Gmail could catch up Hotmail by the end of the year!

Gmail could catch up Hotmail by the end of the year!

Market analysts say that if the current trend continues, Google Gmail can catch up with Microsoft’s Hotmail webmail service by the end of the year.

Gmail user base is increasing at a rapid pace. The service grew 39%, from 18.8 million to 26 million between September 2007 and September 2008 period.

In the same period, Windows Live Hotmail dropped 4% 46.2 million to 44.6 million.

Gmail just needs a little more boost if it has to match the user base of Hotmail service.

Yahoo however continues to lead the pack with 91.9 million unique monthly visitors in December 2008. They are also seeing a decent growth rate of 11%.

Google has been massively increasing the feature set of Gmail by adding new functionalities through Gmail Labs.

Gmail now supports offline access which has further increased the usability of the service.