You wouldn’t be the first person to go cold on Hotmail. Lots of folks, me included, stopped using Microsoft’s Web-based e-mail service in the last several years because it was a magnet for spam and a laggard when it came to adding new features. And Hotmail wasn’t exactly hip.
Guess what? That may be changing. Hotmail merits another look. Microsoft has been overhauling it with both fresh and catch-up features that address spam and clutter and give you tools to better manage your inbox. Some of the stuff is pretty cool. The new Hotmail is conveniently integrated with other Microsoft services, notably Windows Messenger (instant messaging), Bing search, online versions of Office and a Web-based storage repository called SkyDrive. Microsoft generously lets you send sizable photo attachments.
Though Windows Live Hotmail, as it is officially called, is in a public beta or testing phase — Microsoft is still rolling out the latest features to some users — the changes are pretty much complete. (Hotmail is one of the free offerings through a suite of online applications and services called Windows Live. Hotmail can be accessed from any computer. Some other Windows Live apps must be downloaded on a PC.) The result is an e-mail service that feels contemporary.
It’s not as though Hotmail ever fell completely off the radar. On the contrary, the service is dominant worldwide at least in sheer numbers. Hotmail had about 368 million visitors in May, according to figures from ComScore Media Metrix, the latest available data. That was more than Yahoo Mail (283 million) and Google’s Gmail (187 million). But the momentum is shifting. And in the USA, Hotmail is far behind Yahoo and only slightly ahead of Gmail. Microsoft, which has owned Hotmail since 1997, hopes to reverse the tide.
A closer look at major changes:
*Spam and junk….