• Royal Pingdom, Wednesday, May 25, 2011 11:59 AM

How critical is email to the success of the Web's top email platforms, i.e., Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft? More than one might imagine, according to new research from Royal Pingdom. Citing what it concedes is imperfect Alexa data, Pingdom finds that Gmail drives 23% of traffic to Google.com; Yahoo Mail drives 20% of traffic to Yahoo.com; while Hotmail drives a whopping 39% of traffic to Microsoft's Live.com.

That said, "the actual percentages aren't really all that important here," stresses Pingdom. "What's important to note is that the subdomains used for Webmail have a ranking near or at the top for all three companies." In other words, "Imagine the hit to their Web presence if they didn't have these webmail services." Citing traffic from Google's Doubleclick Ad Planner, Pingdom reports that Yahoo Mail has 340 million users worldwide, and Hotmail has 450 million users worldwide, while Gmail is believed to have roughly 200 million users around the globe.

"Imagine if one of these three companies would somehow lose their webmail service," Pingdom pictures. "It would be a disaster for them."

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