I prefer gmail as an email server over other servers because the ads are not graphic and very easy to miss.
Chat of any sort is a big no-no in my house. Anyone who gets your email address can open a chat session with you and can potentially be very dangerous. Email can be a little more controlled. Incoming emails can also be set to automatically copy to someone else’s email account for monitoring.
personally- compared to all the other choices- AOL, yahoo,- gmail is the most “kosher” because no inappropriate pictures pop up- even if you have a filter- the other sites do
Gmail, which I use for work, seems spam free, so far, but I dont like searching through the “Sent” box because it does not save things in a simple, chronological way. To me, its difficult and chronoillogical.
A Heimishe Mom: Gmail has Google Talk (google’s chat program) built-in. Also, the settings page for setting up email forwarding, is accessible to anyone is using the email account.