As usual, go2net is probably being careful to evaluate different solutions and to try to get one that has a few juicy extra features - and to avoid overpaying for it.
It is a good point though from a portal's business standpoint. I may be unusual in my heavy multiple portal usage, for professional reasons ... but let's say you decide you prefer Yahoo to Excite and barely use Excite at all - oftentimes you'll keep using the Excite mail because you got used to it - or you'll use it for roaming mail because you set it to check three POP accounts and you can't be bothered to take the 30 seconds (and rack your brain for the server names) to set it up again on a different web-based e-mail account.
This is a good way to keep people 'in the fold'. Though web-based e-mail may be a yawner (as I posted here earlier), if people are setting up accounts and using it to check their POP mail and stuff, it's an important weapon in the portal wars, since even if you've 'left' a portal for another one, you will still go back to using that mail account more than likely, and possibly get 'sucked back in' to a portal you've left.
So far, no particular portal has distinguished itself with its mail, though Hotmail and Excite Mail seem to be the best... and Excite was first out of the gate to offer free toll free voice boxes (something of a gimmick, but a cool one) ... partnerships with Efax may help too, who knows, Xoommail did a deal with them.
I wonder what juicy features go2net users would want in their e-mail?
Allow me to suggest just a couple for starters:
- Speed and lack of service outages
- Integration with existing usernames and passwords; no losing passwords
Those two are probably tall enough orders! Hey, if you're gonna be a "portal" - you're gonna have to face those portal-sized headaches (anyone who's watched Excite grapple with username issues and service outages knows that it's going to be a bit of a struggle).
How about it, go2net folks, are you considering mail accounts? |
