The Lycos Mail (UK) front page currently boasts the following testimonial for its free 300 Mb e-mail accounts: Lycos Free Email is the best designed Free email out there. Period.
Well, not in my experience it isn’t.
Once upon a time I got fed up with the increasingly large amount of spam ending up in my Hotmail account. I was also getting annoyed with the stupidly low 2 Mb mail quota. Lycos Mail boasted a 15 Mb quota and POP3 support as a bonus for when I didn’t need to use Web mail. Fantastic. A couple of months later, support for POP3 stops and a redesign with some funky JavaScript starts throwing Mozilla browsers into a frenzy. Lycos Mail was no longer viable for me, so I went back to my Hotmail spam account.
Of course, now none of this really matters as I host my own e-mail accounts, which I can access via the Web if needed. However, my girlfriend still uses Lycos Mail and I don’t think there’s ever a time I don’t hear cursing when she’s checking her Lycos accounts. Where did it all go wrong, Lycos?
Update, 15.02.2006
- Related article on the Register: Lycos UK cans POP3.
16 Responses to “What the hell happened to Lycos Mail?”
First of all, I would like to make it clear that I do not use Lycos Mail for my own personal email – I have a myriad other accounts, mostly with Hotmail – yeah, not necessarily the best, but BETTER THAN LYCOS!
The Lycos account is for a group of writers that I manage, and I set up the email at the same time as I set up the free webspace on Lycos.
Things Wrong With Lycos:
* You cannot hit backspace and return to the previous page.
* You can no longer report spam, at least through the way I used to (I think they got fed up of my daily sending them several emails about spam)
* If you block an email address, it still reaches you, but goes straight into your junk folder, which is not what block is for!!!!
* In Firefox, when typing an email, I sometimes get this annoying bug where it constantly tries to search for what I’m typing and then writes over something I’ve already written!!!
* I was not allowed to reply to an email the other day – it produced an error whenever I clicked the button.
* I get HUGE amounts of spam, esp dodgy bank scams – far more than in my Hotmail inbox (I never get dodgy bank scams in Hotmail, and in one account I don’t get any spam whatsoever!).
There’s probably more that I cannot remember but that will do for now. I just wanted to clarify exactly what I find wrong with Lycos. Does anyone else reading this use Lycos Mail, or is that a stupid question? 😉
“In Firefox, when typing an email, I sometimes get this annoying bug where it constantly tries to search for what I’m typing…”
To be fair, this could be a Firefox problem – perhaps some issue with JavaScript that is triggering “find as you type” in Firefox. Having said that, I’ve never had that issue with other Web mail accounts, like Gmail.
I think lycos mail is great. I signed up in 1999 when it was mailcity.com and have used that account as my main email address ever since. I’ve tried lots of other free email providers over the years and never stayed with them. I get about 1 or 2 spam emails every year with lycos. I get about 3 or 4 a day with hotmail (even after signing up with a brand new account and not passing on the address to anyone, the spams still get there somehow).
It could offer free pop3 but then I always use webmail, so personally that doesnt bother me.
I’ve used mozilla for a few years and then firefox since firebird and never noticed anything strange with the workings of the site. I don’t get that ‘search for’ bug and backspace seems to return to the previous page ok too.
Anyway thats all just my humble two cents. I tried gmail too and was very impressed with all the swanky coding, but even so, still using lycos mainly.
Hi Tom,
Do you use a Lycos.com or Lycos.co.uk for Web mail? That might be the difference here.
Yes dotjay I think you’re right. I actually type mailcity.com still with goes to lycos.com. I just had a look at lycos.co.uk and it looks very different. I’ve never tried the UK version before so got no idea what it’s like… but I’m gathering from the comments it’s nothing too great.
Anyway, if you don’t mind about not having pop3 then i’d certainly recommend lycos.com webmail.
Also I’ve just noticed that gmail are now offering 2GB of storage (and counting – see their page)! Now that is impressive!
I have lots of gmail invites to give away if anybody wants one.
Sadly, I cannot change the email address for the writing group – it’d confuse members and mess up our publicity. I originally got a lycos account for the group (1) because I was using their free webspace service, and (2) because Jon recommended it to me at the time!! *glares angrily at Jon*
Also: when I do manage to get the lycos.co.uk account to send an email, it either makes the gaps between paragraphs ridiculously huge or refuses to make the links I type in work. GRRRRR!!
There were at least two other complaints I had previously forgotten to mention, but happily for me (and you), I’ve forgotten them again.
I’ll shut up now.
Ouch, it is beginning to sound like Fiery Jo; when I do visit York again, warn me in advance it sounds like a strong case for an accessibility retrofit.
=) It’s OK, she doesn’t bite.
In all honesty, I did recommend Lycos Mail when she was looking for an account for her creative writing group because it was a better option than Hotmail at the time. I had only just moved to a Lycos account back then.
Of course, a couple of months later I left the account to rot. But she’s stuck with it – unless she decides to change the address she publicises for the group. It’d be a pain to check two e-mail addresses just in case though.
I’m only fiery when I want to be, and I only bite if asked – unless it’s Jon. 😉
If you visit York, I promise to be nice, and if you’re lucky, I may even have baked cookies!
Tra-la-la!
“I may even have baked cookies!”
It’s official! The next Accessify meetup is ‘round our way. 🙂
*Jon gets bitten by Jo* Ouch!
Excuse me??? *glares at Jon, tapping her wand in her other hand*
I never said I would bake cookies for all your friends, you creep! Watch it, else you’ll make a nice firework display over the Minster…:P
If anyone wants cookies, they have to ask nicely.
Tra-la-la!
Don’t bite Jon too much and whack him with your firm wand I need him to be in one piece for next week if I manage (with luck) to get to York City.
Hope he told you.
Jon? Tell me anything? I didn’t even know he had full grasp of the English language yet…:P
Don’t know if there’ll be cookies for your arrival, I’m writing a novel this month. Sorry, but looking forward to meeting you (if he lets me). 🙂
Oh, Jon, honey, thought you might want to read this: Oi, Jon!
🙂
Deal. A forum of some sort should be up and running by the end of the month. If you’re lucky. =)
*mutters* As if I haven’t got anything better to do…
I just signed up for Lycos email within the last three days, and already I have had numerous issues.
The latest is that I cannot get access the email at all and a notice stating “Error 500” comes up. There is no definition of what that means.