Hotmail

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For the desktop email program also branded under the Windows Live name, see Windows Live Mail.
 It has been suggested that this article be merged into Outlook.com. (Discuss) Proposed since April 2013.
Hotmail
Hotmail logo.png
Windows Live Hotmail.png
Screenshot of the inbox view of Hotmail
URL www.hotmail.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site Webmail
Registration Required
Available language(s) 36 languages[which?]
Users 360 million (July 2011)[1]
Content license Proprietary
Owner Microsoft
Created by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith
Launched July 4, 1996; 16 years ago (1996-07-04)
Alexa rank Increase 2,274 (February 2013)[2]
Current status Offline; replaced by Outlook.com

Hotmail (officially Microsoft Hotmail, previously Windows Live Hotmail and MSN Hotmail) was a free web-based email service operated by Microsoft as part of Windows Live, which was recently replaced by the newer Outlook.com service by Microsoft. Hotmail was one of the first web-based email services,[3] it was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith and launched in July 1996 as "HoTMaiL".[4] It was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million, and shortly after, it was rebranded as "MSN Hotmail". The last version was released in 2011.[5]

Hotmail featured unlimited storage, Ajax, and integration with Microsoft's instant messaging (Windows Live Messenger), calendar (Hotmail Calendar), file hosting service (SkyDrive), and contacts platform.[6] As of 2012, Hotmail was the world's second largest web-based email service after Gmail with 360 million users.[1][7] It was available in 36 different languages.[8][9]

Hotmail was developed from Mountain View, California. When Hotmail Corporation was an independent company, it was headquartered in Sunnyvale.[10][11]

On April 3, 2013, Outlook.com (a newer webmail service by Microsoft)[12] deprecated Hotmail.[13]

Contents

Features [edit]

Similar to other major webmail services, Hotmail used Ajax programming techniques and supported later versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome. Some of its features included keyboard controls giving the ability to navigate around the page without using the mouse, the ability to search the user's messages including structured query syntax such as "from:ebay", message filters, folder-based organization of messages, auto-completion of contact addresses when composing, contact grouping, importing and exporting of contacts as CSV files, rich text formatting, rich text signatures, spam filtering and virus scanning, support for multiple addresses, and different language versions.

In comparison to other webmail services, Hotmail offered the following unique features:

Active view [edit]

Hotmail's Active view allowed users to interact directly with contents and functionalities within their email message. For example, any photo attachments could be previewed directly using Active view. In addition, Hotmail provided a partner platform which allows contents and functionalities from various websites and services such as YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, and United States Postal Service to be viewed directly within the email message. For example, users could view the YouTube video within Hotmail when a user received an email which contained a link to the video. Other functionalities of Active view included tracking of real time shipping status from United States Postal Service and performing social networking actions on LinkedIn directly from within the email message.

Office Web Apps integration [edit]

Hotmail integrated with Office Web Apps to allow high fidelity viewing and editing of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents that are attached to the email messages. Users were able to directly open attached Office documents within the web browser, and save them into their Windows Live SkyDrive. Users could also perform edits to any received Office documents, and directly reply to the sender with the edited version of the document. In addition, users were able to send up to 7 GB of Office documents (up to 50 MB each) using Hotmail by uploading these documents onto Windows Live SkyDrive, and share these documents with other users for viewing or collaboration.

Conversation threading [edit]

Hotmail provided the ability to automatically group sent and received emails that are from the same conversation into the same conversation thread, allowing users to quickly browse through all the emails within the same conversation thread. This feature could be turned on or off depending on the user's preferences.

Sweep [edit]

Hotmail offered a "virtual broom" which allows users to delete or move large number of emails into specified folders based on the sender's information. Once a "sweep" was performed, the user could choose to configure Hotmail to remember the sweep settings and perform the same move or delete actions for any future emails. Users could also set up custom message rules based on the sender's or recipient's information, the subject of the email, or attachments to the email. There was also an option to delete/move messages that are older than a specified amount of days, or only keep the latest message from a sender.

