After 8 years, Gmail beats Hotmail to become largest email service

Over the years, Gmail has attracted a lot of users. So many that it has finally surpassed Hotmail as the most-used email service in the world, according to a report by ComScore. Google had claimed in June this year that it had reached 425 million users, and now ComScore has come out with figures that put Gmail at the top of the list.

According to a ComScore graph posted by GigaOm, Gmail has a total of 287.91 million users, closely followed by Hotmail, which has a user base of 286.23 million. Yahoo! Mail is the third largest email service used in the world and has 281.72 million users.

Gmail finally has enough users to be the largest email service.

Ever since it was launched eight years ago in 2004, Google has been adding features to Gmail quite regularly. The company recently redesigned the compose feature on Gmail. Composing an email now is quicker, for the compose box opens just like a chat window would, albeit larger. In an official Gmail blog post, Phil Sharp, Google’s Product Manager, shares that with this new design, it is possible to keep the compose mail box open and still look for older mails for reference. This way, users can also keep an eye out for newer mails. Sharp writes, “The new compose is designed to let you focus on what's important: your message.”

What this means is all the controls will still be accessible, but won't come in the user's way when not needed. Users can now also easily insert inline images, and Google promises that there is more to come.

Interestingly, now when users add recipients to their messages, profile pictures of their contacts will show up in Autocomplete, letting them be sure of sending mails to the intended recipient. Users can drag and drop the new address chips between the 'to', 'cc', and 'bcc' fields. Once users are done adding recipients, the address bar collapses automatically.

Google is also field testing a search feature in Gmail that allows you to view results from Google Drive, Google Calendar, and more, in addition to the relevant emails. Also, the search strings of the participants on Google.com will return relevant emails, files, content on Gmail and Google Drive, in addition to regular search results.
 
Those who are part of the experiment will be able to view relevant Gmail messages and other shared links in their search results. Users will also be able to get information and statuses pertaining to their upcoming flights. Likewise, they will also be able to search documents, spreadsheets, presentations and other files stored on Google Drive.

A lot has been happening on the Gmail side of things. Google recently updated its Google+ app for Android as well as iOS devices. The search giant also brought in a variety of handy features to the updated version of Google Drive for Android devices. Google may be readying an update for Gmail for Android as well, which will be version number 4.2. In this update, Google is speculated to bring in very useful features such as pinch-to-zoom and swipe-to-delete or swipe-to-archive.
 
At around the same time, Google added over a hundred new virtual keyboards, transliteration tools and input method editors (IMEs) to Gmail, according to a post on the Google Blog. With the new additions, you can type in the language and keyboard layout of your choice. The languages can be changed with a single click. This update takes the count of input languages supported by Google to 75.