And wolfy has gone back to spamming to get attention, how sad .....

Edited by - Neo_Kuja on 6/15/2004 1:57:28 AM

Well, good luck with yohoo, er yahoa, er with that mail service. Never figured aout which is worse, yahoo or aol.

Actually,

It made the news Wolfy.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

From NY Times:

Yahoo Expands E-Mail Storage, in Nod to Google
By SAUL HANSELL

Published: June 15, 2004

Yahoo will substantially increase the amount of free storage it gives its e-mail customers, in an effort to respond to Google's incursion into e-mail services.

For Yahoo, defending its e-mail business is crucial to competing against Google, which has become the leading Web search engine. While free e-mail accounts have display advertising, they are not especially profitable. But they are an important way to build customer loyalty and to direct users to other, more lucrative sections of an Internet service. People spend more time reading their e-mail than doing anything else online.

Google is testing a service, called Gmail, that offers users one gigabyte of storage on its servers - enough that most users will never have to delete a message. The service, currently available by invitation only, is free, but the side of the screen displays advertisements related to the content of a user's e-mail messages, a feature that has drawn the attention of groups concerned about privacy.

Starting today, Yahoo will offer users of its free e-mail service 100 megabytes of storage. That is one-tenth of what Google offers but is still far more than the four megabytes Yahoo previously offered. It will also introduce a premium e-mail service, called Yahoo Mail Plus, with two gigabytes of storage for $19.99 a year.

"We are taking storage off the table as an issue," said Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's vice president for communications products. Yahoo Mail Plus has a few other features Google does not offer; most significantly, it lets users download their mail into Microsoft Outlook or other software programs.

Yahoo is also introducing several other e-mail features and improving the function that searches for text in messages, a feature that Google has made central to Gmail.

Mr. Garlinghouse said that people might continue to choose Yahoo's e-mail service, in part because it was integrated into other Yahoo offerings like its address book, appointment calendar and photo sharing services.

Yahoo and Hotmail, from Microsoft, are by far the leading e-mail services. A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company was exploring higher storage limits but was not prepared to discuss details.

Gmail is especially important for Google, which is trying to broaden its business beyond its successful Web search service. E-mail is not only popular; it requires users to identify themselves. Once they do, Google could pick advertisements for them based on their location or other attributes.

A spokesman for Google declined to comment on Yahoo's new offering, citing rules related to its pending public stock offering. In the past, the company has said that it is exploring other features for Gmail.

Despite the privacy questions, many users have eagerly anticipated Gmail, with initial test accounts being sold on eBay for as much as $60 each. The service is expected to be available to the public later this year.

Yahoo says its terms of service do not allow it to use the text of e-mail messages to select which ads to show users. But Yahoo's e-mail and other services do consider users' demographic and behavioral information, including ZIP codes and what Yahoo services they use, in choosing ads.

Mr. Garlinghouse would not say whether he thought Google's reliance on e-mail content did, in fact, violate a users' privacy.

He said Yahoo wanted to be sensitive to privacy concerns, but he declined to say if the company would ever consider choosing ads on the basis of e-mail text.

Such ads might be a significant source of revenue; already, marketers are willing to pay more for advertising matched to Web search queries. Google and Yahoo, which are paid each time a user clicks on those ads, are increasingly looking for new places to put them.

Charlene Li, an analyst with the Internet marketing firm Forrester Research, said she did not think Yahoo would sacrifice much revenue by forgoing ads linked to e-mail content, because she thought companies would find e-mail services less effective than search pages for advertising.

"When you are reading your e-mail, you are focused on that task and will ignore the ads," Ms. Li said.

Yahoo's increased storage calls into question its longstanding business of selling larger mailboxes to its users. Its prices have ranged from $9.99 a year for a 10-megabyte mailbox, to $49.99 a year for 100 megabytes, the size it now offers free. Customers of the services will be converted to Yahoo's new two-gigabyte Plus service. Customers who are content with the 100-megabyte free account will be able to request refunds.

Mr. Garlinghouse said that the expense of the additional storage and the potential loss of premium customers would not have a material effect on Yahoo's profits.

I also use Yahoo among other mail providers. It was good news. BTW, they speak about 4 mb prior to the renewal. Strange, I had 6 mb before.

Wisdom comes with age. But sometimes age comes alone...

grr....im not special anymore>

Edited by - ):Wolf_Demon "wolfy" on 6/15/2004 10:19:40 AM

you'll always be "special" Wolfy

..there is nothing better in life than writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro..

Meh, old news. They said that they were doing that shortly after "G-mail" came out with their new inbox size.