Gmail beats AOL in US; Hotmail next?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Bad news for AOL, which is reportedly planning to cut down its workforce to fight the economic downturn. And of course this is a good news for Gmail and a warning signal for Hotmail.

According to the latest comScore survey, Gmail, the email service from Google, which is officially out of the beta version, has dragged down the usage of AOL and climbed up to reach the third slot in the US.

The survey, according to a TechCrunch report, says Gmail, which has grown by 25 per cent this year, so far is narrowly following Hotmail, the mail service from Microsoft. However, both these sites are far behind Yahoo, which has emerged as the non-defeated market leader with user base of 106 million.

While Gmail has 37 million unique user’s numbers in July for Gmail, Hotmail has 47 million. According to the statistics, AOL, with 36.4 million unique users, has dropped by 22 per cent so far this year.

So is it that Gmail, which is breathing down the neck of #2 Hotmail, is already to overtake it in the email marathon?