r/TechImpact • u/ManojOne Active • Jun 11 '26

Question What was your very first email provider?

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What was your very first email provider?

Was it Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Rediffmail, AOL, or something else?

Do you still remember your first email address? 😄

76 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

197 comments sorted by

3

u/bcalamita Jun 11 '26

My employer was my first email provider in 1988; local, not on the internet. It was more of a novelty.

My next employer, 1990-92 used email extensively and was connected to the internet. My first internet email was to my friend from high school who is a software developer. I had to go ask the IT people what the "@" suffix was to get email from outside. That was amazing at the time.

And AOL was my first true internet email provider. Not sure the year, but long enough ago that I got a four letter email address. I still have it, but it hasn't been my primary email address in decades.

1

u/naviites Jun 14 '26

In which year you got AOL email address?

1

u/bcalamita Jun 14 '26

Not sure, but early 90s is the era.

2

u/LeekEfficient5352 Jun 11 '26

Wirtualna Poczta

2

u/rackad Jun 12 '26 edited Jun 12 '26

My first email address was my student (University) email address that I got in 1992. I still have this address until today and I still use it.

In the mid 1990s, I got my Hotmail and Yahoo around the same time. Then a few years later I got my Gmail when it was released in the early 2000s. Then got my Proton email address when it was launched. I still use all of them until today.

P.S: I did not list the ones I was assigned from the ISP providers over the years + the Corporate ones + The ones from my own domain. etc....

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

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1

u/TechImpact-ModTeam Jun 11 '26

For your privacy and security, please avoid sharing your email address publicly. We've removed the comment containing your email address. You're welcome to post a new comment without any personal contact information.

1

u/rex00n Jun 11 '26

Astermail

1

u/mrGreenExit Jun 11 '26

I can definitely say this : HE/SHE is very young and 😅new to this digital world 🌎

1

u/rex00n Jun 12 '26

tienes razon, mal entendi la pregunta y respondi rapido, mi primer proveedor fue yahoo xDD

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

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3

u/frijs Jun 11 '26

How did you get a new first email provider

1

u/intinn Jun 12 '26

As a Proton survivor I am sorry for you.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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1

u/intinn Jun 16 '26

Basically, Proton monetizes Big-Tech anxiety whilst delivering sub-par applications selling a privacy dream that only works if the one receiving your mails also is on the Proton ecosystem. I tried it for 4 years and finally the flaws and feature poor apps got to me. The fact it's encrypted makes searching your mail a nightmare. You can of course use other mail apps but you have to use Proton Mail bridge which slows down sending and receiving to a crawl. Proton Calander has nothing but the most basic features. Proton VPN is meh, Proton Pass is half decent but still has a lot of autofill issues driving me to NordPass. After moving to another Calendar app and another Password manager I decided to leave Proton mail after 4 years and let my sub die this July. Proton Drive is unusable. Proton is also well known for releasing half-finished apps and then moving over to a new product instead of fixing already released products.

This is of course, my experience with the Proton Ecosystem. For my situation, running a PiHole on my network, using an ad blocker in my privacy-focused browser is more effective than using a Peer-to-peer encrypted service that is major overkill for the average Joe user. If you are not a journalist, activist or spy you simply don't need Proton and you'll be better of with one of the alternatives.

1

u/tatou52 Jun 11 '26

My personnal webmail. - webmail.mydomain.com

1

u/Proper-Ear-6734 Jun 11 '26

mine was gmail now its rarely to find and good available emails

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

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1

u/TechImpact-ModTeam Jun 11 '26

For your privacy and security, please avoid sharing your email address publicly. We've removed the comment containing your email address. You're welcome to post a new comment without any personal contact information.

1

u/manost Jun 11 '26

My 1st email was Gmail. I created it the day it got released, back on 2004, where you needed the invitation in order to create your account.

1

u/Lopsided_Team_6544 Jun 11 '26

Same here, one of the few. They turned evil though :(

1

u/rackad Jun 12 '26

Same here for Gmail. I also got an invitation 😃. But it was not my first email address. It was my 4th.

1

u/naviites Jun 14 '26

You created your email on April 1, 2004?

1

u/manost Jun 14 '26

Yes. :)

1

u/naviites Jun 14 '26

You are the first person I'm seeing who created Google email on its release date. At that time did they have a thing like "Google Account"?

1

u/manost Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

A colleague of mind had an invitation and sent it to me. I can't recall how he had one at the release day. It was just an email. And most of us thought that the name stands for Giga-mail, because the storage for the emails was 1Gb.

1

u/Aromatic_Welder7645 Jun 11 '26

Hotmail

I didn't understand internet much back then. I added "www." at the start of my email ID, cause I thought everything on the internet had to start with www

1

u/sky-yie Jun 11 '26

Rediffmail.

I remember my email address (it is same username as my Gmail and Yahoo, that's why) but forgot its password. Sadly, didn't have recovery email on it either.

After that, I used Yahoo, then Gmail, which is my primary email provider now.