Quick views and one-click filters [edit]

Quick views allowed users to filter all emails (in all folders) by document attachments, photo attachments, flagged messages, or shipping updates. One-click filters allowed users to filter the inbox (or specific folder) based on whether or not the email message is unread, from the Windows Live Contacts list, from group mailing lists or Windows Live Groups, or from a social networking website. Categories appeared under Quick views for ease of access.

Aliases [edit]

Users could create Hotmail aliases for their Windows Live ID. Once an alias was set up, users could choose to have all email sent to that address go to a specific folder, or to the inbox. Users could send emails from that alias as if it is a normal email address. Up to 5 aliases could be made every year, and up to 15 in total. Aliases were completely different to the user's original addresses, and could be removed/created at any time. Aliases were not actual Windows Live IDs, so users could not sign in with them.

Categories [edit]

Categories allowed users to label messages or senders into a particular group, and those categories would appear under "Quick views" in the sidebar. Some categories were created by default, and some mail was put in those categories by default (e.g. photos, office docs and newsletters). Users could select multiple categories for each piece of mail, have categories applied automatically, and create new ones.

Instant actions [edit]

Instant actions were buttons that appeared when a user hovered the mouse over a message. Examples of instant actions were delete, move, sweep, and flag, and they were customizable in options.

Registration [edit]

Upon registration, new users could choose from a Hotmail domain address (@hotmail.com, @live.com, @msn.com, and @outlook.com).

Single-use code [edit]

A single-use code was a code one can use instead of their password when they sign in with their Microsoft account. Each code could be used only one time, but one could request one whenever they needed it. If a user signed in on a public computer—like at the library or school—using a single-use code helped keep their account information secure. The single-use code was sent to the user when requested during login.

Hotmail Plus [edit]

Comparison of features in Hotmail versions
Feature Hotmail (free version)[14] Hotmail Plus (paid)[15]
Initial email storage capacity 5 GB (growing automatically) 10 GB (growing automatically)
Email attachment limitA 25 MB 25 MB
Account expiry After 270 days inactivity None, when subscription expires, it turns into a free Hotmail account
POP3 support Available
IMAP supportB Unavailable
SMTP support Partial
DeltaSync support Available
Microsoft Exchange support Available
Ads Yes No
Notes
A. ^ 7 GB with SkyDrive
B. ^ IMAP support is available via the free Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector and via IzyMail[16]

Mail client access [edit]

POP3 [edit]

POP3 access was available for all Hotmail accounts as part of the "Wave 3" release, adding support to access Hotmail from any email client—most notably mobile devices.[17]

WebDAV [edit]

WebDAV, which was primarily used by Outlook Express, was discontinued to all users September 1, 2009.[18][19]

DeltaSync [edit]

For access through Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, or 2010, users could download the free Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector. Using the Outlook connector, users could freely access email messages, contacts, and calendars in any Hotmail account, though access to tasks and notes requires a premium subscription. Another alternative for users was to use the Windows Live Mail desktop client, which had built-in support for Hotmail.[20] Both applications, Windows Live Mail and Microsoft Outlook, could access Hotmail through the proprietary DeltaSync protocol.

Exchange ActiveSync [edit]

As part of the Hotmail "Wave 4" release, Microsoft added Exchange ActiveSync support to Hotmail, allowing users to synchronise their email, contacts, and calendar on any device that supports the Exchange ActiveSync protocol.[21]

Android [edit]

Push email, contacts, and calendar were available for Android users by an Android app developed by Microsoft.

Spam policy and filtering [edit]

Like many free Webmail services, Hotmail was often used by spammers for illicit purposes such as junk or chain mailing and unwanted marketing, due to wide availability, service popularity, and ease of registration of new accounts.[22] However, Hotmail did not tolerate this practice. It subscribed to Microsoft's service agreement, which stated any account engaging in these activities would be terminated without warning.[23][24]

History [edit]

Launch of Hotmail [edit]

Hotmail service was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, and was one of the first webmail services on the Internet along with Four11's RocketMail (later Yahoo! Mail). It was commercially launched on July 4, 1996, American Independence Day, symbolizing "freedom" from ISP-based email[25] and the ability to access a user's inbox from anywhere in the world. The name "Hotmail" was chosen out of many possibilities ending in "-mail" as it included the letters HTML – the markup language used to create web pages (to emphasize this, the original type casing was "HoTMaiL"). The limit for free storage was 2 MB.[4] Hotmail was initially backed by venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. By December 1997, it reported more than 8.5 million subscribers.[26] Hotmail initially ran under Solaris for mail services and Apache on FreeBSD for web services before being partly converted to Microsoft products.[27][28]

