Gmail is faster when used from a web browser. Allows reading mail directly onto (or into) programs such as Outlook or outlook express (or Apple or Linux equivalents) without having to pay a fee.

But most importantly, Yahoo didn’t start improving their mail service (which had a whopping 5 meg capacity as I recall) until AFTER Google started eating their lunch. Prior to that the features availalbe for free had actually regressed.

They’ll have to do a lot more than play catch-up with Google to get me back. For one thing they’ll have to figure out how to stop putting hundreds of spam messages a day in my Inbox. They have never come close to Gmail in spam detection.

And did I mention the annoying animated ads they put all over the place? Gmail is simply far better, and anyone who doesn’t think so simply hasn’t spent enough time with both to know one from the other.

Finally, Yahoo has an annoying habit of not being able to stick with new ideas for very long. Photos that I uploaded to their original photo service (before they bought Flickr) are soon to be orphaned. I signed up for a RIM pager (discounted, but not much) with a Yahoo logo on it only to have the service discontinued before the first year was up. I had similar experiences with various Fax and Phone services they initiated and kept just long enough for me to have new business cards printed.

Seriously their scatter shot approach to new technologies has confused their users and probably exhausted their programmers. I have no use for them and can’t imagine why anyone else does. No wonder their ad revenue is down.