IndyTech

SamDisk?

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:11:00 +0000

There are rampant speculations as to why Samsung wants to buy SanDisk? I believe there isn’t just one reason. There are multiple reasons.
1. Patents:
SanDisk has around 866 patents for which Samsung pays $400 million per year.
2. Market Share:
SanDisk collaborates with Toshiba and has created joint manufacturing facilities. Toshiba is a larger threat to Samsung than SanDisk. Buying SanDisk would increase Samsung’s market share considerably and market power exponentially.
3. Apple:
Apple is by far the largest buyer of solid-state memory in the market today. And, Samsung is currently the largest seller to Apple. With competitive market, Apple must have been able to do very tough price negotiations. But, if the market were consolidated, Apple would not be able to negotiate as low prices as it is used to. Consider the fact that OEM costs around $1 per GB. Apple sells 60 million iPods and 10 million iPhones. Assuming average memory consumption to be 8 gb per iphone/ipod combination. Samsung might be making around $560 million in revenues from Apple alone. Add 10% in and the revenue goes up to $616.
4. Next generation devices:
What most people ignore is the fact that Samsung makes more money if they sell their own device rather than by selling memory to apple. Samsung is also a big player in consumer electronics. The devices are getting smaller and smaller and the memory becomes cheaper yet central to the devices. The next generation of notebooks and hand held devices represent a shift from HDD to SSD. It is a very important market niche that they must dominate.

No wonder SanDisk would want more money and Toshiba may make a play.

KODAK sucks!

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 06:36:00 +0000

I bought Kodak Easyshare Z712IS last december. The camera works fine and the pictures quality is top notch for a digital camera. But, I was appalled by Kodak's policies. First of all, the camera package neither includes a rechargeable battery nor an ac/dc 3v adapter. Then, it says you can use regular AA batteries but, it doesn't last for more than 15-20 pics (without flash). The same happens with NiMH batteries. Kodak wants us to buy expensive ($6.99 a piece = 120 photos) CRV3 batteries as neither rechargeable nor regular AA batteries last long enough.

In an all I think the owning this camera was the biggest mistake. Not only it adds up to extra cost in batteries but also keeps you on the edge as to when you might run out of juice.

I am staying away from all Kodak products from now onwards.

Orkut does it again!

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:05:00 +0000

Not sure when would Google make this product stable. But, they better hurry if they ever want to compete with Facebook and MySpace. OpenSocial by itself is not going to take them anywhere unless they fix their products. Sounds like harsh words but it is a fact that people take any s*** for granted if it is from Google. Microsoft doesn't get such leniency from people. So much for most recognized brand in the US.

SOME FACTS ABOUT BARACK OBAMA

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:42:00 +0000

Some facts about Barack Obama

1. His Religion:

Fiction: He is a Muslim who went to a Madrassa during his childhood.

Fact: He is NOT a Muslim. He is a practising Christian. He has never swore on Koran.

2. His Patriotism:

Fiction: He does not wear flag pin or put his hand on the heard during the pledge of allegiance.

Fact: He does wear flag pin. For a time, he did not wear it to protest against hypocrisy by the administration and the congress as they didn't immediately pay attention to conditions of veterans.

Also, the video/photos that you may see on the internet are doctored by the right wing fundamentalists.

Note: It is a shame that a lot of people believe in above mentioned myths. We need to educate people to make sure they make informed decisions. It would be more shameful if a person doesn't vote for him because of these myths. I do not endorse or support Barack Obama or John McCain.

Numbers are gone from Yahoo SERP

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 05:26:00 +0000

Just noticed that numbers are now gone from Yahoo! Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Not sure whether this is just a test or a permanent change.

Bye Bye Microsoft Photo Editor

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:31:00 +0000

If you are an avid Flickr fan, here is a good news for you. Tonight, Flickr added a new set of photo editing tools in partnership with picnik. Now, you can upload the photos on Flickr and worry about editing them later. For me, it is 'bye bye Microsoft Photo Editor'.

