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MSN Hotmail
Developer: Microsoft
Genre: E-mail, webmail
Website: www.hotmail.com
MSN Hotmail is a free web-based e-mail service, which is accessible via a
web browser. Its competitors include AIM Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail. Users
of MSN Hotmail are being moved to the new Windows Live Hotmail as it was
released from beta on May 7th, 2007.
History
Hotmail, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in 1995 as the first
Webmail, was commercially launched on July 4, 1996, Independence Day in the
United States, symbolically representing freedom from ISPs. Jack Smith first
had the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the
world, originally in order to get by corporate firewalls blocking regular
mail services. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the
mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in "-mail" and finally
settled on Hotmail because it included the letters "HTML" — the markup
language used to write the base of web pages. It was initially referred to
as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing, which is still styled in that format
within part of the URL of the user's email inbox when signed in.
Hotmail was initially backed by the venture capital firm Draper Fisher
Jurvetson. By December 1997, Hotmail reported more than 8.5 million
subscribers[1].
It was sold later that month to Microsoft for a reported US$400m, after
which it was rebranded under the MSN umbrella.
By February 1999, Hotmail reported more than 30 million active members.[2]
Hotmail serves e-mail accounts in many countries, supporting 17 languages,
and is still one of the largest webmail providers as of July 2005, with
35.5% world market share according to comScore Media Metrix data.
Hotmail was originally run on FreeBSD operating system.
The Hotmail development and operations teams are based in Mountain View,
California.
Microsoft intended to phase out Hotmail in favor of "Windows Live Mail", but
has since rebranded the service "Windows Live Hotmail", keeping the Hotmail
name intact.
Storage
MSN Hotmail offers 1 GB (1024MB) of free e-mail storage[3] with a 10 MB
attachment limit. Substantial increases in mailbox size were introduced
shortly after Google's Gmail debuted. Hotmail users can upgrade from MSN
Hotmail to Windows Live Hotmail which offers 2 GB of free e-mail storage to
all members. [4]
Access from mail clients
MSN accounts once had POP3 email access but they sold their POP3 servers to
Qwest in favor of HTML servers.
It is in principle possible to check one's own e-mail using the WebDAV
protocol (an extension of HTTP), using Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express
on PC, Microsoft Entourage on Mac, or an extension for Mozilla
Thunderbird.[5] But while this service was free for a number of years,
Microsoft announced on September 27, 2004 that they were making it a
subscription-only service for new users immediately and existing users from
April 2005. However, some (not all) existing users are still able to access
their Hotmail accounts via this protocol for free as of April 2007,
depending on how long they have been a member of Hotmail and whether their
account had ever been suspended due to spam violations. Also, whether it is
a technical glitch or not, clients still using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
but have not updated to SP2 can still access their Hotmail account via
Outlook regardless.
It should be noted that Windows Mail, Outlook Express' successor, no longer
supports HTML email access. Users can get around this restriction however,
by using software that simulates a POP server to which the e-mail
application connects.
Mail from other accounts can be accessed through Hotmail using the "POP
mail" button located on the Hotmail toolbar.
It is possible for account holders of Hotmail to check their email through
Windows Live Mail.
E-mail services
Email service Price Features
MSN Hotmail Free Includes 2 GB of e-mail storage and 20 MB attachments with
graphical advertisements.[6]
MSN Hotmail Plus $19.95 a year Includes 4 GB of e-mail storage, 20 MB
attachments, and no graphical advertisements.[6]
Microsoft Office Outlook Live $44.95 a year Includes 2 GB of e-mail storage,
20 MB attachments, and no graphical advertisements. Also includes Microsoft
Office Outlook 2003 for Subscription Services with free upgrades, allowing
users to synchronize Hotmail with Outlook.
Miscellaneous
As of June 2006, Hotmail users can now send instant messages from within
Hotmail using the integrated Web Messenger function, without having to be
signed in to Windows Live Messenger or have the program installed at all.
At the Hotmail main screen, users can access integrated MSN services such as
Calendar and Contacts (the latter being shared with Windows Live Messenger).
In December 2004, Microsoft started its new blogging service called MSN
Spaces and integrated it with MSN Messenger (now Windows Live Spaces and
Windows Live Messenger, respectively) and MSN Hotmail.
If a free MSN Hotmail account is not accessed in a 120-day period, then it
is temporarily deactivated (all messages deleted, although not the address
book). The underlying Passport account, which is tied to the e-mail address,
is not released back in to the address pool for 90 days. This allows the
current owner to re-activate the e-mail portion of the account and keep the
address before new users can register for it; however this is now defunct.
MSN Premium/MSN Hotmail Plus customers (pay service) are exempt from the
expiration policy.
In the past, Hotmail has offered users who have held the same account for a
number of years the same exemption from deactivation. However, Hotmail
changed its policy again, leaving many of those account members surprised to
find that, after being told their emails would be saved, they had instead
been deleted. Those emails cannot be recovered.
Hotmail is often used by spammers to provide a fake dropbox for use in their
messages. However, Hotmail subscribes to MSN's strongly worded Terms of Use,
and anyone found to have engaged in spam-related activities will have their
account cancelled without warning.
In early 2000, The MSN Internet Portal was receiving 200 million visits a
month. This prompted Microsoft's UK managing director to charge a user fee
of £10.00 a year for extra services. Users are now able to get MSN Hotmail
Plus for $19.95 a year. All Hotmail accounts include an advanced filter
system at no extra cost.[7]
Delivery problems
As of April 2007 Hotmail stopped delivering e-mail from a number of mail
servers. Mail is normally accepted by the Hotmail mail server (so no bounces
or rejects), however it is not delivered to the inbox, nor to the junk mail
box. This all regardless of the mail settings and white list settings in the
Hotmail account [8].
References
1. ^ Hotmail reports 8.5 million subscribers
2. ^ Hotmail reports 30 million subscribers
3. ^ Storage capacity of Hotmail accounts
4. ^ Hotmail account storage for Windows Live Mail
5. ^ Webmail supported by Mozilla Thunderbird
6. ^ a b Hotmail: Your Options. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2007-06-27.
7. ^ MSN 'to charge user fee'
8. ^ Delivery problems described on iis_aid_news
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