We pit the beta versions of Yahoo Mail, Hotmail and Gmail against each other.

MSN Kahuna Beta Yahoo Mail Beta Google Gmail Beta Yahoo Mail MSN Hotmail
Two of the most popular Web-based e-mail services are getting radical makeovers. Both Yahoo Mail and Hotmail are undergoing changes that make them look and feel more like desktop e-mail clients, such as Microsoft Outlook.

That means that instead of clicking a message and waiting for the entire page to reload, you'll see content pop up quickly within a pane that feeds messages. And you'll be able to drag and drop messages into folders rather than the old-school method of sorting messages by clicking tiny check boxes and buttons one by one. Such ease-of-use enhancements are made possible by Ajax coding, a combination of dynamic HTML and JavaScript that Gmail also uses.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft are increasing their mail apps' storage size -- an apparent response to the threat posed by Gmail, which rolled out 1GB of free storage for users 18 months ago and has since expanded it to 2.65GB.

Currently, Yahoo Mail Beta and the in-progress version of Hotmail (code-named Kahuna) are being tested by a limited number of people. Later, Yahoo and Microsoft plan to expand the testing; stay tuned as we follow the progress.

Yahoo Mail Beta MSN Kahuna Beta Google Gmail Beta
Free storage 1GB 2GB 2.65GB
Browsers Internet Explorer,
Firefox, Opera
Internet Explorer 5.5 and up Internet Explorer,
Firefox, Opera
Drag and drop messages Yes Yes No
Organise messages Folders Folders Labels
Security protection Spam filters Spam and
phishing filters
Spam filters
Search messages Yes, attachments as well Yes Yes
Message strings No No Yes
Ads are based on content of your e-mail No No, but Microsoft is considering it Yes
RSS newsreader My Yahoo feeds are attached to Yahoo account but don't go to mail in-box No Google Reader feeds are attached to Gmail account but don't go to mail in-box
How to test Get on waiting list at
Yahoo's Web site
Testing closed
to public
By invitation only
Tabbed messaging Yes No No


MSN Kahuna Beta
MSN Kahuna Beta
Read review



The next-generation Hotmail -- code-named Kahuna -- is getting a drastic makeover, including an interface that strongly resembles the look and feel of Outlook and the new Yahoo Mail Beta.
Yahoo Mail Beta
Yahoo Mail Beta
Read review



Yahoo Mail Beta is sleeker, faster, and smarter than its predecessor and may cause many users to dispense with Outlook entirely.
Google Gmail Beta
Google Gmail Beta
Read review



If you don't mind Google's computers scanning your e-mail messages -- and you can scare up an invite -- then you'll come to appreciate the unique features and the huge storage capacity of Gmail.
Yahoo Mail
Yahoo Mail
Read review



For its ease of use and wealth of features, plus its newly expanded in-box, Yahoo Mail is our pick for the best free Web mail service.
MSN Hotmail
MSN Hotmail
Read review



Until Hotmail's promised new storage upgrade becomes reality, Microsoft's free Web mailer can't compete with the services from Google and Yahoo.

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amitwavhal
03/04/2007 03:29 PM

i want to make my email account to outlook express

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b1kwmv55
25/06/2007 10:09 PM

Gmail does not reqire invite

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