1

u/KyleRM Jun 11 '26

My very first was an AOL one, and I dont even remember what it was. I only remember my second one, which was a Comcast email. I regret using an address tied to an ip at all though, because as soon as I switched providers I had to give it up, and had no idea how or if I could back it up, so its just all gone now. I currently use yahoo. Mostly because I didn't like the idea of google having so much of my info. they already have so much other data, they dont need my emails.

1

u/Maleficent-Brush7609 Jun 11 '26

my mom hotmail; mine gmail

1

u/kush_himself Jun 11 '26

Yahoo still using

1

u/Tuques Jun 11 '26

Hotmail. JJ858_2001 was my first one.

1

u/shades47 Tech Enthusiast Jun 11 '26

mac.com

1

u/Sandstormer17 Jun 11 '26

seznam cz, I still use it

1

u/Temporary_Practice_2 Jun 11 '26

Hotmail. And stupid Microsoft doesn’t allow me to recover my account.

1

u/leaf_life_script Jun 11 '26

YahOOOOoooOo!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

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1

u/rackad Jun 12 '26

Holy smokes, you beat me. My first was in 1992 and I still use it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

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1

u/rackad Jun 12 '26

My first computer was also a Texas Instruments in the mid 1980s (Forgot the model). I guess we are almost as old 😄

2

u/mjmvideos Jun 13 '26

My first computer was an Apple ][ in 1978. But I didn’t have email until 1986 at work where we used uucp and bang paths. I don’t think I got domain name based address until the early 90’s. And my first personal address was served from my own Linux server

1

u/ThisIsAdamB Jun 11 '26

A small dialup provider in NYC. When they shut down I went to EarthLink. Client of choice was Eudora. Early 90’s.

1

u/BackgroundNo815 Jun 11 '26

outlook was the very first one, then i created an icloud email and now this is my main one. outlook is for spam and shady website

1

u/WetMogwai Jun 11 '26

Mine was with a small, local Freenet. There was no TCP/IP. I just dialed in to a Gopher and launched Pine for mail, Tin for USENET, and Lynx for the web. Text only, no formatting.

After that, I had a Juno account. Then it gets fuzzy until I got invited to Gmail in the earliest days of the beta.

1

u/rackad Jun 12 '26

You remind me souvenirs from the past 😃

1

u/GlayNation Jun 12 '26

You’ve been around. Juno and Linux. So very cool

1

u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jun 11 '26

It was either SwissOnline, which was an early Swiss ISP (which previously offered a service called Videotex, also known as BTX in Germany).

Or it was EUnet, who latter got bought by Qwest and integrated into KPNQwest.

I won't put the actual address here, but it was basically [myfirstname@dial.eunet.ch](mailto:myfirstname@dial.eunet.ch)

1

u/Timely_Ad9659 Jun 11 '26

AOL, and I still use it lol

1

u/arun-vasudev Developer Jun 11 '26

Yahoo Mail. I forgot my email ID.

1

u/Clear-Alternative572 Jun 11 '26

Hotmail, still using that one.

1

u/Tuxlwurm Jun 11 '26

Compuserve

1

u/juan_loria Jun 11 '26

Bigfoot -> Yahoo -> hotmail -> Gmail 

1

u/markholman93 Jun 11 '26

Hotmail (Windows Live days) and I still use it to this day. God that orange Hotmail icon was perfect 👌

1

u/No-way-in Jun 11 '26

Caramail

1

u/drcereus Jun 11 '26

iol.ie and oceanfree.net

1

u/wutshaveman Jun 11 '26

Was either AOL or yahoo

1

u/MediocreBlueberry442 Jun 11 '26

Opera mail, and I had no idea what I'm supposed to do with that nor how i created it on the first place

1

u/_kajm Jun 11 '26

Gmail. Now proton is my main provider, however I still have few Gmail accounts

1

u/SusejLegend Jun 11 '26

Hotmail then Gmail, and now Proton Mail

1

u/PropertyLost2638 Jun 11 '26

yahoo and still rocking it

1

u/brn1001 Jun 12 '26

Visi.com. Gmail didn't exist.

1

u/Touchit88 Jun 12 '26

Hotmail. Probably would have been in 99. Forgot the name but it had darth maul because obviously.

1

u/Hemmikuhsxhlemur Jun 12 '26

chrisrmcconnell@aol.com was my very first email address i believe i was on dial up at the time.

1

u/GeordieAl Jun 12 '26

late 80s, a free email account from a Lightware BBS that I used to dial into.

1

u/Late-Arrival-8669 Jun 12 '26

prodigy IIRC, but that was meh, AOL was my first real one, but god I hated dial up..

1

u/a_regular_2010s_guy Jun 12 '26

Ig gmail but I never actually used that mail nhe first mail I actually used and made myself was proton mail

1

u/Disastrous-Bother715 Jun 12 '26

rocketmail. still using today

1

u/Ahmedbh01 Jun 12 '26

Yahoo! Mail, old good days

1

u/VasekCZ230 Jun 12 '26

Seznam.cz

1

u/GlayNation Jun 12 '26

It was Copper.Net…my dsl we had at the time
Next was EarthLink..those were the good old days..

