I've been noticing that Yahoo and Hotmail have differences in their delivery times, sometimes significantly. When I send email, I want it to be delivered asap, and vice versa.

Does anyone know of any experiments relating to this? Do they paid versions of webmail give any faster delivery times?

Delivery times depend on how busy the service's servers are, and also how busy the Internet is at the time of sending. Even if you are the only person logged in to Hotmail at that moment, your email may be delayed a little or a lot if the servers at the relay hops are very busy. Does 10 seconds vs 1 minute really make a difference in your case?

i've had yahoo take a minute or two...and at times it has taken a few seconds... so all webmail's delivery time will vary...

Yes, a minute or two is sometimes too long. If someone is checking their email, 1 minute can mean them closing out vs. seeing your message. That's why I was wondering if anyone knows of any data on how the providers stack up under load. I've done some test during non-busy times and everyone seems pretty instant. However, I've definitely seen where email can take minutes or sometimes even hours.