Yahoo Mail: Space Is the Place

Yahoo Mail will begin offering unlimited e-mail storage in May. That’s way up from the 4MB it offered consumers when its free service launched 10 years ago, and certainly an upgrade from the 1G it proffered in 2005, when all the free online mail services faced the 2G Gmail challenge.

Clearly, the portal is trying to build traffic and loyalty. That’s good for consumers, and the advertisers trying to reach them. In reality, though, it’s another step towards the new norm. Your Gmail account may say it’s limited to 3G now, but fill it up and you’re automatically accorded plenty more wiggle room.

E-mail is no longer just about e-mail. It’s about your photos, videos and documents residing on the Web, not on a single hard drive or device. The portals want your loyalty. Increasingly, this means they want consumers to entrust them with their lives.

I remember when mine fit on a 5M hard drive. My, how you’ve grown.