Google's Gmail has surpassed AOL as the third most visited e-mail service in the U.S. and is poised to pass Windows Live Hotmail in about seven months.
Between July 2008 and July 2009, Gmail's number of unique monthly visitors in the U.S. increased from 25.3 million to 36.9 million, according to ComScore.
Gmail's rate of traffic growth has been increasing, too. In the July 2008 to July 2009 period, Gmail grew at a rate of 46%, up from 39% during the period between September 2007 and September 2008.
From July 2008 to July 2009, AOL's monthly visitor total declined by 19%, from 45.1 million to 36.4 million. Windows Live Hotmail, which lost 4% of its visitors between September 2007 and September 2008, managed to eke out a 3% gain during the July 2008 to July 2009 period.
But with 47.1 million monthly visitors, Windows Live Hotmail is more or less where it was in September 2007, when its monthly visitor share stood at 46.2 million.
What I've found useful is to have a Gmail account, so that when I need to buy something on line, I give them that e-mail account. Knowing that I will probably get spamming newsletters from them, they fill up the Gmail account and not my account that I normally use for legit mail.