Here are available features.
- Auto-fix
- Rotate
- Crop
- Resize
- Exposure
- Colors
- Sharpen
- Red-Eye

'Do not be evil'; just support it and shut down those who oppose it

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:30:00 +0000

Here is the story of Wael Abbas, an Egyptian blogger and human rights activist who used YouTube to post videos of police brutality. His efforts drew attention of the world towards police torture in Egypt. As a result, the Egyptian government took action against responsible police officers and the court convicted them. But, YouTube chose to suspended his account.

It is completely shocking. The Egyptian government doesn't have problems with the blogger but, YouTube does. 'Do not be evil'; just support it and shut down those who oppose it. Isn't this hypocrisy on part of Google? On one hand, YouTube is happy to be the world's largest collection of porn and illegal downloads and on the other hand it is shutting down people who support democracy and human rights. I would like to ask Rep. Tom Lantos; who is moral pygmie now?

Apple Tablet

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:25:00 +0000

In 2005, Apple filed for patents for its new MacBook Pro Tablet. We haven't yet seen any announcements of Apple Tablet so far. But, considering the development of iPhone and its success, it wouldn't be to far fetched to assume that it already is working on such a device. And, it makes perfect sense for Apple to be working on such a device.

Apple is known for being a distrupter in the market. MP3 players were sold even before iPod but, Apple entered the market and completely took over it. The same is happening with iPhone. Smartphones were always there but, Apple upped the ante in an unprecedented way. Now, every other touchscreen phone is an iPhone wanna be.

Based on iPhone one can just imagine how beautiful MacBook Tablet would be. Apple would surely use most of its 200 patents related to iPhone interface and design. It would also be a lighter version of OS X leopard. But, please put a real keyboard. Virtual keyboard is fine on an iPhone and you can get used to it fairly quickly. But, it can't compare full sized real keyboard.

These are desired features.

- Multi-touch OS X

- Rotating camera

- Screen size of 10"

- Full keyboard

- Built in Microphone and speakers

- Wifi, Bluetooth and 3/4 G wireless

- Price less than $1499

No donut for Orkut

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 04:02:00 +0000

This is year 2007. Orkut was launched in 2004. It is still in beta and you still get to see this message. No wonder it is trailing MySpace and Facebook in the US; where most money from Social Networks are made.

Is Facebook spying on users?

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:35:00 +0000

According to InfoWorld report, a CA researcher has found that Facebook beacon has been reporting activities of users outside the network. In other words, no matter where you go; Facebook knows what you were doing. Something like Big Brother. But, look at the bright side; NSA no longer needs to track user activities. It can buy that data from Facebook. :-P

It is one more website on my black list.

Update: Usually I am in favor of advertising on the internet and sternly believe in that revenue model. But, this time Facebook seems to have crossed the line.

iGoogle vs. My Yahoo! Or My Google vs. iYahoo! ???

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:05:00 +0000

I am a big fan of RSS feeds and aggregator pages. That is my way of staying informed. iGoogle and My Yahoo! are information aggregators from arch-rivals Google and Yahoo! respectively. Now, lets us examine both of them.

Visitors:
iGoogle had around 7.5 mil. Unique visitors (UV) in Oct 07 compared to 25 million UV

Speed:
iGoogle wins hands down when it comes to load times. Loading speed on My Yahoo is good but it can’t beat iGoogle.

Modules:
Both allow us to be able to search modules/gadgets. Yahoo! does not have an API for module development by end users. Most of the modules are designed by Yahoo! team. On the other hand, iGoogle allows users to design their own modules which have lead to availability of millions of gadgets. Also, both allow users to use RSS feeds as modules. But, all RSS modules in My Yahoo are also available in Yahoo Mail. The integration is really nice.

