FastMail.FM acquired by Opera

April 30, 2010 · by Haavard

As announced by Rob Mueller of FastMail.FM (and an Opera press release), the e-mail service has been acquired by Opera Software.

FastMail.FM is known as one of the best e-mail services in the world, and of course the FastMail.FM team intends to keep it that way. The existing team will still be working on the service, and you will be able to continue using it as you always have. I don't think much will change for existing users, except the service has a new owner on paper.

I'm sure any questions and concerns that may pop up will be answered in due time.

Readers' comments 25

Left under the original article, as archived.

ZotlanFriday, April 30, 2010 11:00:13 AM
"FastMail.FM is known as one of the best e-mail services in the world [...]"
Never heard of them before now, how is a service that offers a whopping 10MB in its free package "one of the best"?
HaavardFriday, April 30, 2010 11:05:48 AM
There's more to quality than what the free service offers. Reliability, service, and so on. Ask their customers
artynameFriday, April 30, 2010 11:15:06 AM
Will Opera Mobile/Mini use *web*-interface to FastMail?
Tenno SeremelFriday, April 30, 2010 11:24:33 AM
I use it for my secondary emails. Interesting news
Ruarí ØdegaardFriday, April 30, 2010 11:29:12 AM
Originally posted by Zotlan:

Never heard of them before now, how is a service that offers a whopping 10MB in its free package "one of the best"?
You are looking at the free service. look at the features of the full and enhanced. Head over to http://www.emaildiscussions.com/ and you'll see that fastmail is very popular.
d4rkn1ghtFriday, April 30, 2010 11:36:30 AM
I'm very happy with these news! FastMail had been my e-mail service for many years!
Daniel HendrycksFriday, April 30, 2010 11:37:40 AM
Hope some changes come too. (@omail.com)
Ruarí ØdegaardFriday, April 30, 2010 11:40:16 AM
Originally posted by d4rkn1ght:

FastMail had been my e-mail service for many years!
Me too ... I have a theory that Opera bought FastMail for my birthday (which is today). Indeed I am certain this is a personal present for me!
Daniel HendrycksFriday, April 30, 2010 11:43:23 AM
Originally posted by Ruari Ødegaard:

I have a theory that Opera bought FastMail for my birthday (which is today).

Well, Happy Birthday! http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Yahoo.gif -
d4rkn1ghtFriday, April 30, 2010 11:46:11 AM
Originally posted by ruario:

Originally posted by d4rkn1ght:

FastMail had been my e-mail service for many years!
Me too ... I have a theory that Opera bought FastMail for my birthday (which is today). Indeed I am certain this is a personal present for me!

Happy birthday Ruari!
Ruarí ØdegaardFriday, April 30, 2010 11:51:34 AM
Thanks d4rkn1ght, DanielHendrycks much appreciated! However, no more birthday wishes please as I don't want to hijack this blog post.

I'll just assume everyone wishes me happy birthday!
Yeni SetiawanFriday, April 30, 2010 12:07:46 PM
I'm thinking about new form of Opera Mail.
Daniel HendrycksFriday, April 30, 2010 12:11:44 PM
Originally posted by Yeni Setiawan:

I'm thinking about new form of Opera Mail.

+1
FavFriday, April 30, 2010 12:36:26 PM
Originally posted by haavard:

There's more to quality than what the free service offers. Reliability, service, and so on. Ask their customers

I believe Gmail is quite reliable as well, or any other major mail provider, such as Yahoo, Hotmail + their free service includes ads + taglines...

Still, looking forward for the outcome of this purchase.
Mağruf ÇolakoğluFriday, April 30, 2010 12:47:08 PM
I hope this influences opera mail service. Most of users want to use opera mail but some limitations , no possibility. Can we think that this is an investment for the future on Opera's mail management to their users.
WildEnteFriday, April 30, 2010 3:34:00 PM
All I can say at this point is http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=173410&t=1272641563&page=1#comment1877715

A glimpse of light at the horizon?
endless loveSaturday, May 1, 2010 9:39:03 AM
lucideerSaturday, May 1, 2010 12:37:47 PM
Originally posted by Zotlan:

Never heard of them before now, how is a service that offers a whopping 10MB in its free package "one of the best"?

I recently switched webmail service, and in doing so shopped around a lot of offers. FastMail is by far the best in ALL things bar storage - I would've gone for FastMail if it wasn't for their insane 10MB limit.
Yeni SetiawanSaturday, May 1, 2010 3:14:08 PM
I'm thinking (again) about something new.

By the amount of Opera Mini users, perhaps Opera is trying to "convert" Opera Mini into an application that support messaging service.

Just like Blackberry Internet Service by RIM.
Charles SchlossMonday, May 3, 2010 4:38:47 AM
J.F. HarringtonMonday, May 3, 2010 9:33:53 PM
I had a FastMail account for many months, though I didn't use it very often. When it tried to deliver a vius,or trojan,or some such, I dumped it. Of course, I was using the free version. Maybe if I'd had a paid version it would have been ok. However, I've used 3 Yahoo addresses (free) for years and never had a problem.
prd3Tuesday, May 4, 2010 8:11:44 AM
Originally posted by jfh:

I had a FastMail account for many months, though I didn't use it very often. When it tried to deliver a vius,or trojan,or some such, I dumped it. Of course, I was using the free version. Maybe if I'd had a paid version it would have been ok. However, I've used 3 Yahoo addresses (free) for years and never had a problem.

You won't get viruses simply by using webmail. If FastMail had infected people with viruses, it would have been all over the web.

You are clearly jumping to false conclusions.
lucideerTuesday, May 4, 2010 9:11:05 AM
Originally posted by prd3:

You are clearly jumping to false conclusions.

I don't think he's implying that the virus originated with FastMail - merely that it managed to evade any malware filters they may have in place.
Cutting SpoonSaturday, May 8, 2010 11:06:29 PM
Well, no email service can provide 100% protection from viruses, same with any download-hosting service. This is why we all have our own antivirus software, which is at fault when it fails to protect us from email attachments. We also should have the sense to not open some things.
ElveyThursday, September 16, 2010 6:32:08 AM
jfh: That's cuz only non-free accounts are fully protected.

http://www.fastmail.fm/pages/fastmail/docs/pricingtbl.html says:

For them, received messages are checked by our virus scanner on the server, which can be turned on or off for each account. For free accounts, messages are checked for some common email worms.

More detail at:
http://www.fastmail.fm/help/overview_features.html