Yahoo has announced they will be increasing the storage capacity of its email service. The changes are to be implemented today, June 15, 2004.
In reality, Yahoo is actually offering two email upgrades. Non paying members will receive a storage capacity of 100mb, a great deal more than the original 4mb. Paid members, for $19.99 a year, will receive 2 gigabytes worth of storage, doubling what Gmail is offering. Of course, Gmail is a free service.
Other Yahoo improvements include an improved search function that will allow users to search their emails.
Yahoo is also opening up millions of their dormant email address that people signed up for, but never used. This will give users a much wider variety when it comes to choosing their member name.
Yahoo has also increased the allowable size of mailings too. The maximum limit on email size is 10mb. This will allow users to send emails with larger attachments and/or larger messages.
These moves, along with Google’s coming service, will probably cause MSN to improve and update their Hotmail service, especially if they wish to remain competitive. Currently, Hotmail members are only allocated 2mb worth of storage.
Thanks to John Battelle for the heads up.
Update: I just signed up for a free Yahoo email account. Upon completion of the sign-up form, I was then taken to a page that allowed me to activate my account. When I landed here, however, I could not access my email unless I agreed to install Yahoo’s companion toolbar. The only way I was allowed to access my email account was to approve this installation.
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest search news.