Design:
We can divide design into three categories:
a. Module/Gadget design:
iGoogle gadgets are mostly designed by developers with little or no concern for maintaining harmony of the page. Most of the gadgets are clumsy and mediocre at the best. On the other hand design of My Yahoo! modules is really nice and it fits the overall look and feel of the page.
Also, My Yahoo! has many options available to users those are missing in iGoogle. My Yahoo! allows users to define the timelines and number of feeds in a module with option to select combination of text, video and messages.
Another very useful feature of My Yahoo is the preview reader. This allows users to be able to read the summary or the full story without leaving the page.
b. Page design:
My Yahoo pages are hands down beautiful. I liked the ability to have a small search box. It frees up more screen space for modules. iGoogle on the other hand takes up as much as 1/3 of the screen space for search box. Both have plenty of resize and column options.
c. Theme:
This is another strong point for My Yahoo!. Available themes are beautiful and actually enhance readability. On the other hand most of the themes on iGoogle are childish.
All points in the design round go to My Yahoo!.

Ease of Use:
This is not a tough call. And, My Yahoo! seems to have edged out iGoogle by a large margin. I liked the fact that you can preview/add a module, change color/layout and change the size of the search box without ever leaving the current page. Check out “The New York Times” module/gadget on both and you’ll realize the difference in both of them.

The Verdict:
For now, iGoogle needs a lot of work before it can really challenge new My Yahoo! beta. For all its hype iGoogle still looks Web 1.0 with mediocre design.

US turning into China?

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 05:59:00 +0000

We all hate terrorists and terrorism. But, look at this report. Even though it is for tracking terror activities how would government manage to identify terrorists vs. regular bloggers without tracking everyone? Thus the question the real questions come; are we ready for the police raj? What would be the implications of allowing such a thing?

Yahoo CEO slammed over Chinese dissident

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:02:00 +0000

Last week, my license to drive was revoked by California Highway Patrol on charges of reckless driving. My license was suspended and I got fired from my delivery job. Also, I had to pay $1600 in fines for speeding. I wasn't pulled over at the time but, there was a CCTV camera made by a german Company XYZ. Highway patrol got those tapes and find out that I was driving well over 120 mph. I am a german citizen with valid US permit to drive anywhere in the US. Germany is a free country and believes that everyone in a passanger car is free to drive at any speed they could on an autobahn.

Shouldn't German government scold company XYZ for collborating with tyrannical US government that doesn't believe in people's right to drive fast on a freeway (autobahn in Germany equals Freeway in the US)?
Can I sue Company XYZ back in Germany based on the fact that Germans believe that freeway is the place where you are free to drive the way you want?

Enough said...stop this hypocrisy. You have to abide by the laws of the land you are doing business and making money.

Wasn't it the US congress that approved free trade agreement with China?

Earthquake

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:31:00 +0000

Gosh, that was a tumbler...it was around 8:05 pm and lasted for 10-15 seconds.

Microsoft invests in Facebook - Q&As

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:20:00 +0000

Thanks for comments AAA M8. I have tried to answer most of your questions here.

Question: "How many of those "48 mm users across the globe" do you imagine Microsoft ALREADY has access to (US excluded)?"
Answer: I don’t have access to exact numbers but, around 30-40% of traffic on Facebook comes from international markets. Here is why I think they needed access to those users.

Social Networks are different than portals and search engines: Having access to users on portal or search page is different than social networks that thrive on User Generated Contents (UGC). Marketers need to measure the ‘user behavior’ of ‘target audience’ to be more effective. For example when a user searches for something the engine knows the user intent. Also, when a user goes to a news page the portal knows what he/she is reading. But, on social network it is difficult to target users with ads that is more relevant to the content he/she is about to generate. So, it is not just about having access to them but also about having access to them on the platform they are more engaged with and making ads more relevant.

UGC (User Generated Contents) is the future: The current trend shows that user visits and engagement on portal sites are down then a year before. But overall, people spend more time on the internet. Both of these are contrasting numbers. But, if you connect the dots you'll find that Facebook and other social networks are growing much faster and are more engaging than portals. Most of the people who use social networks are of age group 18-35. But, Microsoft doesn’t have a social network.

