Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:30 am
For those of you who like lots of email space:<br><br><!--QuoteBegin--> <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'><b>Quote:</b> </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> <span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'><b>Google Doubling Storage on Free E-Mail Service</b></span><br><br>Published: April 2, 2005<br><br>By Bloomberg News<br><br>Google Inc., the Internet search engine company, is doubling the amount of storage offered on its e-mail service and plans to remove limits on message capacity as it competes for users with Yahoo Inc.<br><br>Users of Google's service will be able to store two gigabytes of e-mail messages, double the storage previously offered, the director of the company's e-mail group, Georges Harik, said. One gigabyte, or 1,024 megabytes, is roughly equivalent to the content in 32 feet of shelves filled with books.<br><br>Google will continue to increase e-mail storage in the next few weeks. It introduced its service, Gmail, a year ago and it has become the fourth-most-visited e-mail service on the Web. Gmail allows users to search through messages using keywords and links advertisements to the contents of e-mail messages.<br><br>Yahoo said last week that it would quadruple the amount of e-mail storage it offers, to one gigabyte.<br><br>"It gives Google yet another one-up over the competitors," said Danny Sullivan, the editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, a JupiterMedia Corporation Web site that tracks the industry. "The more you've got stored on Google, the less likely you are to go anywhere else."<br><br>Yahoo's e-mail service was the Web's most popular in February, with 40.5 million visitors, according to New York-based NetRatings, which tracks Web use. America Online e-mail was second, with 34.6 million, and MSN from Microsoft was third, with 28.4 million.<br><br>"We want to move away from a fixed amount of storage," Mr. Harik said. "People have been asking us what happens when we reach the one gigabyte limit."<br><br>Karen Mahon, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said, "For many e-mail users, anything beyond one gigabyte is just a number."<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table> <!--QuoteEEnd-->