MSN Hotmail [edit]

Image of an old Hotmail inbox layout embedded in Outlook
The old MSN Hotmail inbox

Hotmail was sold to Microsoft in December 1997 for a reported $400 million, and it joined the MSN group of services.[29] Hotmail quickly gained in popularity as it was localized for different markets around the globe and became the world's largest webmail service, and reported more than 30 million active members by February 1999.[30] Hotmail originally ran on a mixture of FreeBSD and Solaris operating systems.[31] A project was started to move Hotmail to Windows 2000. In June 2001, Microsoft claimed this had been completed; a few days later they retracted and admitted that the DNS functions of the Hotmail system were still reliant on FreeBSD. In 2002 Hotmail still ran its infrastructure on Unix-servers, merely the front-end was converted to Windows 2000[32]. Later development saw the service tied with Microsoft's web authentication scheme, Microsoft Passport (now Microsoft account), and integration with Microsoft's instant messaging and social networking programs, MSN Messenger and MSN Spaces (now Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Spaces, respectively).

Security issues [edit]

In 1999 hackers revealed a security flaw in Hotmail that permitted anybody to log into any Hotmail account using the password 'eh'. At the time it was called "the most widespread security incident in the history of the Web."[33]
In 2001, the Hotmail service was compromised again by computer hackers who discovered that anyone could log into their Hotmail account and then cull messages from any other Hotmail account by crafting a URL with the second account's username and a valid message number. It was such a simple attack that by the time the patch was made, dozens of newspapers and hundreds of web sites published exact descriptions allowing tens of thousands of hackers to run rampant across Hotmail. The exploitable vulnerability exposed millions of accounts to tampering between August 7, 2001 and August 31, 2001.[34][35]

Competition [edit]

In 2004, Google announced its own mail service, Gmail. Featuring greater storage space, speed, and interface flexibility, this new competitor spurred a wave of innovation in webmail. The main industry heavyweights – Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail – introduced upgraded versions of their email services with greater speed, security, and advanced features.

Windows Live Hotmail [edit]

Microsoft's new email system was announced on November 1, 2005, under the codename "Kahuna", and a beta version was released to a few thousand testers. Other webmail enthusiasts also wanting to try the beta version could request an invitation granting access. The new service was built from scratch and emphasized three main concepts of being "faster, simpler, and safer". New versions of the beta service were rolled out over the development period, and by the end of 2006 the number of beta testers had reached the millions.[36]

The Hotmail brand was planned to be phased-out when Microsoft announced that the new mail system would be called Windows Live Mail, but the developers soon backtracked after beta-testers were confused with the name change and preferred the already well-known Hotmail name, and decided on Windows Live Hotmail. After a period of beta testing, it was officially released to new and existing users in the Netherlands on November 9, 2006, as a pilot market. Development of the beta was finished in April 2007, Windows Live Hotmail was released to new registrations on May 7, 2007, as the 260 million MSN Hotmail accounts worldwide gained access to the new system. The old MSN Hotmail interface was accessible only by users who registered before the Windows Live Hotmail release date and had not chosen to update to the new service. The roll-out to all existing users was completed in October 2007.

Windows Live Hotmail was awarded PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award in February 2007,[37] March 2007,[38] and February 2011.[39]

It was announced in 2008 on the Windows Live Hotmail website[40] that the service would be updated with focus on improving the speed, increasing the storage space, better user experience, and usability features. It was announced that sign-in and email access speeds will be up to 70 percent faster. The classic and full versions of Windows Live Hotmail are combined in the new release. As a result of user feedback, Hotmail has been updated so that scrolling works for users who have the reading pane turned off. It is also expected that Hotmail team will be moving the advertisement from the top of page to the side, adding more themes, increasing the number of messages on each page, and adding the ability to send instant messages from the user's inbox in future releases.[41]

Support for Firefox in the upgraded Windows Live Hotmail took a few months to complete.[42] Full version support for Google Chrome was also added on November 4, 2008.

