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

---

11 Creative Ways You Can Use Autoresponders

1. Pick 4 or more articles you've written that have... Read More

Email Marketing - Building A Mail List

Millions of people use their computer everyday as a form... Read More

Improve Newsletter Delivery with an Autoresponder Service

Another powerful reason for making the switch from using the... Read More

Website Promotion Through Newsletters

Website promotion is certainly a main focus of all business... Read More

The Opt-In Secret

Everyone knows that in order to be successful online you... Read More

What is Email Marketing?

There are many avenues available for marketing online products. Radios,... Read More

Email Marketing Losing Its Effectiveness? The Alternative Is Desktop Marketing!

You've heard of email marketing, but it isn't what it... Read More

E-mail Whitelist Etiquette

A big-time dilemma is brewing online. In an understandable attempt... Read More

Dear Ms. Subscriber - Please Dont Unsubscribe

Don't be insulted. Don't take it as a personal rejection.... Read More

The Lazy Way To Build A Responsive Opt-In Email List

If you're in business on the Internet to make a... Read More

Introduction to Autoresponders

If you've reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep... Read More

Personalizing Your Emails? An Amazing Technique That Doubles Your Click Throughs And Profits

Are you publishing an ezine or offering an email course?... Read More

Why Does Your Business Need An Autoresponder?

Suppose you have a website with 500 visitors a day,... Read More

Signature Files: The Easy Way To Create More Business

If you do business as an affiliate, then you're constantly... Read More

You Must Build A Customer List

If you run (or plan to run) an online business,... Read More

A Guide To Using an Automatic Responder

It's unbelievable....that many people do not know, that an automatic... Read More

How to Choose the Autoresponder Right for Your Business?

Let's give a definition to autoresponder first. So, what is... Read More

The 12 Most Common Newsletter Design Mistakes

Your newsletter's success depends on its design. An attractive, easy... Read More

3 Simple Steps on how to Get Unlimited E-Mail Accounts for Pennies a Day

As an Online Home Based busy owner you will reach... Read More

Using Internet Direct Mail To Increase Your Company?s Profits

"I want to sell my company's products on the Web,... Read More

Taking Email Marketing To The Next Level

How to use the latest e-messaging strategies to increase profits.Many... Read More

Turn Your Old Articles Into Profitable E-mail Courses

If you've written numerous articles, you can use them to... Read More

Why Does Nobody Visit My Web Site?

After endless hours of writing, designing and programming your brand... Read More

A Review on Email Go Getter System (EGGS)

A Review on Email Go Getter System (EGGS) by Martin... Read More

Email Etiquette IV

Further to my previous issues this subject continues - part... Read More

The Ultimate Self-Promotion Tool Is Right at Your Fingertips: An E-mail Newsletter

If you're looking for low-cost ways to promote your business... Read More

What Do Your E-Mail Messages Say About You?

There probably isn't a business person alive who hasn't at... Read More

Ten Tips for Email Marketers

Here are the ten most important tips to ensure you're... Read More

How Autoresonders Can Put Your Business On Autopilot

Owning your own online business is a lot of work.... Read More

The Innovative Ways To Use Your Autoresponder

If you have auto response system set up for following... Read More

Email Advertising - How Ad Tracking Helped Create a Killer Ad

I recently undertook an email advertising promotion, using a number... Read More

Online Marketing Through Newsletters

So you want to start publishing an online newsletter? Why?... Read More

Email Etiquette III

Further to my previous issues this subject continues - part... Read More