Last time I checked, ISP does not equal e-mail domain. If I recall correctly, ISP has a specific meaning: "Internet Service Provider."<p>For example, AOL and Comcast are ISPs, but gmail, hotmail and yahoo are not.<p>Maybe you receive an allocation of e-mail addresses when you sign up for internet service, but that doesn't mean that the domain of the e-mail address represents internet service.<p>I think what we're seeing here is that the higher age of comcast users is an expression of the fact that those are the people who own the homes (have their name on the mortgage and deed of the property) or sign the lease and pay the rent, and thus also are more likely to pay the broadband bills, and are more likely to use the ISP e-mail address, since they're the ones looking at the features their ISP provides as part of the internet package they sign up for.<p>Meanwhile, the kids don't pay the bills, and are probably suspicious about whether their parents can call the ISP and demand the password, to snoop on their mail, and thus tend to avoid the ISP domains.
Nice write up about the different demographics on mail providers. But I'm not sure that "ISP" is the correct term for the title.<p>I always considered which ISP you use has more to do with picking the least horrible option for your geography.
Umm what is AOL Explorer? Is that like the original AOL browser jawn that was a window inside a second sand-boxed window that was virtually impossible to use? I didn't know it had a name.
It would be interesting to see if you can tease out throwaway email accounts (Gmail, in my case) from primary personal accounts and work accounts. I guess the throwaways might actually be more interesting since that's what people probably use for online purchases or registering for websites.<p>Also, I wish I could have maintained my first email at delphi.com but at the time they didn't allow holding on to your email when you stopped paying for the ISP.
<i>Furthermore, in order to nab an Xbox Live account these days, Microsoft requires you register using a Microsoft-owned freemail platform (Outlook, Live, or you guessed it, Hotmail).</i><p>Is this true? How does this not trigger any flags for monopoly abuse at the DoJ? Oh, I forgot, MS is savvy about lobbying now.<p>Seriously, why has no one called them on this bullshit? Why do people put up with it?