Comparisons of various e-mail accounts

HOTMAIL
it features 5GB of storage with patented security measures, Ajax technology, and integration with Windows Live Messenger, spaces, calendar and contacts. It has over 280 million users worldwide and is available in 35 different languages.

Features: Like other major webmail services, Hotmail uses Ajax programming techniques and supports the most popular internet browsers (Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox). Some of its features include keyboard controls giving the ability to navigate around the page without using the mouse, advanced message search including structured query syntax such as "from:ebay", message filters, folder-based organization of messages, auto-completion of contact addresses when composing, contact grouping, importing and exporting of contacts as CSV files, rich text formatting, rich text signatures, spam filtering and virus scanning, support for multiple addresses, and different language versions. POP3 access, although not directly available through Hotmail, can be accessed via Windows Live Mail, and Microsoft Outlook with Outlook Connector.
Users can choose from two different versions of Hotmail. The "Classic" version keeps the interface and layout based on MSN Hotmail, while still benefitting from the speed of Ajax technology. The "Full" version employs a more advanced user interface styled on that of Microsoft Outlook, with a reading pane and drag-and-drop capability. All other features are available in both versions.
Hotmail also includes other capabilities unlike other e-mail services such as Audio Player, Color Schemes, Integration, Reading Pane, Security and Spell Checker.

GMAIL

Features (storage) : The service currently provides more than 6000 MB of free storage and paid additional storage from 10 GB (US$20/year) up to 400 GB (US$500/year), shared over Picasa and Gmail. The increase from 1 GB was announced on April 1, 2005 and was made for the first anniversary of Gmail. The announcement was accompanied by a statement that Google would "keep giving people more space forever."All Google says about this now is that it will keep increasing storage by the second as long as they have enough space on their servers. On 12 October 2007, Google ramped up the storage counter to 5.37 MB per hour. Approximately a week later, the counter went back down to 1.12 MB per hour. This adds up to about 806 MB per month or over 9.8 GB per year. From 4 January 2008, the counter went down to about 3.35 MB per day.
On August 9, 2007, some users of Gmail reported that their storage capacity had been increased to 9030 MB (8.8 GB). The 9030 MB of space is an over-all total of all the users' storage space(s) within a Google Account, including Picasa. This development seemed to occur about the same time that Google began allowing purchasable Picasa storage. In other words, Google has shared storage space, supporting both pictures and email.
Programming : Gmail makes use of Ajax (specifically, the AjaXSLT framework), employing modern browser features such as JavaScript, keyboard access keys and Web feed integration.
Contacts : Gmail automatically saves contact details when e-mails are sent to an unknown recipient. If the user changes, adds, or removes information near an e-mail such as the name while sending any e-mail, it also updates that in the contact list, unless the user is using basic HTML view, designed for people with slower internet connections or browsers that do not support AJAX. When a user starts typing in the To, CC or BCC fields it brings up a list with the relevant contacts, with their name and primary e-mail address. More information, including alternate email addresses, can be added on the Contacts page. These contacts can also be added to a group, which makes sending multiple e-mails to related contacts easier. Images can be added to contacts, which will appear whenever the mouse is over the contact's name.
Security : Gmail offers a spam filtering system. According to Gmail, messages marked as spam are automatically deleted after 30 days, but there have been reports on Gmail Help Discussion of spam mails staying in the spam folder for months. However, Gmail has now fixed this problem. The spam filtering system cannot be disabled. POP3 users need to check their Spam folder manually via the web interface as only emails sent to the Inbox can be retrieved via POP3.
IP addresses of Gmail users are disguised in order to protect security.
All incoming and outgoing e-mails are automatically scanned for viruses in e-mail attachments. If a virus is found on an attachment the reader is trying to open, Gmail will try to remove the virus and open the cleaned attachment. Gmail also scans all outgoing attachments and will prevent the message from being sent if a virus is found. Executable files are automatically blocked by the Anti-Virus system.

YAHOO
Yahoo Mail is a powerful interface (Full Ajax), very close to a Heavy mail client like Outlook (Drag and drop capabilities, Mail search, tabs...). Yahoo! has integrated Messenger, so the users chat with Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger contacts.

Features :
-Unlimited Mail Storage.
-10 MB attachments (20MB for long-time users)
-Protection against spam and viruses.
-Advertising is displayed on the screen while working with the e-mail account.
-POP3 support in some countries (but not in the US). However, SMTP support requires upgrade to a Plus account.
-Accounts not logged into for four months get deactivated (The account can be retrieved but all stored data such as email is lost).
-Early in 2006, Yahoo! Mail introduced aliases to its repertoire of features. Users could now add a (single) alias username containing a dot character for a pre-existing account.
-The Chinese version of Yahoo! Mail offers 3.5 GB quota and 20 MB attachments.
-Some users get features added if they are long time users.
-Users can get around the Web browser access restriction by using software that simulates a POP3 server to which the e-mail application connects. YPOPs! and FreePOPs are examples of free software applications that allow email clients access to webmail services through POP3.

reference- www.wikipedia.org