We talked the other day about the closure of Tripod (Web hosting service by Lycos). Well, today we talk about the closure of another one of their services, the e-mail service Lycos mail.

In fact both closures were announced by Lycos simultaneously, and Lycos mail will close its doors on 15th February. In an e-mail, users are warned about the need to back up their accounts before that day and not to use their e-mail addresses anymore.

This service was much less used than Tripod but it was maybe more important for users.

For some years, several services have been created to do exactly this, sending emails in the future. These are sites whose service is not provided immediately, nor even a few days after, but maybe decades after it was ordered!

But, what happens when a service of this kind is closed down? Will emails be sent?

Time Machiner was one of this services that began in March of last year and it is already out of service. You can see references about its launch at Fayer Wayer and MoMB. There are numerous services of this kind that are still working, and some of them “guarantee” that they will send our emails scheduled until 2099. How can you guarantee something like that in a business like this?

We could think that, being a free service, it would be enough to warn in the terms of use that emails won’t be sent if the site closes down. But some of these services charge for a sending package. Since there is an agreement with the user, you must send his email when he decides it. Although the service closes down subsequently, they would be obliged to have an online server to send pending emails.

This is, without doubt, a very risky service since it means to have to provide it lots of years after, with the ups and downs of Internet businesses.

Where will we be in 2099?