Gmail users are young, hip, richer

Google Gmail is a magnet for the young, rich and hip, according to Hitwise.

Hitwise analyst LeeAnn Prescott writes in a post that Gmail users are a different breed from the Hotmail and Yahoo Mail folks. Hotmail and Yahoo Mail users resemble the online population. Gmail represents the hip early adopters. Mashable's Peter Cashmore says these results aren't surprising. Gmail users may even be better in bed.

According to Hitwise:

Gmail users are much more likely to be young, high income, and in the early adopter segments. For the four weeks ending 4/28/07, 54% of visits to Gmail were from users between 18 and 34, compared to 42% for Yahoo! Mail and 44% for Hotmail. 18% of Gmail's visits were from those with average annual household incomes between $100,000 and $149,999, compared to 15% from Hotmail and 13% for Yahoo! Mail.

Very interesting points indeed--but it won't last. Gmail was opened up to the world on Feb. 14. Market share of U.S. visits for Gmail is up 17 percent from February to April and that trend may continue. As it does less of the "in" crowd will be using Gmail. Yahoo Mail and Hotmail represent the demographics of the Internet because they are 13 times and 6 times bigger than Gmail, respectively.

Full disclosure: I'm feeling pretty hip--perhaps the second time in my life--since I have a Gmail account. But not that hip since my primary account is Yahoo Mail.