HOTMAIL
Hotmail is of one the early free email service provider. It has more than 260 million active users and the amount is rising as the day goes by. It is believed as the initial chat service using internet between people all over the world. It is the 2nd most used email service after Gmail.
CREATORS:
Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith on July 4th 1996 gave a new way of a communication to the people using internet as a connection mode to their friends and family all over the world. The service was free and is still free for users, only requiring a registration. The name of this web based email was given by Sameer Bhatia. Initial name was HoTMaiL, with proper uppercasing. The name was proposed so to emphasize the HTML code using. This was a ground-breaking idea the both entrepreneurs gave to the world, now in a matter of seconds only, the communication gap is filled. Initial funding to the HoTMaiL was given by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), a venture capital firm.
COMPANY:
Just after a year, in December 1997, Microsoft took hold of HoTMaiL under its roof, paying $400 million to the creators. The new name given to the web based email was MSN HOTMAIL. Surely it was a good step by Microsoft and it did work a lot to increase the service and performance of Hotmail. more security, privacy, personalized information, calendar service, spam filters, antivirus installation, easy login, access from any part of the world using the same I.Ds etc. and many more services are now included in any Hotmail account. Its popularity increases more till then and Microsoft also improved it using many options inside the system. Initially the domain name was @hotmail.com. Today Microsoft is offering the new users to choose domain address of their own choice from @hotmail.com, @msn.com, @live.com and @outlook.com. Up to 36 languages are used by Hotmail service. Hotmail.com was used till 17 Feb, 2013 and on 18th Feb, the new web mail service of Microsoft’s Outlook.com denounced Hotmail. The old users are going to be upgraded to Outlook.com in 2013.
FEATURES:
There is a long record of services that Microsoft Hotmail offers to the users.
Free Email service is offered by Hotmail.
HOTMAIL VERSIONS: there are two Hotmail versions currently available. The Hotmail (free version) and the 2nd is Hotmail Plus (paid version). Both have their advantages. The free version has storage capacity of 5 GB; Email attachments up to 25 MB, ads are available. But the account expires if inactivity is shown for 270 days or more. While the other paid one has 10 GB storage capacity, 25 MB email attachments but with no ads facility. When its subscription expires, it is converted to the free Hotmail version. Rest features included in both types are POP3 (Post Office Protocol) support, Delta Sync support, Microsoft Exchange support and partial SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer protocol) support. IMAP (Internet message Access Protocol) support is not available.
INSTANT ACTIONS: all the actions and activities that are made on Hotmail are one click away only. Such actions are customized in an option. Examples are delete, sweep, move and flag.
QUICK VIEW CATEGORIES are available to allow the users to label messages. Some are by default and some can be made.
CONVERSATION threading is also available. It can be turned off or on.
MS OFFICE WEB APPS are also supported by Hotmail. Online viewing and edition of office documents like MS WORD, POWERPOINT and EXCEL.
DETECTING which email in the inbox is the email and which one is the newsletter is another feature which Hotmail does by SWEEPING them into a folder. To unsubscribe the newsletter, it allows the un-subscription which will be sent to the newsletter sending server.
PERSONALIZING the folders by customizing them is another feature. By this one can filter all his emails and whichever he wants to put into that customized folder will be done.
SKYDRIVE: it allows the uploading and syncing of files and accessing them to the web browser
CALENDER: Hotmail calendar has similar features to the windows calendar. it has to-do-list, day/week/month view, reminders, coordinate schedules
ADDRESS BOOK: detail information of the contacts can be saved in the address book.
MSN LIVE MESSENGER: extension to Hotmail is the live messenger, offering chat option.
Rich photo uploading tools makes the picture uploading easy and also labeling of multiple photos is done at a time.
COLOR themes of the Hotmail can be changed or personalized.
SEARCH: searching within the mail is easily done. Users can quickly search the keywords or any part of the mail by using the search button.
VERSIONS OF WINDOW LIVE HOTMAIL: there are2 versions: 1) Full version of window and 2) the classic version. Full version is recommended to the customers having a broadband connection while the other classic version is for those having a slow internet connection.
ANDROID APPLICATION: Hotmail is open to android devices. Now mail can be checked, send and viewed from your handsets. This is possible by the Android app that Microsoft developed.
SECURITY:
SPAM filter software is really good.
JUNK MAIL: to protect the email, spam content is moved to the junk folder and can easily be deleted. The spam mails are automatically put into the junk folder.
SCANNING: email attachments are scanned to detect any virus to protect the user from virus.
ACCESSIBILITY: users can access to their accounts on internet supported phones or PDA. Email alerts are also available.
INCOMING MESSAGE COLOR CODING: the safety bar color indicates which message is from known person and which the false message is. the bar at top of messages if is white, it means the message is from someone who is already in the contact list, a red bar indicates a fraudulent message and a yellow bar shows the sender of the mail is not in the list.
ADVANCEMENT IN HOTMAIL:
MSN HOTMAIL:
The initial name HoTMaiL was changed into MSN Hotmail by the Microsoft Company after its purchase. The Hotmail used to run on Solaris operating system and FreeBSD. Microsoft shifted it on the Windows 2000 but some servers show the running of Hotmail on FreeBSD and UNIX server. The development made in the MSN Hotmail were Microsoft Account (Microsoft passport at that time), instant messaging services which is MSN Messenger, and the social networking, names as MSN Space.
WINDOWS LIVE HOTMAIL:
In 2007, users from all over the world starting enjoying the Hotmail service on beta version. The name was changed to Windows Live Mail but due to confusion on the name and the popularity of the original Hotmail brand, the name was made Windows Live Hotmail. All new users after May7, 2007 which is the date of release of new Hotmail over the globe experience a change in the mail box while those users before the date were needed to upgrade their account o enjoy the Windows Live Hotmail service. The new version was made to give a fast, secure, easy mail provider service to the users. Support for Firefox and Google Chrome browser was also added. MSN messenger was changed to Windows Live Messenger.
END OF HOTMAIL:
All good things do come to an end. Hotmail is now disapproved by the Microsoft as its new successor OUTLOOK is taking its place now. On February 18, 2013, existing Hotmail users are upgraded to the new outlook version.
NEED OF OUTLOOK:
According to Microsoft, the email is now less in use because of the social network channels where people keep their contacts more. It means the new outlook would be a competitor for all the other web mail service providers as well as the social networks. Outlook by name doesn’t resemble the Microsoft Outlook r Outlook Express. However those who don’t like the new look of this mail, they can switch back to the old Hotmail version. Currently this feature is available but it seems to be irreversible in the future.