The tired world of e-mail received a wake-up call this week with the British launch of a new designer address list.

The free service - a computer equivalent of the customised car number plate - will give anyone with Internet access a selection of more than 3,500 domain names.

Subscribers will be able to choose addresses that convey something about themselves - for example, greatlover.co.uk or constipated.co.uk - or which send a direct message to the recipient - for example fallinginlove.co.uk.

If chosen with care the Funmail addresses will liven up the dreariest office round robin, but an accidental click of the mouse at work could result in people going from being happygolucky.co.uk to being unemployed.co.uk.

Mr Graham Goodkind, managing director of the new service, said: "With Funmail you can be angry today and happy tomorrow. E-mail is not a technology, it is a form of communication, and we are taking it onto the next level of evolution."

In return for the e-mail service, users will be required to complete an in-depth form where they will disclose information about themselves and their interests. Funmail will then offer this information to companies seeking to market their products.

There are already several organisations that offer free e-mail services.

Hotmail, set up in 1996, is one of the biggest and gets 100,000 new users worldwide every day. Now owned by Microsoft, it has about 30 million users worldwide, 1.5 million in Britain.

Mr Goodkind, a former managing director of Lynne Franks PR agency, the inspiration behind TV comedy Absolutely Fabulous, said he believed the new service would be a good competitor to Hotmail.

Mr Neil Bradford, director of Fletcher Research, which follows Internet developments, was not so confident of success for Funmail. He said: "The problem is that there are already several ways to personalise e-mail addresses."