a lot. Nevertheless, I get a few spam e-mails in my inbox every day! Talk about spam filtering

Well, I have to admit that I don't exactly have a spam problem; I tend to be rather careful about where and how I post my email address. Not to mention that I almost never use my Hotmail account for anything other than the occasional forward one of my MSN Messenger contact sends.

But to come up with such a conclusion as the one you're claiming, livingston, there are many factors to consider into the equation. For example:

- Do you use your GMail email address just as often as you use your Hotmail's?

- Have you tried using BOTH email addresses to join one of the sites which send you SPAM to see how they both handle it?

- Do you check your SPAM/Junk folder carefully enough to make sure that only unsolicited email messages get filtered, and that none of your friends/colleagues/family email gets mistakenly filtered out as well?


There are actually many considerations to keep in mind while thinking about this particular matter. I'm not saying that you're wrong, livingston, I'm only saying that there's a good chance we don't see the big picture .

So anyway, I took a look at some online comparisons between the different major email providers, mainly Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, and AOL. The opinions staggeringly vary! While some say that Gmail's spam filter is the best thing since Elvis Presley, others say that Hotmail's beats it, throws it down on the ground, and hits it hard in the groin. I suppose this indicates that people have different experiences depending on WHICH sites they frequent, WHERE they post their email addresses and, inevitably, their personal opinions come into play every once in a while.

But the truth is, the deciding factor here is not which spam filter is better now; the real question here is: which company is going to come up with better detection algorithms in the near future?! But then again, that's what I think. Perhaps I should think a little more about the present and stop living in the future

Really now...
GMail spam controls work a hell of alot better for me than Hotmail's did.

I haven't used Hotmail in about 2 years now, but still... I get like... ONE spam message a month on gmail that passes through the filters and gets into my Inbox (Out of about 1000 spam emails per month)

And since I use Thunderbird for viewing email, all those messages that get caught on GMail's spam filter never even get to my computer.

The gmail spam filter is smarter too, as far as I can tell.
I don't think it's ever (And I do check) filtered something that I want to read.
Where as I had to turn Hotmail's spam filter off entirely the last time I used it because everyday I went in and there were more emails that I needed waiting to be deleted in the spam folder and I got sick of it.

I think if your GMail spam filter is failing you, you must have be using your gmail and hotmail account for different purposes.

Me, personally, I only use one email address for everything.
I registered for a .net passport for my gmail account and use MSN off it.

I've hated Hotmail since about two years ago when I tried to configure it for use with Outlook and it told me hotmail no longer supported it... I switched to Gmail on that day and never went back because I hate trying to read and manage my email on web clients.

I have to say that i've been using both gmail and hotmail for a while now. To be honest all the spam i got with both accounts both got sorted into the junk or spam folders. Of course this is going to be different for other people because it all depends on what type of spam you get. You could sign up to some new spamming machine that the filters don't recognize yet and hence it won't catch it.
So really i find them both effective, and if you take care in what you do online then you won't receive much spam at all but the occasional spam does get sent every now and then.

-HellFire

I've never used HotMail, but don't a lot of places prohibit you from signing up with a hotmail address? I use yahoo and the only spam-type messages I get there is from colleges who bought my address from the CollegeBoard, since it and friends are the only people who have it. When I want to sign up somewhere that I don't really plan on staying I just use a temportaryinbox.com address, that definitely reduces spam. It all depends on who you've given the address to.

That is a good point: the ways your e-mail addresses spread across the Net (your own usage of them being just the beginning) is unpredictable. You guys use different addresses at different websites, applying for different services. Some of the addresses can be passed onto spam bots and (hopefully not) mail-based viruses, which spread the info even further. Bottom line: without a thorough test, which would examine how different anti-spam engines react to the same large set of various malicious mail, we can't really say that one solution is better than another.



I have to disagree with this one. Now, is what matters most (at least to myself). If somebody comes up with a better solution for everyday spam issues, you can always switch to that provider, the transfer is quite easy these days. If you stick to a solution that bothers your with tons of unwanted mail, or is simply not suited to your needs, in hopes that the service will gain in quality "in the near future", it's your time that is wasted. I don't know about you, but I don't have that much of it.



To be honest, I never use webmail. I prefer having all the mail stored locally for review whenever I need it (an old habit?). I'm very satisfied with Thunderbird's filtering, and having 5 accounts with different providers, and receiving around 5 unwanted e-mails per account each day, I'm glad not to find any of those in my inbox. Of course, such effect needed several weeks worth of training, but the final outcome beats any spam or malicious mail. If you folks are using mail clients, and still set up web-based filters, I recommend trying those in Mozilla's software.



That is another valid point. What do you need an e-mail account for... if you can't use it? Not only account from some providers are being refused, but a lot of them use so restrictive filtering strategies that some perfectly legitimate e-mails don't reach your account at all (a problem I've run repeatedly into with hotmail.com and yahoo.com, but surprisingly not with yahoo.co.uk).

This post has been edited by xerxes: May 20 2007, 03:11 PM

I would agree with what seems like the general consensus. First of all you can't just say one is better then the other based off a single case since there are too many variables.

Secondly, in all cases I've seen gmails was much better. I have a hotmail address (well did until very recently) that I used for exactly 5 things haha, and none of those were registering for stuff. I never put it on any website, registered for anything with it, etc. I simply used it to email a handful of people. It got alot of daily spam and every day 1-3 emails slipped past the filters. My gmail acocunt I've had since it first started, I've registered for more things then I can count with it, put it on websites, email everyone under the sun, and I honestly think less then 10 emails have ever gotten past the filter and into my inbox.

Basically its got to be a case by case study unless you register 4 address, 2 hotmail and 2 gmail, leave one of each completely alone and watch if spam arrives, take the other two and sign them up for all the exact same things, and then compare all the spam results.

I have noticed that Hotmail changed their filters about two weeks ago. I was accustomed to getting at least seven SPAM messages in my junk folder each day but that drastically dropped in the course of a day. For almost a week I had no SPAM until the spammers figured out a way around it once again. At least I know Hotmail is actively working on this issue and I usually only have one bad message a day now.

I use yahoo but I also have an MSN account (which is like hotmail except costs more and has more space). I like yahoo simply because it is easy to log in and get stuff done. It keeps me updated on my finances but the spam blocker could be better. I would agree with you MSN has a better spam blocker. However I keep getting this one email a day on MSN where I tried to block the address and domain but they change the address and domain ever time. It bugs me a little because I really don't like it when I log in once a week and have 7 emails from the same spam sender. I don't even know how they got my email address. I guess its just one of the things you need to live with lol.
Thanks,
Sparkx