Gmail limps to third; gaps in new video, voice features

Google may be spanking Microsoft and Yahoo in search (and search ad revenue), consistently hogging around 70% of the market. But worldwide stats show Google trailing its rivals, badly, in webmail - and feature-gaps in Gmail's new voice and video service won't help it catch-up.

CommScore's latest global market share figures give Microsoft's Hotmail 283 million users - a 15% increase year -on-year, despite a rash of complaints about a recent redesign.

Yahoo Mail is a close second, with 274 million users.

And Google is a distant third, with 113 million Gmail users around the planet.

While Google can push Gmail through its dominant search engine, the earlier-established Microsoft and Yahoo have a readymade audience through local portal and ISP partners like MSN.co.nz and YahooXtra.

When Gmail launched four years ago, its 1GB of free storage was revolutionary. But Microsoft and Yahoo were quick to match Google's near-unlimited capacity as a free storage arms race emerged.

The new voice and video features are designed to give Gmail a leg-up in market share

But while finding the new calling features user-friendly, early adopters have also complained about a number of features not available in Gmail voice and video, including the ability to call more than one person at once, the ability to call a regular phone number and the ability to record conversations.

Google responds that its voice and video chat services offer the convenience of being integrated into Gmail (Microsoft and Yahoo also offer free voice and video apps, but not integrated with their web mail).

Also that while Skype offers all the above services, it's only in its Premium version that costs up to Euro 14 cents a minute for calls to regular phones.