Feuerwizard
June 22nd, 2004, 11:26 am
Currently the web email topic has been really heating up with Google's GMail announcement. The search giant offered 1GB (1000 MB) of email storage to consumers. Google's GMail is currently under Beta Testing and only a small amount of users has a GMail account.
Yahoo, world's number one website, according to Alexa, entered the competition by offering 100MB of email storage to its existing account members. Yahoo used to offer only 4MB of email storage until Google's GMail accouncement, which forced the company to reconsider the offered space.
Microsoft's Hotmail email service will also enter the email arena with higher storage space, however, the software maker did not comment on the specific amount.
We want to take storage off the table as an issue, said Yahoo in a statement. Interestingly, Yahoo used to charge $60.00 for 100MB of storage few months ago. Yahoo added the extra storage last Tuesday. The attached file size has also been increased on Yahoo's part from previous 3MB to 10MB. The company will now offer a new plan, in which it will offer 2GB of storage for $20.00 per year.
The space will not only be doubled, but Yahoo will add numerous features that Google's GMail doesn't offer. One of them being the ability to download email via any email program.
Microsoft, while trying to compete, hasn't raised the bar too much. The company has upgraded some free Hotmail accounts to 25MB from 2MB. The software maker still offers two paid plans that include - $40.00 per year for 50MB of storage and $60.00 for 100MB of storage.
Hotmail users have reported that many of them have not gotten their extra space. Kathleen Callaghan, Microsoft Spokeswoman, reported of no such changes, but did confirm that the company is under works for improving Hotmail.
At this point, Google's GMail remains on the top, even though it is only available to selected users. Yahoo comes in second and Microsoft's Hotmail places at last place. Users can expect to see a head-to-head competition from Yahoo and Google as Yahoo will double the storage space to $20.00 per year with features that Google might not be able to provide. This might make the $20.00 price tag more than reasonable.
Yahoo, world's number one website, according to Alexa, entered the competition by offering 100MB of email storage to its existing account members. Yahoo used to offer only 4MB of email storage until Google's GMail accouncement, which forced the company to reconsider the offered space.
Microsoft's Hotmail email service will also enter the email arena with higher storage space, however, the software maker did not comment on the specific amount.
We want to take storage off the table as an issue, said Yahoo in a statement. Interestingly, Yahoo used to charge $60.00 for 100MB of storage few months ago. Yahoo added the extra storage last Tuesday. The attached file size has also been increased on Yahoo's part from previous 3MB to 10MB. The company will now offer a new plan, in which it will offer 2GB of storage for $20.00 per year.
The space will not only be doubled, but Yahoo will add numerous features that Google's GMail doesn't offer. One of them being the ability to download email via any email program.
Microsoft, while trying to compete, hasn't raised the bar too much. The company has upgraded some free Hotmail accounts to 25MB from 2MB. The software maker still offers two paid plans that include - $40.00 per year for 50MB of storage and $60.00 for 100MB of storage.
Hotmail users have reported that many of them have not gotten their extra space. Kathleen Callaghan, Microsoft Spokeswoman, reported of no such changes, but did confirm that the company is under works for improving Hotmail.
At this point, Google's GMail remains on the top, even though it is only available to selected users. Yahoo comes in second and Microsoft's Hotmail places at last place. Users can expect to see a head-to-head competition from Yahoo and Google as Yahoo will double the storage space to $20.00 per year with features that Google might not be able to provide. This might make the $20.00 price tag more than reasonable.