From the article: "Microsoft's Hotmail was the most popular Internet-based email service globally as of May, with about 325 million unique visitors. Yahoo's service ranked second, with roughly 298 million users, while Google's Gmail garnered about 289 million users."
Notice the problem here? Maybe it's just an error on the part of the author, but if they're comparing "unique visitors" of hotmail.com to the published number of users of the other services, that's an apples to oranges comparison.
Also making this survey a little useless is the fact that many people are like me: I have a hotmail account from the olden days, and several years ago, I set it to forward to my Google Apps account, and it's probably going to stay that way until Microsoft goes out of business. So I'm listed as a hotmail user, even though I rarely give it much attention, and use Google Mail as my everyday tool.
Nevertheless, it's a catchy headline, and a good example of a platform long tail. Even though hotmail's sexy days are a decade or more in the past, it remains relevant because it's sticky, and even trend chasers like me continue to "use" it because my old hotmail address is still out there and continues to get mail.
I would assume the author is using "user" as a way not to repeat "unique visitor" three times -- I mean, this is all in the context of comScore data, so it seems pretty obvious.
Also, I assume you won't be counted, because comScore is probably not counting mail protocol connections, but rather actual website visits. A POP3 connection wouldn't count as a "unique visitor" in my book.
I have both a gmail and hotmail accounts and I use Hotmail because it works, gets less spam, and I think google knows enough about me as it stands. Gmail does have a nicer interface but that's about it IMO.
We need to remember that Hotmail and Yahoo have a lot of worldwide users. I think these numbers are a little more accurate, considering Atlantic's reporting bias (page 20):
Gmail is also probably growing, at least if we compare advertising growth rates. I don't actually have data for the mail services and I realize there will be discrepancies, but this is from a presentation some time ago for the above case that sort of visualizes advertising (mail) growth:
To me this isn't a surprise. It's anecdotal, but the majority of my social circle have hotmail emails. Followed by gmail and then Yahoo. So yeah, based on my experiences I would have assumed Hotmail is the most popular.
anecdotal: nearly every person in my contacts uses Gmail.
update: per the article, i'm one of those who has an "active" hotmail account, which i haven't used for e-mail for several years. i check hotmail once in a blue moon for stuff like Games for Windows Live.
I've always hated the Hotmail e-mail experience, and I can't stand receiving e-mails in Hotmail. But I've been keeping the e-mail around for using with the MSN messenger.
The red logo, a lot of blue over the right half of the screen and I could have sworn that the login was on the left hand side, that's how I remember it.
Given the headline from 2 days ago – "Facebook forces all users over to Facebook.com e-mail addresses" – isn't Facebook the world's most popular email service?
Same thing here. And a lot of them can't spell hotmail.com. My app was having some many bounces that I wrote a function to detect and fix the 20 or so most common misspellings.
I sign up for most apps with my Yahoo account, because why should I give Random App my real email address? For the most part I don't care what it's emailing me, so I just need an address where I can go to click on the inevitable "activation" link.
I expect that trend to continue and increase further once Windows 8 ships with Windows Live authentication (just as Google's Android ships with GMail authentication).
[+] [-] DavidAdams|13 years ago|reply
Notice the problem here? Maybe it's just an error on the part of the author, but if they're comparing "unique visitors" of hotmail.com to the published number of users of the other services, that's an apples to oranges comparison.
Also making this survey a little useless is the fact that many people are like me: I have a hotmail account from the olden days, and several years ago, I set it to forward to my Google Apps account, and it's probably going to stay that way until Microsoft goes out of business. So I'm listed as a hotmail user, even though I rarely give it much attention, and use Google Mail as my everyday tool.
Nevertheless, it's a catchy headline, and a good example of a platform long tail. Even though hotmail's sexy days are a decade or more in the past, it remains relevant because it's sticky, and even trend chasers like me continue to "use" it because my old hotmail address is still out there and continues to get mail.
[+] [-] crazygringo|13 years ago|reply
Also, I assume you won't be counted, because comScore is probably not counting mail protocol connections, but rather actual website visits. A POP3 connection wouldn't count as a "unique visitor" in my book.
So the article's data is probably fine.
[+] [-] Retric|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Shenglong|13 years ago|reply
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46245195/Strategy%20and%20governance...
Gmail is also probably growing, at least if we compare advertising growth rates. I don't actually have data for the mail services and I realize there will be discrepancies, but this is from a presentation some time ago for the above case that sort of visualizes advertising (mail) growth:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/46245195/comp.png
[+] [-] INTPenis|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rodolphoarruda|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glassx|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] degenerate|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Monotoko|13 years ago|reply
I use Gmail for email, the only thing my hotmail is used for is to sign into MSN.
[+] [-] p0ckets|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] onlyup|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rexf|13 years ago|reply
update: per the article, i'm one of those who has an "active" hotmail account, which i haven't used for e-mail for several years. i check hotmail once in a blue moon for stuff like Games for Windows Live.
[+] [-] mtgx|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kristopolous|13 years ago|reply
The red logo, a lot of blue over the right half of the screen and I could have sworn that the login was on the left hand side, that's how I remember it.
This is the hotmail that is basically, burned into my memory until my death: http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/ne/p/2006/1997-hotmail.jpg
[+] [-] davisml|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sriramk|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slig|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acheron|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blafro|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dasil003|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sirclueless|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yashchandra|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] checoivan|13 years ago|reply