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merge with Outlook.com per consensus on Talk:Outlook.com#Merge proposal (2nd) - I am doing this from here to preserve history, because Hotmail article is longer
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{{For|the desktop email program also branded under the Windows Live name|Windows Live Mail}}
{{For|the desktop email programs|Windows Live Mail|Microsoft Outlook}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}
{{refimprove|date=March 2013}}
{{pp-move-indef}}
{{pp-move-indef}}
{{Infobox website
{{Infobox website
|logo = [[File:Hotmail logo.png|150px]]
| name = Outlook.com
| logo = [[File:Outlook.com logo and wordmark.svg|250px]]
|logocaption =
|screenshot = [[File:Windows Live Hotmail.png|300px]]
| screenshot = [[File:Outlook.com inbox and message view.png|300px]]
| caption = Screenshot of Outlook.com inbox view with social media window
|collapsible =
| url = {{URL|www.outlook.com}}
|collapsetext =
| slogan =
|caption = Screenshot of the inbox view of Hotmail
| commercial = Yes
|url = {{URL|www.hotmail.com}}
|slogan =
| type = [[Webmail]]
|commercial = Yes
| registration = Required
| language = 106 languages <!-- Can be seen on Outlook Options> Language (https://blu002.mail.live.com/default.aspx?rru=inbox#!/mail/options.aspx?subsection=12&n=1527301750) -->
|type = [[Webmail]]
| num_users =420 million (merged from hotmail.com) <small>(18 February 2013)</small><ref name="Outlook Launch" />
|registration = Required
| content_license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|language = 36 languages{{which|date=January 2012}}
| owner = [[Microsoft]]
|num_users = 360 million (July 2011)<ref name="TechNet">{{cite news| url=http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/07/05/hotmail-still-new-and-cool-even-after-15-years.aspx| work=[[Microsoft TechNet]] | title=Hotmail Still New and Cool–Even After 15 Years | date=5 Jul 2011}}</ref>
| author = Microsoft
|content_license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]]
|owner = [[Microsoft]]
| editor =
| launch_date = {{Start date|1996|7|4}} (as Hotmail); {{Start date|2012|07|31}} (rebranded to Outlook)
|author = [[Sabeer Bhatia]] and [[Jack Smith (Hotmail)|Jack Smith]]
| alexa = {{Increase}} 371 ({{as of|2013|6|02|alt=June 2013}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/outlook.com |title= Outlook.com Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate= 2013-06-02 }}</ref><!--Updated monthly by OKBot.-->
|launch_date = {{Start date and age|1996|7|4}}
| revenue =
|alexa = {{Increase}} 2,274 ({{as of|2013|02|01|alt= February 2013}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hotmail.com |title= Hotmail.com Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate=February 1, 2013}}</ref>
| current_status = Online
|revenue =
| footnotes =
|current_status = Offline; replaced by Outlook.com
|footnotes =
}}
}}


'''Hotmail''' (officially '''Microsoft Hotmail''', previously '''Windows Live Hotmail''' and '''MSN Hotmail''') was a free [[webmail|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,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.techpluto.com/hotmail-evolution/ |title=The "Hotmail" Evolution |publisher=Techpluto.com |date=June 22, 2009 |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref> it was founded by [[Sabeer Bhatia]] and [[Jack Smith (Hotmail)|Jack Smith]] and launched in July 1996 as "'''HoTMaiL'''".<ref name=ShortHistory /> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/10/03/microsoft-announces-massive-hotmail-update-to-better-combat-gmail |title=Microsoft announces massive Hotmail update to better combat Gmail |publisher=The Next Web |date= |accessdate=2012-06-19}}</ref>


