Google and Yahoo! are slugging it out to offer the best webmail solution. If you took a survey, I'd guess you'd probably find about a 50/50 split of loyal Gmail-ists and Yahoo! faithfuls.

Yahoo! currently boasts a larger user base than Gmail, but Google has been steadily gaining ground ever since they created a buzz by offering "invites" to sign up for Gmail. You couldn't get an account without an invite, which made it seems kind of prestigious. Of course, if you tried hard enough, it was pretty easy to get a Gmail account.

Gmail seems to control spam a bit more effectively than Yahoo! I still regularly get several spam emails a day in my Yahoo! inbox, despite reporting them as spam each time I get them. Yahoo! seems to be having a more difficult time wrestling spam under control.

Yahoo! seems to beat Gmail in the customizability category. Gmail has a simple, straightforward interface that offers little in the way of customization. This seems to keep in line with Google's vision - simple, straightforward and sparse. If you want to change the look and feel of your email tool, Yahoo! might be the best choice. At the same time, Yahoo! can be a bit overwhelming at times. Sometimes too many features can just serve to clutter and distract.

Basically, when choosing a email tool, you need to take a look at what kind of features you want. If you want a lot of customizable options and bells and whistles, Yahoo! may be for you. If you like your email served up nice and simple, Gmail may be the way to go.

I've been a loyal Yahoo! user for years, and I will probably keep it that way. The main thing keeping me there is that I've had the same email address, and don't really want to bother changing it. That said, if I was going to sign up for a new email address today, I'd probably go with Gmail. To date, Google has done no wrong in my book, and looks to do no wrong in the future. Count on them to keep tweaking their email tool until it's nearly flawless, and then I'll have no choice but to make the big switch.

Learn more about this author, Sean Curtis.
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