Thursday, October 13, 2005

Study: Web Mail Gains As Primary Email, Yahoo Tops Survey

A new study shows that residential Internet subscribers are maintaining long relationships with free online email services, and often using those emails as their primary emails instead of the accounts from their ISPs. According to a study released today by research firm J.D. Power and Associates, forty-three percent of Internet service subscribers use Web email as the primary email account, versus 57 percent who use their ISP for email. The study found that 73 percent of subscribers report they have been with their Web mail provider for over three years, and 35 percent of those subscribers have maintained that relationship for six years or more. The study attributed the high level of loyalty to the fact that Web mail addresses can be maintained regardless of who your Internet service provider is. The survey also found that Yahoo! Mail service ranked highest in customer satisfaction for email, Yahoo! Messenger for instant messaging, and Google for search engine functionality. J.D. Power said that its 2005 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study was based on a survey of 6,313 residential customers of Internet service providers.

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