Yahoo is finally putting up a fight to compete with free 1GB Gmail accounts. After ignoring all the warnings that my Yahoo Mail Plus Account was about to die, I got this email today:

Dear Yahoo! Mail Plus Subscriber,

Thanks for subscribing to Yahoo! Mail Plus. It's our goal to offer you an email experience that makes it easy to stay in touch and offers great value. Periodically, we make changes to enhance the service for our users. As of June 15, 2004, you'll enjoy the following benefits at no additional charge:

-Increase in your storage quota to 2GB

-No graphical ads

-A streamlined interface that's even easier to use

Yahoo Mail now offers 100mb of space for their free accounts or 2GB plus POP/SMTP for $19.95 a year for Mail Plus customers. This upgrade has long been rumored, but when I wrote to Yahoo last week I was told that any new pricing/storage limits would not be offered to current Mail Plus customers. I'm so glad I ignored all those billing emails. Look at the disclaimer in today's announcement:

Your Yahoo! Mail Plus purchase will automatically renew each year on the anniversary of the date you originally ordered Yahoo! Mail Plus, at the then-current rate, unless you cancel before that date.

If you're a current Mail Plus customer, you're paying anywhere from $29.95 to $59.95. I'm going to cancel my account (I won't lose my email address or messages, just POP access) and then re-order at the much more reasonable price. With all this space, I hope IMAP access is coming.