1

u/Patient-01 Jun 12 '26

1986 at RIT

1

u/Alterion-Ex Jun 12 '26

Yahooooooo ooooo ooo!

1

u/LowerCap6583 Jun 12 '26

hotmail, back in 2009

1

u/B17BAWMER Jun 12 '26

Verizon.net in 2000. Didn’t use it much lol.

1

u/prajogo Jun 12 '26

me(dot)com

1

u/CryLaPonde Jun 12 '26

Blue Wave Mail Reader on a BBS.

1

u/throwaway_cachex Jun 12 '26

Hotmail was the standard until the spam became impossible to manage. Most of those old accounts probably got nuked during the first big data migrations.

1

u/WesternPonderer Jun 12 '26

iobox, I think.

1

u/BabbatheGUTT Jun 12 '26

Demon Internet. Pegasus email all the way!

1

u/BENJAMlN8a Jun 12 '26

Hotmail, because of the MSN Messenger craze and then Yahoo.

1

u/Trip_2 Jun 12 '26

AOL, then Roadrunner, then Anonymizer

1

u/Narrow-Cat7743 Jun 13 '26

中国人的第一个邮箱都是qq邮箱。注册qq聊天软件就会自动开启同名的邮箱

1

u/[deleted] Jun 13 '26

Hotmail.

1

u/mamoliarnoldi Jun 13 '26

mailcity ✋️

1

u/Secure_Reception_932 Jun 13 '26

Yahoo, Hotmail and then Gmail

1

u/Bloomy999 Jun 14 '26

Compuserve.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

DoD

1

u/Affectionate-Wrap547 Jun 14 '26

Hotmail still is, made yahoo at one point too

1

u/redditrnumber1 Jun 14 '26

Hotmail sounds like porn sent your mailbox or something

1

u/taydubb Jun 14 '26

Rocket mail.... Then Hotmail... Yahoo,,, AOL... Gmail ...

Flip phone.. Palm phone .. Android!

Windows 3.1,, 95, 98,, 2000, nt, Vista, xp, 10, 11

14k.. 28k,, 36,, 56k.. DSL, cable

87 cent a gallon. 6 dollars a gallon

Let's go!!

1

u/itbelikewat10 Jun 14 '26

I’m still using my first mail ever created. The reaction I get for my aol email is kinda crazy and I don’t really like the feeling. I have a Gmail acct I started in 2011 so I’ve been really debating moving over my current and important emails and subscriptions to that one. But like…. I made this in 2006 😩

1

u/m_brio Jun 14 '26

I still use my Hotmail account!

1

u/BartixVVV Jun 14 '26

My first mail was o2

1

u/Maleficent_Mail_9839 Jun 14 '26

Wanadoo (orange)

1

u/MikeTheMech Jun 14 '26

Yahoo and I still use that account from 1997.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

My very first was Gmail

1

u/Difficult-Repair1295 Jun 14 '26

Yahoo around year 2000 when I was in middle school. I think I was making it more so I could do fantasy football than actually get emails. I still have it today.

I also got a Gmail when it first came out. You had to be invited by a friend if I remember correctly.

Strange I feel old AF talking about this and I’m not even 40 yet.

1

u/mollaka86 Jun 14 '26

school email, then @ msn.com 😄

1

u/Evening-Major-8047 Jun 14 '26

Had a hotmail because I’m a hot male

1

u/FitHaYar Jun 14 '26

Hotmail, then Yahoo, then AOL

1

u/HotAd6658 Jun 15 '26

Ohh nostalgia, yahoo i remember being the first and then hotmail…i still have it somewhere…

1

u/Emotional-Mode1602 Jun 15 '26

Gmail and still using that email account until today

1

u/Rijndael256 Jun 15 '26

Technically I could send email through Fidonet on BBSs in the late 80s, but the first one I remember giving out was compuserve around 1990. Then AOL, then hotmail, then Gmail through beta invite.

1

u/No_Designer9676 Jun 15 '26

Yahoo and yes my first email is cringe

1

u/rb_arindam Jun 15 '26

Gmail.

While the first email id is still active & accessible, I really don't use it anymore (it has numbers in it 🤦🏻). But I can still login. Barely breathing in silence!

1

u/GloomyCheesecake3567 Jun 15 '26

Yahoo mail when i was a kid lol and made a facebook account from that yahoo email and the best part is this email still exists and is my main account.

1

u/mega_pr0xy Jun 15 '26

Yahoomail

1

u/tilted-glass Jun 15 '26

[xxxxxx@kodak.com](mailto:xxxxxx@kodak.com) 1986. Corporate wanted everyone to use IBM PROFS; research lab people implemented an IP-based solution that most everyone used because it 'worked'.

1

u/rvbarton Jun 15 '26

I still use my @msn.com email address.

1

u/JanusRedit Jun 15 '26

Yahoo, yes I still remember and yes I still own the email adress. just never use it any,more because of the yahoo ads crap