'''Outlook.com'''(previously '''MSN Hotmail''', '''Windows Live Hotmail''' and '''Hotmail''') is a free [[webmail|web-based email]] service operated by [[Microsoft]]. Hotmail was one of the first web-based email services,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.techpluto.com/hotmail-evolution/ |title=The "Hotmail" Evolution |publisher=Techpluto.com |date=June 22, 2009 |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref> it was founded by [[Sabeer Bhatia]] and [[Jack Smith (Hotmail)|Jack Smith]] and launched in July 1996 as "'''HoTMaiL'''".<ref name=ShortHistory /> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/10/03/microsoft-announces-massive-hotmail-update-to-better-combat-gmail |title=Microsoft announces massive Hotmail update to better combat Gmail |publisher=The Next Web |date= |accessdate=2012-06-19}}</ref>. In February 2013, it was renamed to Outlook.com as part of the rebranding of the [[Windows Live]] suite of products.<ref name="Outlook Launch">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2013/02/18/outlook-com-leaves-preview-as-fastest-growing-email-service.aspx |title=Outlook.com leaves preview as the world’s fastest growing email service going from 0 to 60 million in just 6 months |first= David |last= Law |authorlink= David Law |date=18 February 2013 |work= Outlook Blog |publisher= [[Microsoft]]|accessdate=19 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-live/outlookcom-mail-microsoft-reimagines-webmail-143877 |title=Outlook.com Mail: Microsoft Reimagines Webmail |first= Paul |last= Thurrott |authorlink= Paul Thurrott |date=31 July 2012 |work= Supersite for Windows |publisher= [[Penton Media]] |accessdate=1 August 2012}}</ref>
Hotmail featured unlimited storage, [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]], and integration with Microsoft's [[instant messaging]] ([[Windows Live Messenger]]), calendar ([[Windows Live Hotmail Calendar|Hotmail Calendar]]), [[file hosting service]] ([[SkyDrive]]), and [[Windows Live Contacts|contacts]] platform.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/msn/factsheet/hotmail.mspx |title=Windows Live Hotmail Fact Sheet |publisher=Microsoft.com |accessdate=2011-04-30}}</ref> As of 2012, Hotmail was the world's second largest web-based email service after [[Gmail]] with 360 million users.<ref name="TechNet"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Hotmail relaunched as social-friendly Outlook |author=Frederic Lardinois |url=http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/28/gmail-now-has-425-million-users-google-apps-used-by-5-million-businesses-and-66-of-the-top-100-universities/|work=Tech Crunch |date=28 June 2012 |accessdate=15 November 2012}}</ref> It was available in 36 different languages.<ref>{{cite web|author=F_404 |url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90781/90877/7442083.html |title=Hotmail introduces hacking alert system - People's Daily Online |publisher=English.peopledaily.com.cn |date=2011-07-15 |accessdate=2012-06-19}}</ref><ref name="itnewsonline.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=9583&scatid=6&contid=3 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080503160228/http://www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=9583&scatid=6&contid=3|archivedate=March 5, 2008 |title=Windows Live Hotmail Launches Worldwide in 36 Languages |publisher=Itnewsonline.com |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref>


Outlook.com features Microsoft's [[Metro design language]], and closely mimics the interface of [[Microsoft Outlook]]. During the preview, new @outlook.com email addresses were made available to all users, and existing Hotmail users were able to opt into the Outlook.com interface. On February 18, 2013, Microsoft announced that Outlook.com was leaving preview, having signed up 60 million users in 6 months. All existing Hotmail users have been upgraded to Outlook.com as of April 3, 2013.<ref name="Outlook Launch"/>
Hotmail was developed from [[Mountain View, California]]. When Hotmail Corporation was an independent company, it was headquartered in [[Sunnyvale, California|Sunnyvale]].<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1996_Oct_21/ai_18789494/?tag=content;col1 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.</ref><ref name=MichaelArrington>{{cite web| author=Hotmail staff| url=http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/09/bing-comes-to-hotmail/| publisher=[[Microsoft]]| title=Bing Comes To Hotmail| accessdate=2007-03-23}}</ref>



On April 3, 2013, [[Outlook.com]] (a newer webmail service by Microsoft)<ref name="outlook" /> [[Deprecation|deprecated]] Hotmail.<ref name="Outlook Launch" />
Outlook.com features unlimited storage, [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]], and integration with Microsoft's [[instant messaging]] ([[Windows Live Messenger]]), calendar ([[Windows Live Hotmail Calendar|Hotmail Calendar]]), [[file hosting service]] ([[SkyDrive]]), and [[Windows Live Contacts|contacts]] platform.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/msn/factsheet/hotmail.mspx |title=Windows Live Hotmail Fact Sheet |publisher=Microsoft.com |accessdate=2011-04-30}}</ref> Its interface is based on Microsoft's [[Metro design language]], and closely mimics the interface of [[Microsoft Outlook]].

As of 2012, Outlook.com (then named Hotmail) was the world's second largest web-based email service after [[Gmail]] with 360 million users.<ref name="TechNet">{{cite news| url=http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2011/07/05/hotmail-still-new-and-cool-even-after-15-years.aspx| work=[[Microsoft TechNet]] | title=Hotmail Still New and Cool–Even After 15 Years | date=5 Jul 2011}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web|title=Hotmail relaunched as social-friendly Outlook |author=Frederic Lardinois |url=http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/28/gmail-now-has-425-million-users-google-apps-used-by-5-million-businesses-and-66-of-the-top-100-universities/|work=Tech Crunch |date=28 June 2012 |accessdate=15 November 2012}}</ref> It was available in 36 different languages.<ref>{{cite web|author=F_404 |url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90781/90877/7442083.html |title=Hotmail introduces hacking alert system - People's Daily Online |publisher=English.peopledaily.com.cn |date=2011-07-15 |accessdate=2012-06-19}}</ref><ref name="itnewsonline.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=9583&scatid=6&contid=3 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080503160228/http://www.itnewsonline.com/showstory.php?storyid=9583&scatid=6&contid=3|archivedate=March 5, 2008 |title=Windows Live Hotmail Launches Worldwide in 36 Languages |publisher=Itnewsonline.com |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref>

