Bigfoot gives users a toehold in email

An online email directory is planning to give transient cybernauts a permanent electronic address where they can plant their Webbed feet.

In two weeks, The Bigfoot Directory expects to launch Bigfoot for Life, a free service that will allow users to keep one email address even if they switch Internet service providers (ISPs), company president Lenny Barshack said. A user's Bigfoot for Life address will automatically forward email to a new address--for example, at CompuServe or America Online--as soon as the user registers it with the service.

At Internet World, the company will announce a feature for its online email directory that allows users to un-list contact information such as email addresses, home pages, mailing addresses, and phone numbers. Barshack said the feature is responding to privacy concerns from users, though the directory will still allow Net users to be notified by Bigfoot if someone is trying to contact them.

Bigfoot's privacy feature follows a move by Yahoo, which this week deleted 85 million records containing unlisted home addresses from its new People Search service.