The increasingly competitive Web mail market has a new player: Instant messaging provider ICQ. The company now offers a fee-based service that includes 2GB of storage, a calendar feature, task manager, notepad, wireless access, and support for both POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol).
ICQ, owned by America Online, will announce the service, which costs $19.99 per year, this week says Ronen Arad, ICQ director of product management.
The service also includes spam filtering and blocking, protection against viruses and a 20MB ceiling on files sent or received. The service offers a feature that translates messages into seven languages, the ability to compress large attachments and WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) support for access from a mobile device. The features in this Web mail service make it a real competitor to services from other providers, such as Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google, whose Gmail service is still in a beta version.
The ICQ Web mail service also has features available for additional fees. One such extra-cost feature lets users send e-mail messages to wireless devices that support SMS (Short Message Service). Another one is a video e-mail service that can be used by subscribers who have a Webcam attached to their PCs; the interface has VCR-like controls to record the message, which recipients in turn can play back without additional software on Windows-based PCs.
Free Service Still Available
Meanwhile, ICQ will also announce Monday that its existing free Web mail service, which used to be a generic and bare-bones offering, has undergone a significant revamping, Arad says.
It now features enhanced message search functionality, virus and spam protection, and more ways to manage inbox messages, such as a new folder for drafts and a sent-mail confirmation feature. However, inbox storage for the free service, at only 6M B, is low compared with other providers.
ICQ, based in Tel Aviv, is partnering with Mail2World, based in Los Angeles, to provide these services. ICQ signed up Mail2World several months ago, Arad says. ICQ's former Web mail partner was San Francisco-based Critical Path.
More details about ICQ's services are available at ICQ.com.