Hotmail was originally developed from [[Mountain View, California]]. When Hotmail Corporation was an independent company, it was headquartered in [[Sunnyvale, California|Sunnyvale]].<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1996_Oct_21/ai_18789494/?tag=content;col1 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.</ref><ref name=MichaelArrington>{{cite web| author=Hotmail staff| url=http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/09/bing-comes-to-hotmail/| publisher=[[Microsoft]]| title=Bing Comes To Hotmail| accessdate=2007-03-23}}</ref>


== Features ==
== Features ==
Similar to other major webmail services, Hotmail used [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] programming techniques and supported later versions of [[Internet Explorer]], [[Firefox]], [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]], and [[Google Chrome]]. Some of its features included [[Computer keyboard|keyboard]] controls giving the ability to navigate around the page without using the [[Mouse (computing)|mouse]], the ability to [[Web search engine|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 [[Comma-separated values|CSV]] files, [[rich text format]]ting, rich text signatures, [[Email spam|spam]] filtering and [[computer virus|virus]] scanning, support for multiple addresses, and different language versions.
Similar to other major webmail services, Outlook uses [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] programming techniques and supported later versions of [[Internet Explorer]], [[Firefox]], [[Safari (web browser)|Safari]], and [[Google Chrome]]. Some of its features included [[Computer keyboard|keyboard]] controls giving the ability to navigate around the page without using the [[Mouse (computing)|mouse]], the ability to [[Web search engine|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 [[Comma-separated values|CSV]] files, [[rich text format]]ting, rich text signatures, [[Email spam|spam]] filtering and [[computer virus|virus]] scanning, support for multiple addresses, and different language versions.

In comparison to other webmail services, Outlook offers the following unique features:


===Privacy===
In comparison to other webmail services, Hotmail offered the following unique features:
Outlook.com has promised to respect user's privacy, specifically targeting [[Gmail]]'s privacy practices.<ref>{{cite web|last=|first=|title=
Scroogled|url=http://www.scroogled.com/|accessdate=6 April 2013|date=}}</ref> Outlook.com doesn't scan emails or attachments for advertising information and personal conversations are ad-free entirely.<ref>{{cite web|last=|first=|title=Outlook-Private|url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/outlook-private#1TC=t1|accessdate=6 April 2013|date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Hiner|first=Jason|title=Dump Gmail for Outlook.com? Four reasons you might|url=http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/dump-gmail-for-outlookcom-four-reasons-you-might/10711|accessdate=6 April 2013|date=2 August 2012}}</ref>


===Active view===
===Active View===
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.
Outlook.com's Active View allows users to interact directly with contents and functionality within their email message. For example, any photo attachments can be previewed directly using Active View. In addition, Outlook.com provides a partner platform which allows contents and functionality 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 may view the YouTube video within Outlook.com when a user receives an email which contains a link to the video. Other Active View features include tracking of real time shipping status from [[United States Postal Service]] and performing social networking actions on [[LinkedIn]] or other social networking sites directly from within the email message.


===Office Web Apps integration===
===Office Web Apps integration===
Hotmail integrated with [[Office Web Apps]] to allow high fidelity viewing and editing of [[Microsoft Office]] [[Microsoft Word|Word]], [[Microsoft Excel|Excel]], and [[Microsoft PowerPoint|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.
Outlook.com integrates with [[Office Web Apps]] to allow high fidelity viewing and editing of [[Microsoft Word]], [[Microsoft Excel|Excel]] and [[Microsoft PowerPoint|PowerPoint]] documents that are attached to the email messages. Users can directly open attached Office documents within the [[web browser]], and save them into their [[SkyDrive]]. Users can also perform edits to any received Office documents, and directly reply to the sender with the edited version of the document. In addition, users may also send up to 25 GB of Office documents (up to 50 MB each) using Outlook.com by uploading these documents onto [[SkyDrive]], and share these documents with other users for viewing or collaboration.


===Conversation threading===
===Conversation threading===
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.
Outlook.com provides 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 can be turned on or off depending on the user's preferences.


===Sweep===
===Sweep===
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 [[Email attachment|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.
Outlook.com offers a "virtual broom" which allow users to delete or move large amounts of emails into specified folders based on the sender's information. Once a "sweep" is performed, the user may choose to configure Outlook.com to remember the sweep settings and perform the same move or delete actions for any future emails. Users may also set up custom message rules based on the sender's or recipient's information, the subject of the email, or [[Email attachment|attachments to the email]]. There is 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===
===Quick views and one-click filters===
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.
Quick views allow users to filter all emails (in all folders) by document attachments, photo attachments, flagged messages, or shipping updates. One-click filters allow users to filter the inbox (or specific folder) based on whether or not the email message is unread, from the [[People (Microsoft service)|People service]] list, from group mailing lists or [[Windows Live Groups]], or from a social networking website. Categories appear under quick views for ease of access.


