I’m not saying which ones I use, though I will say that I have multiple addresses.
Hotmail truly is so 20 years ago. I had one back in my Navy days, but that was back when Michael Jackson still had some skin pigmentation. A few decades of abuse from people using Hotmail addresses has led some sites to not even accept them as valid. They make good “throwaway” accounts, but that is also a downside.
AOL jumped the shark about the time 56k modems were the ultimate in home internet access. While Hotmail is kind of retro, AOL is downright quaint. They reached the status of “Sign of an amateur” before Hotmail even existed. It’s telling that when Verizon bought them earlier this year, investors lost enough confidence for Verizon stock prices to drop slightly.
Yahoo is circling the drain much the same way AOL did. In addition to the problems Hotmail has and the problems AOL has, the company itself has been on the decline for long enough that failure is no longer a matter of “if”, but “when”. They won’t go out completely, but I don’t see them being relevant for much longer either.
Gmail is run by one of the largest companies on Earth. While Hotmail is too, Microsoft doesn’t care nearly as much about it as Google cares about Gmail. Considering how many smartphone owners worldwide have a Google-branded OS that requires a Gmail account to get into the apps store, it’s safe to say that Gmail has enough of a captive audience that it’s going to be around for a while regardless.
@chyna Popularity is often an indicator of how well it works and how long it will keep working. AOL’s recent actions, including a major deal with Microsoft on top of their sale to Verizon makes me think that you’ll be migrating soon, like it or not.