As part of the update, Microsoft also added integrated capability for instant messaging with contacts on the Windows Live Messenger service. The feature is the realization of a project that began as "Windows Live Web Messenger" in 2007, a replacement for the outdated "MSN Web Messenger" service that was first launched in August 2004. It was noted that the original "Windows Live Web Messenger" featured tabbed conversations in a "conversation workspace", however since its integration with Hotmail this has been removed.[43][44]

On May 18, 2010, Microsoft unveiled the "Wave 4" update of Hotmail, which offers features such as 1-click filters, active views, inbox sweeping, and 10 GB space for photos, Microsoft Office documents, and attachments.[45] It also includes integration with Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live Office, a free version of Microsoft's Office Web Apps suite. The new version began its gradual release to all Hotmail users on June 15, 2010[46] and was completely rolled out on August 3, 2010.[47] Exchange ActiveSync support was enabled to all Hotmail users on August 30, 2010, allowing users to sync their mail, contacts, calendar and tasks to their mobile devices that supports the protocol.[48] Addition of full-session SSL was released on November 9, 2010.

Throughout 2011, Microsoft added several new features to Hotmail, such as aliases[49] and speed improvements.[50] In October 2011, Microsoft unveiled a "re-invented Hotmail", and added many new features such as Instant Actions, scheduled Sweep, and Categories[51][52][53] and this update began fully rolling out on November 9, 2011.[54] This update also made SSL enabled by default on all accounts.

Transition to Outlook.com [edit]

Main article: Outlook.com

On 18 February 2013, Hotmail was deprecated in favor of Outlook.com, a new webmail service by Microsoft introduced on 31 July 2012.[12] Existing Hotmail accounts were changed to Outlook.com on April 3, 2013.[13]

See also [edit]

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References [edit]

