MSN Hotmail

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See also: Windows Live Hotmail

MSN Hotmail
Hotmail's login page
Developer:	Microsoft
Use:	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. Hotmail will be moved to the Windows Live branding when the beta version of the upgraded interface is complete.

Contents 1 History 2 Storage 3 POP3 access 4 E-mail services 5 Miscellaneous 6 See also 7 References 8 External links 9 Notes

[edit] History

Hotmail, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith in 1995, 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] and 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. According to The Register the operating system wasn't changed for years despite the change of owner. ^[3]

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.

[edit] Storage

Hotmail offers 1 GB of free e-mail storage^[4] 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. ^[5]

[edit] POP3 access

MSN accounts once had POP3 email access. They sold their POP3 servers to Qwest in favor of HTML servers. It was possible to check one's own e-mail using Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express on PC and Microsoft Entourage on Mac, or using the WebDAV protocol and an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird.^[6] 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 February 2007. It is unclear if or when Microsoft will revoke this feature as many users rely on this function. 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.

FreePOPs ^[7] is an example of a free software application that allows email clients access to webmail (including Hotmail) services through POP3.

Mail from other accounts can be accessed through Hotmail using the "POP mail" button located on the Hotmail toolbar.

It is now possible for account holders of Windows Live Mail to check their email through Windows Live Desktop Mail.

[edit] E-mail services

• MSN Hotmail - Basic, free e-mail. Includes 1 GB of e-mail storage and 10 MB attachments with graphical advertisements.
• MSN Hotmail Plus - $19.95 a year. Includes 4 GB of e-mail storage, 20 MB attachments, and no graphical advertisements.
• 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.

[edit] 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 Windows Live Messenger and MSN Hotmail.

If a free MSN Hotmail account is not accessed in a 30-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.

[edit] See also

• MSN
• Comparison of webmail providers
• Webmail
• Windows Live Messenger
• Windows Live Hotmail
• Windows Live ID

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Hotmail.com
• MSN.com
• Windows Live Messenger (previously MSN Messenger)
• Gotmail Perl script which non-interactively downloads mail from hotmail

[edit] Notes