Question: You seem to perceive that MS needs to gain "much needed momentum in online ad space"..Why?
Answer: Because MSN unit is making losses. Online advertising is the way to make money.

Question: Why would MS need facebook to help them fine tune their newly designed tools." ..?
Answer: Simple answer is – data is everything and since they don’t have any social network with such a large user base they desperately needed it. It is a virtuous cycle. More data translates into better algorithm and better algorithm means better results and better results mean satisfied users who in turn will generate more data. But, here is a much more complex answer.

As I mentioned earlier, the portal strategy worked well in the past but, it is gradually being overshadowed by User Generated Content (UGC) on sites like Myspace, Facebook, Orkut, Friendster, Hi5 etc. These are the things that traditional banner and contextual ads has miserably failed to monetize. It is a very big challenge for all advertisers to be able to efficiently monetize UGC. With all respect to Microsoft; they are NOT among the best advertisers when it comes to ad monetization. (And, even Steve Ballmer admitted that MS is a 4 year kid competing against seasoned pros that are out there for 10-12 years). These challenges are similar to what all major search engines faced in late 90s. Overture figured it out how to monetize search; but, it was Google who had access to 60% of the searches on the internet at the time (because of its sweetheart deal with Yahoo from 2001-2004). By the time Yahoo acquired Overture and started monetizing on its own; Google had made its natural and sponsored search tools far more superior than anyone on the block. This was largely possible because of the data it had access to while it was tuning its site. Even today, it makes more money per search than anyone. This has given them unprecedented advantage over rivals such as yahoo, live, AOL and Ask (both AOL and Ask use Google to monetize their search).

In the nutshell, social networks are going to be hot properties in coming years just the way portals were in late 90s. Monetization of a social network is very different and difficult than portals and search engines. User behavior in social networks is essentially a social behavior which is indirectly influenced by number and type of connections. It is much more complex to measure and analyze. Microsoft needed access to this data on user behavior. Microsoft just bought target audience by investing into Facebook. It still needs to figure out how to measure ‘user intent’ in complex social networks.

Question: AND finally, does the merit of this investment really depend on how well facebook is able to monetize itself?
Answer: I still think valuation of $15 billion for Facebook is too much. But, Microsoft isn’t paying $15 billion. By investing $240 million, it is just testing waters. If they are unable to monetize well than the valuation will come down.

Microsoft invests in Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:42:00 +0000

Valuation of Facebook at $15 billion is really bloated. But, the funny thing was not just the fact that Microsoft bought 1.6 % of the company for $240 million dollars. My knee jerk reaction was “holy cow, Mr. Softy is really stupid”.

But, it all started making sense after some more analysis. And, I think it does make sense for Microsoft to invest in Facebook for following reasons.

1. Pocket Change: $240 million is equivalent to change for Microsoft. With over $50 billion in revenues and $21 billions in cash; its balance sheet would make any company envy its success. So, even if this investment goes nowhere, it hardly dents the bottom line.

2. Buying Market Share: It is all about market share. With this deal; Microsoft just bought itself reach to 48 mm users across the globe. It already had access to the US advertising business with guaranteed revenue deal. Although, this deal is unlikely to replace it; it will definitely give Microsoft a much needed momentum in online ad space.

3. Keeping Competitors at Bay: It also makes sense from competitive standpoint that ‘Softy’ won the deal. Google already have such a deal with Myspace and AOL. These deals not only creates brand value for the company’s ad business but also helps them fine tune their newly designed tools.

Ultimately, it doesn’t sound as much of a bad deal from Microsoft’s point of view. But, we’ll have to see what happens to it in future. And, it all depends on how well Facebook is able to monetize itself.

News from Antarctica?

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:36:00 +0000

Y! News, originally uploaded by Nirav Bhavsar.