===Aliases===
===Aliases===
Users can create additional, unique email addresses, called ''aliases'', for their [[Microsoft account]]. As of April 17, 2013, users can now sign in with any alias and create up to 10 aliases per year for a total of up to 10 addresses. For a given account, all aliases uses the same inbox, contact list, and account settings—including password—as the primary address. Once an alias is set up, users can choose to have all email sent to that address go to the inbox, or to a different folder.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/outlook/add-alias-account |title=Add an Outlook.com alias to your account |work=Windows |publisher=Microsoft |accessdate=11 May 2013}}</ref> Emails sent from an alias do not reveal to recipients that they come from an account with other addresses.
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===
===Categories===
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.
Categories allow users to label messages or senders into a particular group, and those categories will appear under "Quick views" in the sidebar. Some categories are created by default, and some mail is put in those categories by default (e.g. photos, office docs and newsletters). Users can select multiple categories for each piece of mail, have categories applied automatically, and create new ones.


=== Instant actions ===
===Instant actions===
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.
Instant actions are buttons that appear when a user hovers the mouse over a message. Examples of instant actions are delete, move, sweep, and flag, and they are customizable in options.


===Registration===
===Registration===
Upon registration, new users could choose from a Hotmail [[Domain name|domain]] address (@hotmail.com, @live.com, @msn.com<!-- Users could create @msn.com address from https://accountservices.passport.net/reg.srf?ns=msn.com&sl=1&lc=1033 -->, and @outlook.com).
Upon registration, new users can choose from a Outlook.com [[Domain name|domain]] address (@hotmail.com, @live.com, @msn.com<!-- Users can create @msn.com address from https://accountservices.passport.net/reg.srf?ns=msn.com&sl=1&lc=1033 -->, and @outlook.com).

===Single-use code===
A single-use code is a code that can be used instead of a user's password when signing in to a Microsoft account. Each code can be used only one time, but one can be requested whenever needed. If a user is signing in on a public computer—such as at the library or school—using a single-use code helps keep account information secure. The single-use code is sent to the user when requested during login.
=== Security ===
Outlook.com uses [[DMARC]] specifications to provide better security for message transmission and [[Extended Validation Certificate]] to secure the user's connection with Outlook.com.<ref>{{cite web|last=Vitaldevara|first=Krish|title=Outlook.com increases security with support for DMARC and EV certificates|url=http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/12/10/outlook-com-increases-security-with-support-for-dmarc-and-ev-certificates.aspx|work=Outlook Blog|publisher=Microsoft|accessdate=12 December 2012|date=10 December 2012}}</ref>

On April 17, 2013, Microsoft added two step verification.

===Skype integration===
A preview version of [[Skype]] for Outlook.com started rolling out in the UK on April 30. This feature allows users to make a Skype video call within Outlook.com without using the Skype desktop client.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://blogs.skype.com/2013/04/29/type-less-talk-more-make-skype-calls-directly-from-your-outlook-com-inbox/#fbid=44PZKle7Th6|date=30 April 2013|accessdate= 5 May 2013|location= United States}}</ref>

===Localization===
The user interface of Outlook has been [[Language localisation|localized]] into 98 languages and locales to date, including:
{{div col||15em}}
# [[Afrikaans]]
# [[Albanian language|Albanian]]
# [[Amharic language|Amharic]]
# [[Arabic language|Arabic]]
# [[Armenian language|Armenian]]
# [[Assamese language|Assamese]]
# [[Azerbaijani language|Azeri]]
# [[Basque language|Basque]]
# [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]]
# [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
# [[Bokmål]]
# [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]]
# [[Brazilian Portuguese]]
# [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]
# [[Catalan language|Catalan]]
# [[Chinese language|Chinese]]
# [[Croatian language|Croatian]]
# [[Czech language|Czech]]
# [[Danish language|Danish]]
# [[Dari Persian|Dari]]
# [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
# [[Estonian language|Estonian]]
# [[European Portuguese]]
# [[English language|English]]
# [[Filipino language|Filipino]]
# [[Finnish language|Finnish]]
# [[French language|French]]
# [[Galician language|Galician]]
# [[Georgian language|Georgian]]
# [[German language|German]]
# [[Greek language|Greek]]
# [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]
# [[Hausa language|Hausa]]
# [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
# [[Hindi language|Hindi]]
# [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]
# [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]
# [[Igbo language|Igbo]]
# [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]
# [[Inuktitut]]
# [[Irish language|Irish]]
# [[Italian language|Italian]]
# [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
# [[Kannada language|Kannada]]
# [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]
# [[Khmer language|Khmer]]
# [[Kinyarwanda]]
# [[Korean language|Korean]]
# [[Kurdish language|Kurdish (Arabic Script)]]
# [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]]
# [[Latvian language|Latvian]]
# [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]]
# [[Luxembourgish language|Luxembourgish]]
# [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]]
# [[Malay language|Malay]]
# [[Malayalam]]
# [[Maltese language|Maltese]]
# [[Māori language|Māori]]
# [[Marathi language|Marathi]]
# [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]]
# [[Nepali language|Nepali]]
# [[Northern Sotho language|Northern Sotho]]
# [[Nynorsk]]
# [[Oriya language|Oriya]]
# [[Persian language|Persian]]
# [[Polish language|Polish]]
# [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]]
# [[Quechua languages|Quechua]]
# [[Romanian language|Romanian]]
# [[Russian language|Russian]]
# [[Scottish Gaelic]]
# [[Tswana language|Setswana]]
# [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]]
# [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]
# [[Slovenian language|Slovenian]]
# [[Slovak language|Slovak]]
# [[Swahili language|Swahili]]
# [[Serbian language|Serbian]]
# [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
# [[Swedish language|Swedish]]
# [[Tajik language|Tajik]]
# [[Tamil language|Tamil]]
# [[Tatar language|Tatar]]
# [[Telugu language|Telugu]]
# [[Thai language|Thai]]
# [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]
# [[Turkish language|Turkish]]
# [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]]
# [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]
# [[Urdu language|Urdu]]
# [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]
# [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]
# [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]]
# [[Welsh language|Welsh]]
# [[Wolof language|Wolof]]
# [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]]
# [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]
# [[Zulu language|Zulu]]
{{div col end}}


