Online email wars
With Yahoo! adding new search features, the online email wars continue. Some interesting stats from this WSJ story (subscription required) that show how far Gmail has to go to catch up. Most people I know, who really wanted a Gmail account, have reverted back to using their regular Hotmail or Yahoo or AOL account since it is such a hassle to have to tell everyone that you've got a new email address. Until companies make that very easy for the masses (not just the early adopters who're using Plaxo), Gmail may have a ways to go:
Yahoo, Sunnyvale, Calif., has a strong lead in email with a 30% market share and 64 million users in June, according to research firm comScore Media Metrix. That compares with a 25% market share for Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail and MSN services and a 23.4% market share for Time Warner Inc.'s America Online. Gmail, a relative newcomer that is still officially in testing mode, is No. 8 with a 1.8% market share.
Unlike Gmail, Yahoo Mail will be able to run keyword searches that look inside email attachments. Both Gmail and Yahoo Mail allow rapid keyword searches within old messages' sender names, subject lines and message texts.