Since, when did “Antarctica” became such a big news venue? Hole in the Ozone layer is a very old news. Besides "Global Warming" you never find any mention of this continent. To their credit; they are the only souls in the world of internet, who are considerate enough to include roughly 4000 people who live on the continent during summer (Dec – Feb) in one of the News categories. I have never seen it as a separate category on any other portal.

Is it a sign that Yahoo! news needs to integrate "Buzz Tracker" asap or is it a part of Yahoo!'s commitment to green? Hang on to it; you may start receiving news from Antarctica hopefully good news.

Jindal for president - Year 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:15:00 +0000

Ok. the title is not true. We are not in future either. But, it is official. Congratulations Mr. Jindal. Bobby Jindal is the new governor of Louisiana - 36 year old republican congressman from New Orleans is a son of Indian parents. The first non-white governor of Louisiana. Follow the link below for more information.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071021/ap_po/louisiana_governor
Based on his ambitions; it wouldn't be far fetched to assume he might be running for president in 2016. It is still too early to speculate on that but I won't be surprised to see that. By that time even I may become eligible to vote.
In the meanwhile an open appeal to Mr. Jindal,
"Mr. Jindal; please bring New Orleans out of the mess your predecessor left you with and you might as well be on your way to Whitehouse."

Accident @ 6:15 pm on Oct 11.

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:10:00 +0000

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhavsar_nirav/1557785351/, originally uploaded by Nirav Bhavsar.

Scene of accident on Mathilda ave near hwy 237. Hopefully, no one was seriously injured. The car is being towed now.

Sent from my iPhone

Facebook Worth $15 billion?

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:47:00 +0000

First Walt Mossberg and then Kara Swisher. It seems they both share my views on Yahoo! mail and Facebook respectively. Jokes apart here is the hottest topic in the silicon valley related to its new poster child "Facebook". Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook values his company at $15 billion over net earnings of $30 million. It is an amazing self-promotion. And, everyone in their right mind are puzzled. Rightly so, Kara Swisher at Wall Street Journal has been pulling legs of investors who believe in the hype. Here is the article she wrote 10 days ago. Also, she was kind enough to quote my comments in her followup column here.

But for convenience here they are.

“Very good analysis Kara. Most grown ups agree with you. I’d like to mention a point that you missed: “Growth in the international market”. Google gets 45% revenue from international market. Facebook doesn’t have that kind of growth prospects internationally and given its inability to monetize in the US it is definitely not worth $15 billion. Facebook has no presence in Europe, China, India or Brazil. Bebo in Europe, Orkut in Brazil-India and MySpace in China are formidable. Also, people forget that Google was already making $3 billion in 2004 when it took the IPO route. If Facebook goes for IPO route; I’d buy shares and sell within 1 week before the bubble bursts.”

Let’s see who get the last laugh. Either way I have figured a way to make fast money using Facebook.

New Yahoo Search takes on to Ask,Google and Live search

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:28:00 +0000

According to official yahoo blog about an hour ago, Yahoo! announced a major overhaul to its search engine. Here are some of the major changes.
1. Search Assist: As you type, it automatically offers search terms and phrases in real time. After you’ve searched, it suggests additional search terms to try as well as new topics to consider. Check out this screenshot with search query “India”.
Here is a link that explains it in more detail.
2. Multimedia results: Other notable inclusion is multi-media. It seems that Yahoo has decided to revisit inclusion of multimedia into the search results. And, inclusion of images from Flickr makes it a top notch service. Amazingly, it also plays YouTube videos right into the search page.
3. New interface: New interface is pretty refreshing. It has vibrant colors that are easy on eye but, are also stylish.
In all, the new Yahoo search may slow down erosion of market share to rival Google.

