AOL is a popular name on the Internet, and the fact that many people use the company's free email service comes as no surprise. But does AOL's email really deliver? It would seem so.

• Integrated AIM Buddy List
• AOL Easy Transfer for Contact Management
• Personalized .Com Email Addresses Available

AOL's free email is not picture perfect. There are changes that need to be made, such as more storage (AOL only offers 2GB) and better customer service. Heck, any customer service at all would be an improvement. AOL doesn't seem to want to provide live support for users of their free email service. And they really need to work on the reliability of their email services, as some messages may never arrive to their destination.

That being said, AOL does offer something most of the other free email services do not. With AOL, you can use your own domain for customized email addresses and you can allow up to 100 people to get email accounts through AOL using that domain too.

Is AOL perfect? No. But if you don't have many storage requirements, don't mind checking your spam folder for email that doesn't belong there and like the idea of a customized email address, then AOL may be exactly what you're looking for. They earn 5.0 Stars!

We really liked the fact that Yahoo! Mail offers unlimited email storage and a generous outgoing message size cap of 10MB. Many other free email services put a limit on  message storage, which could eventually lead to missed emails and data loss. Fortunately, Yahoo! Mail doesn't pose this problem.

• New Ymail.com and Rocketmail.com Email Addresses
• User-Friendly Contact Transfer Wizard
• Ad-Free Upgrade Option Available

We also liked the unique features offered by the service, such as the inbox instant chat and the user-friendly contact management tools. The only thing we didn't like was the overabundance of ads, but that seems to be par for the course in the world of free email services. If the ads really bother you, there is an option to upgrade to an ad-free version of the service for less than $20 per year.

Overall, even though customer service is a bit lacking, we have to say that Yahoo! Mail is one of the better free email services out there. If you're looking for a free email account with unlimited storage and you don't mind dealing with a few ads to get it, then Yahoo! Mail may be exactly what you've been looking for. We give them 5.0 Stars!

Gmail definitely has its benefits. There's the instant chat feature accessible from your inbox, the comprehensive email search, and the text-only advertisements, just to name a few. But the service really needs to do some work if they want to be the top free email service in the game.

• Integrated Google Email Search
• Constantly Increasing Storage Space
• Text-Only Advertisements

While Gmail does offer a generous storage limit of 7GB (and that number is growing), there are other free email services providing unlimited storage, which means Gmail is actually behind the curve right now. And the way messages are organized (or lack of organization, rather) might take some getting used to.

Customer service is also an issue, with live support being virtually nonexistent. We feel that although Google accounts offer unique features and that Gmail is a great addition to those features, Gmail itself does not stand out as an exceptional free email service. Gmail earns 4.5 Stars!

We had high hopes for Hotmail. After all, they were one of the very first free email services on the Web and at one time, the majority of free email users turned to Hotmail for their email needs.

While Hotmail does indeed offer a solid email offering, they weren't the best free email service by far. First of all, the 5GB of storage is dwarfed by the offerings of the other free email providers. Gmail, one of Hotmail's biggest competitors, offers 7GB and Yahoo!, another big competitor, offers unlimited storage.

• New Designs – You Can Choose Your Own Color and Layout
• Access Email from Your Cell Phone
• 5 GB of Storage

That being said, Hotmail will be a great choice for those who are die-hard POP3 fans. Not only is Hotmail email POP3 compatible, but it also looks and feels like a POP3 application online. From spell check to emoticons, Hotmail has it.

Customer service, however, is one thing they don't have. If you do opt to use Hotmail as your free email provider of choice,  then you'd better be a bit of a do-it-yourselfer. Email and phone support do not exist. They earn 4.5 Stars!