WebProNews

Even if Yahoo has fallen far behind Google in the search game, let's admit that the runner-up tries; updates and fresh features launch on a monthly (or weekly) basis.  But new stats show that Yahoo Mail continues to be the company's real bread and butter in terms of traffic.

Hitwise's Heather Hopkins reports, "Yahoo!'s mail property is its most trafficked property, receiving more than a third (36.71%) of visits to a custom category of 80 leading Yahoo! properties in February.  The next two most popular domains are the portal front page, www.yahoo.com, and Yahoo! Search."

 (Credit: Hitwise)

Those properties obtained shares of 25.48 and 11.75 percent, respectively, which barely add up to meet Yahoo Mail's total.

What's more, Yahoo Mail seems to be growing in influence over time.  While visits to Windows Live Mail are down 25 percent on a year-over-year basis, visits to Yahoo Mail have risen by three percent.  And although visits to Gmail have shot up 88 percent, it's still far behind overall (compare a market share of 10.82 percent to one of 56.46 percent, if you will).

Perhaps Steve Ballmer was focusing on the wrong department during those wretched Microsoft/Yahoo negotiations.