All major free email services have added several new features.

Gmail’s 7GB+ storage is constantly expanding. Plus, you can purchase an additional 20GB of space for only $4.99. Gmail’s built in audio/video chat is used by many – plus it can save all chat history. Numerous experimental 'labs' features are available to all users. Many useful features like ‘undo sending’, custom keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures can easily be enabled from the labs menu. Completely integrates with Google Docs, Google Calendar, Picasa, Google+, Google Buzz.

Gmail’s activity tracker lets you track which IP address has accessed your account, to look out for suspicious activity (such as access from another country). For additional security of your account, Gmail offers free two step authentication — with a password sent via sms. You can download any Google account data as a .zip file (for backup) or to free up used space in the ‘data liberation’ section.

Gmail’s contact manager has powerful editing features - it also automatically gets synced to any Android device (when you sign in with your Google account). Advanced email filters, mail sorting features (priority inbox, labels, stars, markers) make it easy to manage emails. You can pull email from any account, but also ‘send as’ from another account.

Hotmail-Integrates with SkyDrive with 25GB free space. Hotmail storage expands as per your need. In theory, this is unlimited storage that keeps growing as you store more mails in your inbox. You can group mails from the same sender in a conversation view. This way if there are multiple emails being sent to and fro, it is easier to follow up and read. You can connect with Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin to view feeds on the home page of Windows Live.

However, if you have set Hotmail to go directly to your inbox, you will have to go back to ‘Home View’ to view the connected feeds. Hotmail Plus allows you to create as many different email ids as required with the same username by just adding a “+” sign and some text after that. The mails are delivered to your inbox and can be easily sorted due to the plus mail address.

So, if you want mails from a subscription site, simply register on the site using username+ offers @hotmail.com and it can be set to go to a specified folder. There is an easy way to view mail with attachments using the Quick Views menu. You can view only the mails that have photos or the mails that have office documents or the ones that have been flagged. Sweep functionality allows you to quickly move all mails from a specific sender to any folder of your choice. Simply select a mail received and use the sweep function.

Mail.com-Connects with Facebook for updates, photo sharing. Mail.com offers multiple domain names - you can choose from mail.com, email.com,lawyer.com, doctor.com, techie.com and many more for your email ID. You can view emails in tabs, which allows you to read or compose multiple emails at a time. Mail.com offers unlimited storage and 50MB attachment size. Create upto 10 alias email addresses within Mail.com — email for each alias will be delivered directly to your inbox.

A handy organiser is included, accessed from the menu on top — you can add tasks, events, send email invitations, move tasks around by dragging and dropping. Personalise with various themes, change orientation of preview windows for easy reading. All the usual features like custom signatures, a vacation auto responder and custom email filters are easily accessible. You can enable a few experimental features like audio alerts for new mail and feedback mode, to help improve the service.

Mail.com offers easy online instructions to configure email with various email clients. There is complete Facebook integration — you can read/write on walls or share photos to Facebook. You only need to sign in once and allow Mail.com access to your Facebook account. Free and direct customer service is available in case you get stuck with any of the features.

Yahoo Mail offers unlimited storage for users. No more worrying about how many heavy attachments have been sent to you. With Yahoo, you can send free text messages to cell phones. Simply enter the phone number or choose a contact from your list and type out the SMS. The recipient can reply to the SMS to send a message back.

It offers the option to view mail, SMS or Chats as a conversation for easy reading and reference. You can attach up to 25MB in a mail, however, Yahoo has tied up with Yousendit.com to send files up to 2GB in a mail.

Attachments are stored on Yousendit servers and can be downloaded for 30days. You also get 1GB online cloud storage with Yahoo as they have a tie up with ZumoDrive. A quick sign-up is required first time to integrate ZumoDrive with Yahoo Mail. After that, you can upload, download from within the mail window itself.

In terms of social networking, there is integrated Facebook chat as well as a tie up with Sobees. Sobees allows access to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Myspace. You can view the feeds from various networks and update status on multiple networks in one go. There are a variety of layout options available as per your choice. Yahoo Mail also has a stationery feature, which allows mails to be created with various custom backgrounds to give it a funkier look. Another tie-up with Fontself allows you to send mail in various fonts. An integrated notepad allows you to save notes to yourself, and sort them into folders for later use.