ComputerHunter.org

 

Let The Email Wars Begin


Things just got a lot hotter in the hyper-competitive world of online email providers.

In response to Google's announcement that their soon-to-be-launched "Gmail" service will offer users 1 gigabyte of email storage, Yahoo! announced an upgrade of their free email service to allow users 100MB of free email storage along with other enhancements.

Microsoft's Hotmail will surely also announce a free upgrade in email storage space.

On the surface it might just appear like a simple case of one-upmanship, but it actually represents major forces digging in online and preparing to do battle.

It appears Yahoo! simply wanted to take the issue of email storage space off the table as a consideration for users as to which email service to choose.

Google enjoyed considerable media and public attention over the past few weeks with the media marveling at how Google intended to give hundreds of megabytes more space to its users than Yahoo! or Hotmail.

With this move, Yahoo! made storage a "non-issue," but the real war has only just begun.

Email ranks as the number one most popular online activity according to virtually any survey you care to read.

When people go online, they spend the single biggest chunk of their time sending, receiving, and reading email.

Online email providers understand that eyeballs on a page looking at advertising and responding to offers is what makes them money.

By increasing loyalty among email users in order to repeatedly draw them back to the same website (often several times a day), email service providers like Yahoo!, Hotmail and Google can keep people looking at revenue generating ads.

Despite the best efforts of government regulators, private organizations, software filters, ISP's and others, over half of all email sent online rates as unsolicited commercial email (SPAM).

Besides storage space, Google, Yahoo! and Hotmail will start claiming that their spam filters rate better than the rest.

These online powerhouses hope to attract users with the promise of cutting down and even eliminating the avalanche of get-rich-quick, pornography, and ink-jet cartridge offers (among others) that bombard virtually anyone with an email account more than 15 minutes old.

This will, however, lead to another problem that many of them won't talk about, which involves filtering legitimate email as spam.

Unfortunately, the sword cuts both ways on this issue.

So where does it all end? Never! Hotmail will enter the fray with expanded storage capacity as well as the promise of less spam and a more "friendly" interface to make your email life even easier.

Yahoo! and Hotmail will most likely copy Google and start serving context sensitive advertising based on the content of each email message as it get viewed.

Privacy advocates will weigh in to claim that all of the filtering and serving of ads based on an email message's content violates our rights to privacy and heralds the arrival of "Big Brother."

But all this jockeying for position and enticing users from one email service to another actually represents a great boon for the average Internet user.

It will force three of the Web's biggest players to wake up and improve their services after 2 or 3 years of "business as usual" and we can all expect a few valuable innovations to result.

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...

Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? "Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links... without spending a dime on advertising! Click Here> http://www.TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com







Google News - Top Stories

ABC News

Connecticut Ruling Overturns Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
New York Times - 47 minutes ago
By SHARON OTTERMAN The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled on Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry, reversing a lower court decision that had concluded that the civil unions legalized in the state three years ago offered the same rights and ...
Connecticut Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage Boston Globe
Conn. High Court: Civil Unions Discriminate ABC News
CNN - Newsday - The Associated Press - San Diego Union Tribune
all 957 news articles


Boston Globe

GLOBAL MARKETS-Selling frenzy persists, Dow down 25 pct in Oct
guardian.co.uk - 2 hours ago
By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Global stocks dove head first to five-year lows on Friday at the end of a brutal week as even the traditional safe-havens of gold and government bonds suffered as fear-stricken investors sought ...
Fearful investors dump stocks, bonds for cash Reuters
US stocks extend huge losses over credit concerns The Associated Press
Detroit Free Press - TheStreet.com - 13WHAM-TV - International Herald Tribune
all 3,512 news articles


Washington Post

Rage rising on the McCain campaign trail
CNN - 1 hour ago
(CNN) -- With recent polls showing Sen. Barack Obama's lead increasing nationwide and in several GOP-leaning states, some Republicans attending McCain-Palin campaign rallies have taken on a new emotion: Rage.
Video: McCain Questions Obama's Honesty About Ayers AssociatedPress
New McCain Ad Slams Obama on Ayers, Economy New York Times
Bizjournals.com - Atlanta Journal Constitution - The Associated Press - Boston Globe
all 4,788 news articles


Canada.com

Notes on a Milk Scandal
Wall Street Journal - 57 minutes ago
By JOSEPH STERNBERG | FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASIA It's a question I'd never expected to spend much time thinking about.
France pulls tainted Chinese food BBC News
Chinese tighten dairy regulations after scandal The Associated Press
Voice of America - Xinhua - RedOrbit - China Daily
all 2,380 news articles


BBC News

US congratulates Ahtisaari on Nobel prize
AFP - 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Friday congratulated Finnish former president Martti Ahtisaari for his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
Video: Ex-Finland President Wins Nobel Peace Prize AssociatedPress
Ahtisaari praised as skilled and dogged mediator International Herald Tribune
Monsters and Critics.com - Xinhua - euronews - United Press International
all 1,077 news articles

Google
 

Copyright © 2006 Computer Hunter - A Division of Arthur´s Job Base