I still remember those days when I used to wait impatiently to open up my Yahoo! Mail. And boy, was I glad to see some cool mails from my friends? Yes, those were the days when Yahoo! was one of the most sought after emails. As of today, Google mail, better known to the world as Gmail with it numerous cool features is catching up with Yahoo to be the #1 emailing service.
But wait a second...even though Gmail is the fastest growing email service, its still got a long long way to catch up with its pal Yahoo! Here are some number crunching figures for you to chew on.
In the academic year (lets say last year) Yahoo had added about a staggering 20 million new users to its band. Effectively, its growth in the market rose to a cool 22% which by all means can be considered the best. Factually the figures were 87.2 million which rose upto 106.2 million users. Notably, Gmail grew faster, an astounding 46% growth, but comparatively the numbers were just about 40 million, 36.9 million to be precise. Interestingly, Hotmail is second with about 47.1 million users and a growth of just 3% from the year last.
Techcrunch has noted that its surpassed the web 1.0 king AOL.
Interestingly after the MicHoo deal, Yahoo has busied itself in rebranding itself as a content and services provider. Some competition for Google perhaps? I think the growth at 22% has a lot to tell in its change in focus. The best part is that the search algo is now entirely with Microsoft which makes its focus stronger (Source: TechCrunch) to have its content promo primarily for its loyal subscribers. Google (Gmail) has also made a noticable change in its mailing system, more closer to a folder like structure with the introduction of labels.
Undoubtedly, Gmail has breathed in life into the drab emailing system and we hope it continutes to bring in new, useful features in its race to the top and yes, Yahoo will have to ensure its doing its best to beat the competition
