Gmail, hands down. It seems like half my friends with Yahoo or Hotmail have had their accounts hacked lately.

Love Yahoo, have had it for years. I also use Gmail for a seldom-used account but I find it extremely confusing.

Yep, go with Gmail. There are some sites that won't allow you to sign up if you have a Yahoo or Hotmail account. Not exactly sure why but I suspect because they are sites that many spammers use to set up fake accounts.

Jodi-

I have had my hotmail account since the day I started on the computer and have never had a problem with it and normally get very little spam there. I have never had a site refuse me due to my having hotmail.

I also have gmail which I use on occasion but I get so much spam mail there it is ridiculous especially since I have never used it to sign up anywhere.
I have yahoo also but don't use it never liked their format much.
I also have gmx mail which is pretty decent and I have never had any spam mail at all there.

So pick what ever you want there are pros and cons to any of them.

dil has gmail and is happy..i have both aol, and yahoo, but am always forgetting to check the yahoo as i don't use it....

I have both yahoo and gmail, and I would say, go with gmail. Overall I like it better.

I had yahoo, way before gmail came along... and am to lazy to change everything. :)

As far as a second address, I use my name, and hang "other" on it. :)

Moni

This is going to sound strange but there is a bit of logic. I have a boatload of "free mail" accounts. I use one for personal correspondence, another for work related subscriptions, another for bulletin boards (like this one), another one for financial related and two for misc uses. Each one is with a different free mail provider. I use them all. A while ago, I dropped go.com because it was a PITA. Yahoo, Hotmail, Excite and Google (gmail) all have no issues.

This way, if someone sells my e-mail and spams me, I can pinpoint the culprit and complain. My work e-mail is for work only (and it's not free mail).

I've had these e-mail accounts since 1997. I check them all at least weekly. Generally don't have a problem with spam.

My original one was back when Canadians could get a "(whatever)@yahoo.com" address - it's been "(whatever)@yahoo.ca" for us for several years, where I have some others, including the one that's operational at Gardenweb, "grainstove@yahoo.ca", and my screener, "junkmailsystems@yahoo.ca" for several years.

I've been happy with their service, but I do get a substantial amount of spam.

I signed up for one at gmail a few years ago, at son's suggestion, but didn't use it much and have lost track of the password, which pretty well makes it useless (i.e. invisible).

ole joyful

I have all three the OP mentioned.
Gmail is my least favorite.

I have 3 - hotmail, gmail and comcast (which isn't free but they're my cable and internet provider).

I use hotmail for what I consider junkmail - catalogs, store notifications, coupons, sales notices etc.

My comcast account is for friends, business accounts and banking.

For some reason I just don't like the format gmail uses - but all 3 of my kids use it as their primary accounts.

Yeah, I don't understand the fuss over gmail. I really don't like the format. However, maybe it's because it's not what I am used to.

I have yahoo and comcast.

Have to admit, about 2 weeks ago, my yahoo addressed got hacked. Think it's the first time. Other than that, I've had no problems with either and use both.

I have gmail, no problems.

I've had Yahoo for more than a score of years. Never had another and don't plan on getting another. But it's because I moved so much growing up, it gets harder and harder to keep up when one moves. Keep the same phone number, and now email address, then I can be found. It just gives me peace of mind. Had I started out with gmail, I wouldn't doubt I'd still be with them.

I've used a lot of the freebies. Softhome was my favorite since I prefer using POP/SMTP over webmail but the ones I use primarily now are all Yahoo. Never liked Hotmail, partly because I'm pretty anti-Microsoft, but there's other reasons. Gmail I find clumsy and it's been problematic with email checkers. The best spam filtering has been with Yahoo.

I've had a lot of experience over the years with different accounts. For a while I had to change accounts about annually because some people who wouldn't use bcc but I've been using Yahoo now trouble-free for probably 10 year without having to change accounts.

Try different ones and see what you like. I still use email checking programs for some of them so I don't have to use the webmail accounts other than occasionally I check the spam folder for something that went there erroneously.

I've had yahoo, hotmail, and gmail. gmail is by far my favorite. I get the least amount of spam and I consider it my "real" email. I give out the hotmail for stuff I sign up for.