=== Single-use code ===
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===
===Hotmail Plus===
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==Mail client access==
==Mail client access==
===POP3===
===POP3===
[[POP3]] access was available for all Hotmail accounts as part of the "Wave 3" release, adding support to access Hotmail from any email client{{mdash}}most notably mobile devices.<ref name="POP3">{{cite web|url=http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2009/03/13/pop3-technology-has-now-rolled-out-to-hotmail-customers-worldwide.aspx |title=POP3 Technology Has Now Rolled Out To Hotmail Customers Worldwide |publisher=Liveside.net |date=March 13, 2009 |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref>
[[POP3]] access has been made available for all Hotmail accounts as part of the "Wave 3" release, adding support to access Hotmail from any email client{{mdash}}most notably mobile devices.<ref name="POP3">{{cite web|url=http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2009/03/13/pop3-technology-has-now-rolled-out-to-hotmail-customers-worldwide.aspx |title=POP3 Technology Has Now Rolled Out To Hotmail Customers Worldwide |publisher=Liveside.net |date=March 13, 2009 |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref>


===WebDAV===
===WebDAV===
Line 109: Line 229:


===DeltaSync===
===DeltaSync===
For access through [[Microsoft Outlook]] 2003, 2007, or [[Microsoft Office 2010|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview |title=Windows Live Hotmail |publisher=Get.live.com |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref> Both applications, [[Windows Live Mail]] and [[Microsoft Outlook]], could access Hotmail through the proprietary [[DeltaSync]] protocol.
For access through [[Microsoft Outlook]] 2003, 2007, or [[Microsoft Office 2010|2010]], users can download the free [[Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector]]. Using the Outlook connector, users can freely access email messages, contacts, and calendars in any Outlook.com account, though access to tasks and notes requires a premium subscription. Another alternative for users is to use the [[Windows Live Mail]] desktop client, which had built-in support for Hotmail.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview |title=Windows Live Hotmail |publisher=Get.live.com |accessdate=2010-10-26}}</ref> Both applications, [[Windows Live Mail]] and [[Microsoft Outlook]], access Outlook.com through the proprietary [[DeltaSync]] protocol.


===Exchange ActiveSync===
===Exchange ActiveSync===
Line 115: Line 235:


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


==Spam policy and filtering==
==Spam policy and filtering==
Line 158: Line 278:


===Transition to Outlook.com===
===Transition to Outlook.com===
Outlook.com was first introduced on 31 July 2012 when its [[beta software|beta version]] was made available to the general public. Existing Hotmail customers could freely upgrade to the preview version of Outlook and downgrade back.<ref name="IntroductionBlog">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/07/31/introducing-outlook-com-modern-email-for-the-next-billion-mailboxes.aspx |title=Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes |author=Jones, Chris |date=31 July 2012 |work=Outlook Blog |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |accessdate=31 July 2012}}</ref>
{{main|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.<ref name="outlook">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/07/31/introducing-outlook-com-modern-email-for-the-next-billion-mailboxes.aspx |title=Introducing Outlook.com - Modern Email for the Next Billion Mailboxes |first=Chris |last=Jones |date=31 July 2012 |work=Outlook Blog |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |accessdate=31 July 2012}}</ref> Existing Hotmail accounts were changed to Outlook.com on April 3, 2013.<ref name="Outlook Launch">{{cite web |url=http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2013/02/18/outlook-com-leaves-preview-as-fastest-growing-email-service.aspx |title=Outlook.com leaves preview as the world’s fastest growing email service going from 0 to 60 million in just 6 months |first= David |last= Law |authorlink= David Law |date=18 February 2013 |work= Outlook Blog |publisher= [[Microsoft]]|accessdate=19 February 2013}}</ref>
Outlook.com graduated preview stage on 18 February 2013. According to Microsoft, existing Hotmail users have been upgraded to Outlook.com on April 3, 2013 while retaining their @hotmail.com email address, password, messages, folders, contacts, rules, vacation replies, etc. and will have the option of having @outlook.com email address.<ref name="Outlook Launch"/>

