Thursday, Yahoo began offering free email accounts under two new domain names. The new domains, @ymail and @rocketmail, were made available to users because most of the desired handles at the Yahoo domain, which has been around since 1997, are already taken. Yahoo is currently the email market leader, with 266 million users in April, followed by Microsoft at 264 million, according to research firm, comScore Inc.

Yahoo is likely adding the new domains to compete with Google’s fast-growing Gmail, which has added 30 million users in the past year. Because of the popularity of Yahoo email, new users were forced to pick long or complicated handles that were difficult to remember. Yahoo hopes to expand its email universe by offering more options to new users and users unhappy with their current addresses. The new accounts will have the same features as current Yahoo accounts, including unlimited free storage. Yahoo expanded their storage limits from 3 megabytes to unlimited in response to Gmail, which upped the ante by offering 1 gigabyte of storage. Although email service is free, it is obviously important in fostering user loyalty and creating lucrative advertising opportunities.

For more info Read the AP article by Michael Liedtke here.