Quote of the week: "When Hotmail sold to Microsoft for $400 million, I felt sick." -- Anthony L. Tobin, president and CEO of ZiaSun, on the advantages of his free and custom email service, PINmail (http://www.pinmail.com/), over its rivals.
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"Momentum created and owns shares in AsiaFocus
International, which owns PINmail. The service was launched last week in Hong Kong and provides an e-mail address
accessed from a Web site."
"Hong Kong advertising agency Momentum has created an anonymous e-mail service for Internet users around the
world.
Director Anthony Tobin said the service would act like a post office box, protecting anonymity. This form of
confidentiality, inevitably raises issues of privacy and censorship.
A Finnish Internet service offering anonymous e-mail was closed down recently because it was perceived to be
condoning child pornography. Mr Tobin said PINmail (http://www. PINmail.com) was designed as an offshore
address only for legitimate businesses, but the company could not necessarily control its users.
'We are very different from the Finnish site, which was cumbersome, slow and free,' Mr Tobin said. 'We also have a
very different view of confidentiality. The guy in Finland said he would defend his users' confidentiality to the hilt. If
there is proof of illegal activities, I would give up a name.' Momentum created and owns shares in AsiaFocus
International, which owns PINmail. The service was launched last week in Hong Kong and provides an e-mail address
accessed from a Web site.
Unlike usual e-mail software, PINmail is not downloaded on to a user's hardware, but sits at a server site and can be
accessed using Netscape 3.0.
Momentum's general manager, Graham Daley, designed the program using a combination of CGI, an industry
standard, and Javascript. He said because of inconsistencies between Netscape's and Internet Explorer's use of
Javascript, the Microsoft version was delayed and is now due out before December.
'There are really no disadvantages to having your e-mail sit on a server rather than your PC,' he said. 'In many ways it's
an advantage because you can access your e-mail from any site in the world as long as you are using the correct
browser.' PINmail can also allow you to maintain an anonymous address.
Momentum has set up three server sites in Hong Kong, California and Amsterdam to enable easier and more efficient
access.
PINmail costs US$19.95 a year.'
And it is of course, for pinheads.
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