==Criticism==
Outlook.com has been criticized{{by whom|date=April 2013}} for its lack of [[Internet Message Access Protocol|IMAP]] support. Microsoft has promised future IMAP capability and better Apple Mac support.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dua|first=Kunal|title=Microsoft says Outlook.com IMAP support "coming", promises better Mac support|url=http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/news/microsoft-says-outlookcom-imap-support-coming-promises-better-mac-support-253444|accessdate=22 February 2013}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area|Companies|Internet}}
{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area|Companies|Internet}}
* [[Comparison of webmail providers]]
* [[Comparison of webmail providers]]
* [[Outlook.com]]
* [[Windows Live]]
* [[Windows Live]]
{{Clear}}
{{Clear}}

Revision as of 16:24, 21 June 2013

For the desktop email programs, see Windows Live Mail and Microsoft Outlook.

Outlook.com
File:Outlook.com inbox and message view.png
Screenshot of Outlook.com inbox view with social media window
Type of site
Webmail
Available in106 languages
OwnerMicrosoft
Created byMicrosoft
URLwww.outlook.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired
Users420 million (merged from hotmail.com) (18 February 2013)[1]
LaunchedJuly 4, 1996 (1996-07-04) (as Hotmail); July 31, 2012 (2012-07-31) (rebranded to Outlook)
Current statusOnline
Content license
Proprietary


Outlook.com(previously MSN Hotmail, Windows Live Hotmail and Hotmail) is a free web-based email service operated 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]. In February 2013, it was renamed to Outlook.com as part of the rebranding of the Windows Live suite of products.[1][6]

Outlook.com features Microsoft's Metro design language, and closely mimics the interface of Microsoft Outlook. During the preview, new @outlook.com email addresses were made available to all users, and existing Hotmail users were able to opt into the Outlook.com interface. On February 18, 2013, Microsoft announced that Outlook.com was leaving preview, having signed up 60 million users in 6 months. All existing Hotmail users have been upgraded to Outlook.com as of April 3, 2013.[1]


Outlook.com features unlimited storage, Ajax, and integration with Microsoft's instant messaging (Windows Live Messenger), calendar (Hotmail Calendar), file hosting service (SkyDrive), and contacts platform.[7] Its interface is based on Microsoft's Metro design language, and closely mimics the interface of Microsoft Outlook.

As of 2012, Outlook.com (then named Hotmail) was the world's second largest web-based email service after Gmail with 360 million users.[8] [9] It was available in 36 different languages.[10][11]

Hotmail was originally developed from Mountain View, California. When Hotmail Corporation was an independent company, it was headquartered in Sunnyvale.[12][13]

Features

Similar to other major webmail services, Outlook uses 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, Outlook offers the following unique features:

Privacy

Outlook.com has promised to respect user's privacy, specifically targeting Gmail's privacy practices.[14] Outlook.com doesn't scan emails or attachments for advertising information and personal conversations are ad-free entirely.[15][16]

Active View

Outlook.com's Active View allows users to interact directly with contents and functionality within their email message. For example, any photo attachments can be previewed directly using Active View. In addition, Outlook.com provides a partner platform which allows contents and functionality 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 may view the YouTube video within Outlook.com when a user receives an email which contains a link to the video. Other Active View features include tracking of real time shipping status from United States Postal Service and performing social networking actions on LinkedIn or other social networking sites directly from within the email message.

Office Web Apps integration

Outlook.com integrates with Office Web Apps to allow high fidelity viewing and editing of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents that are attached to the email messages. Users can directly open attached Office documents within the web browser, and save them into their SkyDrive. Users can also perform edits to any received Office documents, and directly reply to the sender with the edited version of the document. In addition, users may also send up to 25 GB of Office documents (up to 50 MB each) using Outlook.com by uploading these documents onto SkyDrive, and share these documents with other users for viewing or collaboration.

Conversation threading

Outlook.com provides 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 can be turned on or off depending on the user's preferences.

Sweep

Outlook.com offers a "virtual broom" which allow users to delete or move large amounts of emails into specified folders based on the sender's information. Once a "sweep" is performed, the user may choose to configure Outlook.com to remember the sweep settings and perform the same move or delete actions for any future emails. Users may 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 is 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

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

Aliases

Users can create additional, unique email addresses, called aliases, for their Microsoft account. As of April 17, 2013, users can now sign in with any alias and create up to 10 aliases per year for a total of up to 10 addresses. For a given account, all aliases uses the same inbox, contact list, and account settings—including password—as the primary address. Once an alias is set up, users can choose to have all email sent to that address go to the inbox, or to a different folder.[17] Emails sent from an alias do not reveal to recipients that they come from an account with other addresses.

Categories

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

Instant actions

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

Registration

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

Single-use code

A single-use code is a code that can be used instead of a user's password when signing in to a Microsoft account. Each code can be used only one time, but one can be requested whenever needed. If a user is signing in on a public computer—such as at the library or school—using a single-use code helps keep account information secure. The single-use code is sent to the user when requested during login.

