Finally an interesting poll on Facebook. As opposed to usual “what is your favorite lollipop flavor” this time they asked what is people primary email. According to the info on the website they closed the survey at 1000 respondents sampled from all their users. 51.6% of the respondents were female and 46.5% of ages 18-24. Although we don’t really know what is the age/gender distribution of Facebook users is, the results are still amusing.

First of all, Hotmail appears as the leading email provider for most Facebookers. Almost 40% prefer it over Yahoo (21%) and Gmail (16%). You can click the image to see it in a readable size.

I am a bit surprised with Gmail underperformance, but gender specific results are even more curious. According to this poll, males prefer Gmail over Yahoo, and even in the leading Hotmail, female preference is the dominant one. I think this is really interesting, especially given that the difference is so big, but i cannot think of potential explanation. Any ideas?

The age split is also interesting. For example it seems like Google has a relatively stronger presence among ages 18-34, while younger people prefer Yahoo.

Of course nothing too definite can be derived from these polls, but i still find these results interesting. Don’t you think?

Not really, but kind of related. I tried to look for any information about the actual population that Facebook surveys, because apparently they are charging for those polls. Of course on the poll help page there is no information about it, except for a disclaimer that Facebook does not verify the statistic validity of their results. However, there is a curious passage regarding the appropriate ways to source data. Here it is:

“When sourcing the results of a poll, cite “Facebook Polling” and not “Facebook” generally. For example, “According to a survey conducted by XYZ on Facebook Polling, 80 percent of respondents…” and, “Facebook Polling users responded that they are more likely to…” are appropriate statements, whereas “According to a Facebook survey…” and, “According to a survey of Facebook users…” are incorrect statements.”

And my question is why saying “according to a survey of facebook users” is an incorrect way to interpret the results? Are they surveying anyone outsede the facebook users database? Am I missing something?