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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 ser

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.

Retric 14y ago
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.
- elteto 14y ago
  Does it really matter the amount of spam you get if you never see it? I have used GMail exclusively since it came out and I can't remember the last time I saw spam on my inbox. Also I have never had a problem with GMail wrongly classifying a legit email as spam. I can see the desire to avoid putting more info in Google's servers as a reason to avoid GMail, but in the end you are just trading one mega-corp for another, it's all the same. And Gmail just works too.
- adventureful 14y ago
  That seems strange. I've had a gmail account since the first open days of the beta in 2004, and never get spam in my inbox. Their spam filtering works extraordinarily well for me.
  - pooriaazimi 14y ago
    Same for me. I'm far from a Google lover, but I opened my Gmail account in 2004 (when it was still invitation-only), and never, ever did I hesitate to put my email address even in the shitiest, scammiest sites/registration forums I see. Only about 5-6 spams in the past 8 years, an 0 false positives. My previous experience with Yahoo (pre 2004) was much much worse. I haven't use Hotmail though, and as I seriously doubt Apple's technical skills when it comes to cloud services, I don't feel safe to put my @me.com address anywhere public.
    - jackmoore 14y ago
      I guess I'm the only one that gets spam with Gmail. I receive about 15,000 spam a month of which 10-20 a day get through. Unfortunately my email address is in the JavaScript of a lot of websites due to a plugin I authored.
      - fps 14y ago
        Not alone; I'm in the same boat, although I haven't done as much to get my address "out there"
    - fps 14y ago
      How do you count "getting spam"? My gmail spam label accumulates about 14K messages a month (mail labelled spam gets automatically dropped after 30 days. I can't possibly guess if there have ever been any false-positives) I have another filter that I set up with certain key words like "unsubscribe" or "opt-out" that seems about 98% accurate in catching spam that gmail would otherwise push to my inbox, and that accumulates about 400 messages a month. Still, after all that, I'd guess I get about 10 pieces of spam in my gmail inbox every day. I have a very common firstname.lastname@gmail.com style address that I've had since April 1, 2004. I pretty liberally publish my gmail address (it's posted on my resume and on facebook, for example) but I tend to only give it to very trustworthy app/website developers for account purposes, with a first.last+identifier@gmail.com. Some of them still sell my address, despite claiming they won't. I never sign up for marketing or contests or anything of that sort, yet I'm still about ready to walk away from gmail due to the spam. I think my biggest culprit is other people with the same name who can't remember their own address; I know when someone else goes insurance shopping, car shopping, home shopping, etc, based on the random influx of mail.
crazygringo 14y ago
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. So the article's data is probably fine.

Retric 14y ago

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.

elteto 14y ago
Does it really matter the amount of spam you get if you never see it? I have used GMail exclusively since it came out and I can't remember the last time I saw spam on my inbox. Also I have never had a problem with GMail wrongly classifying a legit email as spam. I can see the desire to avoid putting more info in Google's servers as a reason to avoid GMail, but in the end you are just trading one mega-corp for another, it's all the same. And Gmail just works too.
adventureful 14y ago
That seems strange. I've had a gmail account since the first open days of the beta in 2004, and never get spam in my inbox. Their spam filtering works extraordinarily well for me.
- pooriaazimi 14y ago
  Same for me. I'm far from a Google lover, but I opened my Gmail account in 2004 (when it was still invitation-only), and never, ever did I hesitate to put my email address even in the shitiest, scammiest sites/registration forums I see. Only about 5-6 spams in the past 8 years, an 0 false positives. My previous experience with Yahoo (pre 2004) was much much worse. I haven't use Hotmail though, and as I seriously doubt Apple's technical skills when it comes to cloud services, I don't feel safe to put my @me.com address anywhere public.
  - jackmoore 14y ago
    I guess I'm the only one that gets spam with Gmail. I receive about 15,000 spam a month of which 10-20 a day get through. Unfortunately my email address is in the JavaScript of a lot of websites due to a plugin I authored.
    - fps 14y ago
      Not alone; I'm in the same boat, although I haven't done as much to get my address "out there"
  - fps 14y ago
    How do you count "getting spam"? My gmail spam label accumulates about 14K messages a month (mail labelled spam gets automatically dropped after 30 days. I can't possibly guess if there have ever been any false-positives) I have another filter that I set up with certain key words like "unsubscribe" or "opt-out" that seems about 98% accurate in catching spam that gmail would otherwise push to my inbox, and that accumulates about 400 messages a month. Still, after all that, I'd guess I get about 10 pieces of spam in my gmail inbox every day. I have a very common firstname.lastname@gmail.com style address that I've had since April 1, 2004. I pretty liberally publish my gmail address (it's posted on my resume and on facebook, for example) but I tend to only give it to very trustworthy app/website developers for account purposes, with a first.last+identifier@gmail.com. Some of them still sell my address, despite claiming they won't. I never sign up for marketing or contests or anything of that sort, yet I'm still about ready to walk away from gmail due to the spam. I think my biggest culprit is other people with the same name who can't remember their own address; I know when someone else goes insurance shopping, car shopping, home shopping, etc, based on the random influx of mail.

crazygringo 14y ago

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. So the article's data is probably fine.