  1. ^ a b "Hotmail Still New and Cool–Even After 15 Years". Microsoft TechNet. 5 Jul 2011. 
  2. ^ "Hotmail.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved February 1, 2013. 
  3. ^ "The "Hotmail" Evolution". Techpluto.com. June 22, 2009. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  4. ^ a b "A short history of Hotmail". Windowsteamblog.com. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  5. ^ "Microsoft announces massive Hotmail update to better combat Gmail". The Next Web. Retrieved 2012-06-19. 
  6. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Fact Sheet". Microsoft.com. Retrieved 2011-04-30. 
  7. ^ Frederic Lardinois (28 June 2012). "Hotmail relaunched as social-friendly Outlook". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 15 November 2012. 
  8. ^ F_404 (2011-07-15). "Hotmail introduces hacking alert system - People's Daily Online". English.peopledaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2012-06-19. 
  9. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Launches Worldwide in 36 Languages". Itnewsonline.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2008. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  10. ^ "4th Network Hotels Get Wired with Hotmail E-mail Service and High Speed Internet Access; Hotmail and 4th Network Ink Agreement to Keep Business Travelers Connected." Business Wire. October 21, 1996. Retrieved on January 22, 2010.
  11. ^ Hotmail staff. "Bing Comes To Hotmail". Microsoft. Retrieved 2007-03-23. 
  12. ^ a b Jones, Chris (31 July 2012). "Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes". Outlook Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 31 July 2012. 
  13. ^ a b Law, David (18 February 2013). "Outlook.com leaves preview as the world’s fastest growing email service going from 0 to 60 million in just 6 months". Outlook Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved 19 February 2013. 
  14. ^ "Hotmail: Get started – A clean, fast inbox". Explore.live.com. Retrieved 2012-01-31. 
  15. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Plus". Explore.live.com. Retrieved 2012-01-31. 
  16. ^ "IzyMail". V3.izymail.com. Retrieved 2012-01-31. 
  17. ^ "POP3 Technology Has Now Rolled Out To Hotmail Customers Worldwide". Liveside.net. March 13, 2009. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  18. ^ "Continuing DAV protocol retirement". hotmail.com. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  19. ^ "Microsoft to kill Hotmail via Outlook Express on September 1". Neowin.net. June 4, 2009. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  20. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail". Get.live.com. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  21. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Reviewer's Guide: What's new in Hotmail". Windowslivepreview.com. Retrieved 2010-07-24. [dead link]
  22. ^ "Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail's CAPTCHA broken by spammers". 
  23. ^ "Microsoft Service Agreement". Microsoft. May 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2009. 
  24. ^ Microsoft (2009). "Microsoft Anti-Spam Policy". Retrieved August 5, 2009. "Microsoft may immediately terminate any account on any Service which it determines, in its sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any email that violates this policy" 
  25. ^ "Sabeer Bhatiya : The founder of "Hotmail.com"". 4TO40.COM. Retrieved 2009-11-19. 
  26. ^ "Hotmail, Microsoft talk deals". CNET. Retrieved 2007-03-23. 
  27. ^ "Lege.com". Lege.com. April 22, 1998. Retrieved 2012-01-31. 
  28. ^ Mike Magee. "Microsoft uses Solaris servers for Hotmail shock". 
  29. ^ "Microsoft Buys Hotmail". CNET. Retrieved 2007-06-22. 
  30. ^ "MSN Hotmail: From Zero to 30 Million Members in 30 Months". Microsoft. Retrieved 2007-03-23. 
  31. ^ "Converting a UNIX.COM site to Windows". Microsoft Secrets. Security Office. Retrieved 2007-11-03. 
  32. ^ [1]
  33. ^ Glave, James (August 30, 1999). "Hotmail Hackers: 'We Did It'". Wired.com. Retrieved 2007-11-03. 
  34. ^ Greene, Thomas (August 20, 2001). "Hacking Hotmail made easy". The Register. Retrieved 2008-09-17. 
  35. ^ Knight, Will (August 21, 2001). "Hotmail hole leaves email open to view". New Scientist. Retrieved 2011-03-01. 
  36. ^ Hotmail staff. "M7 new code shipping soon – not yet here!". Microsoft. Retrieved 2007-03-21. 
  37. ^ Janowski, Davis D. (January 31, 2007). "Buying Guide: Web E-Mail Clients". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2007-03-21. 
  38. ^ Janowski, Davis D. "Windows Live Hotmail (beta) Review by PC Magazine". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2007-04-10. 
  39. ^ Muchmore, Michael. "Windows Live Hotmail 2011". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2011-09-29. 
  40. ^ "Coming Soon". Windows Live Hotmail. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
  41. ^ "Hotmail: Classic scrolling is back, and more updates". Windowslivewire.spaces.live.com. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
  42. ^ "Hotmail Reverted To Classic With Firefox 3 – Page 6". Forums.mozillazine.org. Retrieved 2010-10-26. 
  43. ^ "Web IM in Hotmail!". Windowslivewire.spaces.live.com. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
  44. ^ LiveSide.net (September 19, 2007). "Windows Live Web Messenger goes into dogfood". LiveSide.net. Retrieved 2010-07-24. 
  45. ^ Dick Craddock (May 17, 2010). "Re-inventing Windows Live Hotmail – the next generation of personal email". Inside Windows Live. Retrieved May 18, 2010. 
  46. ^ Mike Schackwitz (July 28, 2010). "Hotmail rollout picks up steam!". Inside Windows Live. Retrieved July 29, 2010. 
  47. ^ Mike Schackwitz (August 3, 2010). "The new Hotmail is now available to everyone". Inside Windows Live. Retrieved August 8, 2010. 
  48. ^ Dick Craddock (August 30, 2010). "Hotmail now supports push email, calendar, and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync". Inside Windows Live. Retrieved August 30, 2010. 
  49. ^ "Hotmail delivers aliases to help you manage and secure your email account". February 3, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-06. 
  50. ^ "Instant email: how we made Hotmail 10x faster". February 3, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-30. 
  51. ^ "Hotmail declares war on graymail". October 3, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-30. 
  52. ^ "Hotmail updated to include Gmail-like labelling and more Outlook features". October 3, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-30. 
  53. ^ "Giving Hotmail another look". October 3, 2011. Retrieved 2011-06-30. 
  54. ^ "New Hotmail begins rolling out, coming to all customers in "next few weeks"". November 9, 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-20. 

External links [edit]
Web services
Software applications
Mobile services
Developer services
Discontinued
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