When Microsoft invested $240 million in Facebook, we told you the real losers were AOL and Yahoo, because they depend on email usage to drive traffic through their portals. Email is dying as a form of communication, we said, but some smartass commenter didn't believe us. He wanted to see some numbers. Fine. Here are some numbers from Hitwise.

A disclaimer: we know that over there in the U.K., they drive on the wrong side of the road. So maybe the Internet confuses them as well. But the Brits are ahead of us in broadband penetration. If their online behavior is any indication of where things are going for email, AOL, Yahoo and other portals are in as much trouble as we thought.

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