Yahoo Mail Commands 50% Share of the 500 million Web-based Email Users
Yahoo is the dominant player in web-based email as Yahoo Mail is used
by some 250
million users worldwide, while Google’s GMail has 51 million users
in September 2006, according to comScore data. No.2 player MSN Hotmail has
228 million worldwide users while AOL Mail counts 50 million users.
Overall, web-based email is used by nearly 500 million users worldwide, compared to 80 million IM users.
Yahoo plans to integrate a Web-based version of its instant messaging program into the next beta of its Yahoo Mail Web application. The new client, which uses AJAX technology, is expected to debut early next year. Google has already integrated Google Talk into Gmail, however they use separate interfaces. Yahoo's implementation would combine the two into a single interface.
With the new service, Yahoo Mail users can chat via email, as well as with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger users, reports CNET.
