The news today is that America Online [TWX] will begin offering free email accounts to the world, with 2GB of storage for each account. Like Google’s Gmail, the service will be supported by ads rather than customer subscriptions.

There are already major alternatives to AOL’s proposed service, such as Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and the aforementioned Gmail. What will AOL do to remain competitive with these offerings? From what I can tell, it sounds like it will be closely integrated with their instant messaging and digital phone service.

I pay $16 each month (prepaid two years in advance) for a full-featured web host that includes hosting for 15 domains (with unlimited mirrored domains), 3000 email accounts on those domains (with POP, IMAP or web access), and 7GB storage, among many other featured needed for various websites I run. I have the Code Monster plan with Dreamhost, which I’ve had since 1999. (Before that my sites were hosted on various university web servers.)

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Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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