Heavy Internet users unplugged by US cable company - Yahoo! News

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:54:00 +0000

Heavy Internet users unplugged by US cable company - Yahoo! News
"Several Internet users in the United States have been unplugged by their service provider because they download too much, a press report said here Friday." - AFP

Isn't this outrageous? We pay Comcast, AT&T and other ISPs for using 2, 4, 5 mbps bandwidth. Usually their ads don't even mention the fact that the real bandwidth we get is hardly even close to what they advertise. Also, when they say "unlimited" data download they don't really mean unlimited. For them unlimited download equals the amount of data we can download that they are comfortable with. So, imagine if you are a netflix user and want to watch movies online you may use up a lot of bandwidth that Comcast may think is inappropriate and terminate your internet connection. Since, they already cap on bandwidth shouldn't they allow us to use atleast that much bandwidth for the amount of time we wish? But, customers don't really have a legal recourse in this matter as we all have clicked on that "Accept" button in hurry to get going. This behavior by ISPs can be described as 'scandalous' at the least. But, it is a clear case of false advertisement.

AOL Plagiarism

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:57:00 +0000

I am not a big fan of AOL anyways. But, I really wish they could hire good web designers who do not simply copy someone else's design.

Check this out. Here is Yahoo homepage (originally redesigned in 2006).

Here is AOL home page (redesigned in summer 2007).

Online Advertising: A necessary evil?

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 03:36:00 +0000

Today, we can virtually read any newspaper for free. This was not possible 15-20 years ago. But, how is this all made possible? Who pays Yahoo, CNN, Time, NYT and millions of other websites in order for them to provide us the free service? It is indeed very expensive to host the infrastructure for a website that serves billions of webpages per day. And, the answer is - "Advertising".

Who hasn't seen ads on webpages? If you visit any web portal you are bound to find ads. And, I have been using a very good software - Ad-block plus to get rid of those ads. But, then I read this article in NYT which really made me think, is it really ethical to block all ads on all webpages and look for only relevant content? And, does it threaten the online advertising model that allows us to use content over the internet for free? Most of the websites don't charge us to view/read their content.

Here are some relevant arguments in favor and against the use of Ad block software.

One argument is that we already pay our ISP to access the internet so, why should we see ads? To be fair, don't we see ads on TV eventhough we pay our cable TV provider? And, do you really want to see only webpages on only one network - something like AOL in 90's?
It is also argued that we want to read only what is relevant and Ads are not definitely one of them. But, if the web portals don't serve ads than we won't get content for free. Eventually, we won't get any content at all. Remember the dotcom bubble at the end of the century when hundreds of companies got bankrupt because they didn't have any business model to generate revenues!
But, those ads are really annoying. I think that only if the ads were relevant and non-intrusive users won't block them. There are some ads which are really very funny and not intrusive at all. My personal favorite is PC and Mac comparison ads by Apple. Every time I used to visit cnet.com I'd see the ad but never found it annoying. If only they serve good ads I won't need Ad Block software. But, sometimes it becomes absolutely necessary to block those ads when some websites have banner ads displaying naked/bikini girls or try to lure us into scams. I admit that I block some ads on some of the websites such as http://www.indianexpress.com/, http://www.rediff.com/, http://www.gizmodo.com/ etc. Frankly, nobody wants to see bikini models on the website they are visiting to read news.

For now, I am waiting for some ingenius guy to design a relevant business model for websites other than serving ads. Until then, I'll keep blocking some intrusive ads but not all. After all, they've got to pay the mortgage too.

Clash of the Titans: Gmail vs Yahoo Mail Beta vs MSN live hotmail

noreply@blogger.com (Nirav Bhavsar) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:08:00 +0000

Ok. So, finally I decided to write about various web based email services that I have been actively using for last several years. I have been using Yahoo Mail - Hotmail since 1997 and Gmail since 2004.

Here is a comparison of main features that I use the most.

I haven't included "Storage Space" because I have never run out of it. Very organized user that I am 1 GB is more that enough. But, if it is to be counted Yahoo Mail would get definitely more points than competitors.

Verdict:

Based on features I use; Yahoo! Mail is the best email that suits my needs as a webmail service provider.

Note: I have not included AOL that has more active users than Gmail as I am not an active user of it.