Yahoo Offers Two New E-mail Domains

Yahoo is offering two new e-mail domains for free to users in addition to its familiar @yahoo.com handle. The two new e-mail domains, @ymail.com and @rocketmail.com, are calculated to increase the number of people registering for free e-mail addresses with Yahoo. Instead of relying on long e-mail addresses, Yahoo hopes that users will register with ymail or rocketmail in order to drop old e-mail addresses that may have been chosen out of necessity instead of preference.

Yahoo already boasts more than 260 million registered e-mail addresses, according to a release issued by the company.

There were three main forces behind the creation of the new e-mail domains, according to the company. In a poll conducted by Yahoo, 59 percent of the people polled felt the most important aspect of an e-mail address was that it is easy to remember. Having a first, last or nickname included in the address ranked second and having an address reflecting who the user is as an individual was the third most important criteria for an e-mail domain.

In addition, 48 percent of those polled said they were "at least somewhat likely" to change their current e-mail address if their preferred choice became available.

"We recognize that people want an e-mail address that reflects who they are, whether they are signing up for an e-mail address for the first time, or simply updating their e-mail pseudonym to reflect the stage they are at in life," said John Kremer, vice president, Yahoo Mail.

Beyond the opportunity for users to register more attractive e-mail addresses, Yahoo Mail will also offer new features to users. The highlight is unlimited storage followed closely by integrated instant messaging and text messaging.

While unlimited storage, integrated messaging and shorter domain names are clear improvements to the Yahoo e-mail services, free e-mail users have had those options available to them since 2004 when Google introduced Gmail to the masses.

According to a comScore Inc. report from April 2008 cited by AP, Yahoo has the largest share of e-mail users at 266 million worldwide. Microsoft is second with 264 million users. Google ranks behind both with 101 million users on Gmail. But Google's free offering has been growing more quickly than either Yahoo or Microsoft's e-mail domains.

Gmail debuted by offering 1 GB of storage and is currently at 6 GB of free storage for users, essentially making deleting or archiving e-mail obsolete for users who don't mind a cluttered inbox.

After a slow start, Google Talk— Gmail's instant messaging system— integrated AOL's AIM into the Gmail dashboard in 2006, according to the Official Google Blog. The result was a boom in popularity.

Yahoo's decision to add integrated chat, unlimited storage and the @ymail.com domain are savvy moves for a company hoping to continue its dominance of the e-mail market— not to mention a clear shot across Google's bow. While it's unclear how many users will line up for the e-mail address TomSmith@rocketmail.com, TomSmith@ymail.com looks a lot more attractive.