Security

Outlook.com uses DMARC specifications to provide better security for message transmission and Extended Validation Certificate to secure the user's connection with Outlook.com.[18]

On April 17, 2013, Microsoft added two step verification.

Skype integration

A preview version of Skype for Outlook.com started rolling out in the UK on April 30. This feature allows users to make a Skype video call within Outlook.com without using the Skype desktop client.[19]

Localization

The user interface of Outlook has been localized into 98 languages and locales to date, including:

  1. Afrikaans
  2. Albanian
  3. Amharic
  4. Arabic
  5. Armenian
  6. Assamese
  7. Azeri
  8. Basque
  9. Belarusian
  10. Bengali
  11. Bokmål
  12. Bosnian
  13. Brazilian Portuguese
  14. Bulgarian
  15. Catalan
  16. Chinese
  17. Croatian
  18. Czech
  19. Danish
  20. Dari
  21. Dutch
  22. Estonian
  23. European Portuguese
  24. English
  25. Filipino
  26. Finnish
  27. French
  28. Galician
  29. Georgian
  30. German
  31. Greek
  32. Gujarati
  33. Hausa
  34. Hebrew
  35. Hindi
  36. Hungarian
  37. Icelandic
  38. Igbo
  39. Indonesian
  40. Inuktitut
  41. Irish
  42. Italian
  43. Japanese
  44. Kannada
  45. Kazakh
  46. Khmer
  47. Kinyarwanda
  48. Korean
  49. Kurdish (Arabic Script)
  50. Kyrgyz
  51. Latvian
  52. Lithuanian
  53. Luxembourgish
  54. Macedonian
  55. Malay
  56. Malayalam
  57. Maltese
  58. Māori
  59. Marathi
  60. Mongolian
  61. Nepali
  62. Northern Sotho
  63. Nynorsk
  64. Oriya
  65. Persian
  66. Polish
  67. Punjabi
  68. Quechua
  69. Romanian
  70. Russian
  71. Scottish Gaelic
  72. Setswana
  73. Sindhi
  74. Sinhala
  75. Slovenian
  76. Slovak
  77. Swahili
  78. Serbian
  79. Spanish
  80. Swedish
  81. Tajik
  82. Tamil
  83. Tatar
  84. Telugu
  85. Thai
  86. Tigrinya
  87. Turkish
  88. Turkmen
  89. Ukrainian
  90. Urdu
  91. Uyghur
  92. Uzbek
  93. Vietnamese
  94. Welsh
  95. Wolof
  96. Xhosa
  97. Yoruba
  98. Zulu


Hotmail Plus

Comparison of features in Hotmail versions
Feature Hotmail (free version)[20] Hotmail Plus (paid)[21]
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[22]

Mail client access

POP3

POP3 access has been made 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.[23]

WebDAV

WebDAV, which was primarily used by Outlook Express, was discontinued to all users September 1, 2009.[24][25]

DeltaSync

For access through Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, or 2010, users can download the free Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector. Using the Outlook connector, users can freely access email messages, contacts, and calendars in any Outlook.com account, though access to tasks and notes requires a premium subscription. Another alternative for users is to use the Windows Live Mail desktop client, which had built-in support for Hotmail.[26] Both applications, Windows Live Mail and Microsoft Outlook, access Outlook.com through the proprietary DeltaSync protocol.

Exchange ActiveSync

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.[27]

Android

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

Spam policy and filtering

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.[28] 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.[29][30]

History

Launch of Hotmail

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[31] 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.[32] Hotmail initially ran under Solaris for mail services and Apache on FreeBSD for web services before being partly converted to Microsoft products.[33][34]

MSN Hotmail

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.[35] 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.[36] Hotmail originally ran on a mixture of FreeBSD and Solaris operating systems.[37] 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.[38] 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

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."[39]
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.[40][41]

Competition

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

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.[42]

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,[43] March 2007,[44] and February 2011.[45]

It was announced in 2008 on the Windows Live Hotmail website[46] 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.[47]

Support for Firefox in the upgraded Windows Live Hotmail took a few months to complete.[48] 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.[49][50]

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.[51] 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[52] and was completely rolled out on August 3, 2010.[53] 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.[54] Addition of full-session SSL was released on November 9, 2010.

Throughout 2011, Microsoft added several new features to Hotmail, such as aliases[55] and speed improvements.[56] In October 2011, Microsoft unveiled a "re-invented Hotmail", and added many new features such as Instant Actions, scheduled Sweep, and Categories[57][58][59] and this update began fully rolling out on November 9, 2011.[60] This update also made SSL enabled by default on all accounts.

