Hotmail will join the e-mail storage arms race by offering users 250 megabytes of free storage this fall. The move follows similar announcements from Yahoo and Ask Jeeves in the wake of Google’s plan to release Gmail, which gives users 1,000 megabytes of storage.
Microsoft’s Hotmail told its users last week that it would drastically increase their storage limit from the current 2 megabytes. Hotmail also will permit the sending and receiving of attachments of up to 10 megabytes. Yahoo now gives e-mailers 100 megabytes of storage, and Ask Jeeves said its portals’ e-mailers would get 125 megabytes in September.
Web e-mail providers have scrambled to hold onto their subscriber bases since Google announced Gmail in April. Unlike Google, none have followed its lead with plans to scan incoming messages to display related paid listings.
