JungleMate: the Last of the Freebies?

(6⁄1⁄3) Junglemate has again (6⁄1⁄3) indicated that they have reached their objectives in offering the free service, and that no new memberships are available. It seems to me that this periodic cycling may be a way that they can attract customers. A new ad has been added to the signin routine to remind you that you really would be better off with one of the paid levels.

JungleMate: FREE Web Email Calendar Contact Management Schedule is baaaaack!!! For a while, the ability to sign up for an account disappeared from the front page, but it has been restored. However, it's been much reduced: you get 2 megabytes of file storage space, or 5 files in total, and your email address can only have 2 MB. When it was first introduced, the total of all uses was 15 MB

These parsimonious limits, of course, aim to encourage you to purchase an annual subscription at one of three levels, depending on your needs. As with most pay-as-you-play systems on the web these days, there is no advertising of any kind when you ante up the cash. But even with Junglemate, the free service, the advertising is so subtle that you hardly realize it's there.

Ever since the First Nations sold Manhattan for $24, the urge to get something for nothing has grown even as the dollar has shrunk. Since Junglemate is Canadian, the value of a free account will be worth 1.5223 times zero (at the time of writing). So if you already have an email address (you need one other established account for registration) and want a small, no-cost place on the web to stash important stuff that you might want to reach from other places, Junglemate seems a good fit.

- Bill Hudgins