I feel like I live in a backwards part of the world

[Maitre]

So, I'm a web designer. I've taken a job at a local company designing their site, doing some graphic design, and generally just building an online presence for them.

Now that the site is up and going, they have decided to cultivate an email list of customers so that they can send newsletters, coupons, etc..

I'm going through and building the list of emails, and I haven't seen this many Aol, hotmail, and bright.net email addresses in YEARS. Are these services still popular on a whole? Or is it really just the byproduct of my backwards little corner of the world?

Depends on your customer base. A number of "older" folks who got on the internet years ago have stayed with the first provider they used (ex: my parents who maintain an AOL account for their personal email and internet use). On the otherhand, I haven't seen an aol or hotmail address for a business or individual professional (e.g., realtor, CPA, etc.) in years.