Transition to Outlook.com

Outlook.com was first introduced on 31 July 2012 when its beta version was made available to the general public. Existing Hotmail customers could freely upgrade to the preview version of Outlook and downgrade back.[61]

Outlook.com graduated preview stage on 18 February 2013. According to Microsoft, existing Hotmail users have been upgraded to Outlook.com on April 3, 2013 while retaining their @hotmail.com email address, password, messages, folders, contacts, rules, vacation replies, etc. and will have the option of having @outlook.com email address.[1]

Criticism

Outlook.com has been criticized[by whom?] for its lack of IMAP support. Microsoft has promised future IMAP capability and better Apple Mac support.[62]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Law, David (February 18, 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 February 19, 2013.
  2. ^ "Outlook.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved June 2, 2013.
  3. ^ "The "Hotmail" Evolution". Techpluto.com. June 22, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  4. ^ a b "A short history of Hotmail". Windowsteamblog.com. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  5. ^ "Microsoft announces massive Hotmail update to better combat Gmail". The Next Web. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  6. ^ Thurrott, Paul (July 31, 2012). "Outlook.com Mail: Microsoft Reimagines Webmail". Supersite for Windows. Penton Media. Retrieved August 1, 2012.
  7. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Fact Sheet". Microsoft.com. Retrieved April 30, 2011.
  8. ^ "Hotmail Still New and Cool–Even After 15 Years". Microsoft TechNet. July 5, 2011.
  9. ^ Frederic Lardinois (June 28, 2012). "Hotmail relaunched as social-friendly Outlook". Tech Crunch. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  10. ^ F_404 (July 15, 2011). "Hotmail introduces hacking alert system - People's Daily Online". English.peopledaily.com.cn. Retrieved June 19, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Launches Worldwide in 36 Languages". Itnewsonline.com. Archived from the original on March 5, 2008. Retrieved October 26, 2010. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; May 3, 2008 suggested (help)
  12. ^ "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.
  13. ^ Hotmail staff. "Bing Comes To Hotmail". Microsoft. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  14. ^ "Scroogled". Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  15. ^ "Outlook-Private". Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  16. ^ Hiner, Jason (August 2, 2012). "Dump Gmail for Outlook.com? Four reasons you might". Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  17. ^ "Add an Outlook.com alias to your account". Windows. Microsoft. Retrieved May 11, 2013.
  18. ^ Vitaldevara, Krish (December 10, 2012). "Outlook.com increases security with support for DMARC and EV certificates". Outlook Blog. Microsoft. Retrieved December 12, 2012.
  19. ^ . United States. April 30, 2013 http://blogs.skype.com/2013/04/29/type-less-talk-more-make-skype-calls-directly-from-your-outlook-com-inbox/#fbid=44PZKle7Th6. Retrieved May 5, 2013. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  20. ^ "Hotmail: Get started – A clean, fast inbox". Explore.live.com. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  21. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Plus". Explore.live.com. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  22. ^ "IzyMail". V3.izymail.com. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  23. ^ "POP3 Technology Has Now Rolled Out To Hotmail Customers Worldwide". Liveside.net. March 13, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  24. ^ "Continuing DAV protocol retirement". hotmail.com. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  25. ^ "Microsoft to kill Hotmail via Outlook Express on September 1". Neowin.net. June 4, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  26. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail". Get.live.com. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
  27. ^ "Windows Live Hotmail Reviewer's Guide: What's new in Hotmail". Windowslivepreview.com. Retrieved July 24, 2010.[dead link]
  28. ^ "Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail's CAPTCHA broken by spammers".
  29. ^ "Microsoft Service Agreement". Microsoft. 2009. Retrieved August 5, 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  30. ^ 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
  31. ^ "Sabeer Bhatiya : The founder of "Hotmail.com"". 4TO40.COM. Retrieved November 19, 2009.
  32. ^ "Hotmail, Microsoft talk deals". CNET. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  33. ^ "Lege.com". Lege.com. April 22, 1998. Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  34. ^ Mike Magee. "Microsoft uses Solaris servers for Hotmail shock".
  35. ^ "Microsoft Buys Hotmail". CNET. Retrieved June 22, 2007.
  36. ^ "MSN Hotmail: From Zero to 30 Million Members in 30 Months". Microsoft. Retrieved March 23, 2007.
  37. ^ "Converting a UNIX.COM site to Windows". Microsoft Secrets. Security Office. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  38. ^ Orlowski, Andrew (December 12, 2001). "Microsoft Hotmail still runs on U**x". The Register. Situation Publishing. Retrieved June 14, 2013.
  39. ^ Glave, James (August 30, 1999). "Hotmail Hackers: 'We Did It'". Wired.com. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  40. ^ Greene, Thomas (August 20, 2001). "Hacking Hotmail made easy". The Register. Retrieved September 17, 2008.
  41. ^ Knight, Will (August 21, 2001). "Hotmail hole leaves email open to view". New Scientist. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  42. ^ Hotmail staff. "M7 new code shipping soon – not yet here!". Microsoft. Retrieved March 21, 2007.
  43. ^ Janowski, Davis D. (January 31, 2007). "Buying Guide: Web E-Mail Clients". PC Magazine. Retrieved March 21, 2007.
  44. ^ Janowski, Davis D. "Windows Live Hotmail (beta) Review by PC Magazine". PC Magazine. Retrieved April 10, 2007.
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External links

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