Hotmail Is Dead…. Long Live Outlook.com: Microsoft

Hotmail which has been around since the dawn of the Internet is no more. Microsoft has begun to migrate Hotmail users to Outlook.com which has been in beta for the last 6 months starting today. The 60 million or so users will eventually be using the new mail service by this summer. What’s the value proposition?  Here’s some of what Microsoft is offering from their blog post on the subject:

  • Delivering a beautiful, fresh and intuitive experience on modern browsers and devices
  • Keeping people connected to their friends and co-workers across the networks they really use
  • Providing a smart and powerful inbox to handle today’s email needs, including SkyDrive for sharing virtually anything in a single email
  • Putting people in control by prioritizing their privacy

But wait! There’s more:

Through the preview, we’ve heard and learned a great deal about your favorite features and how well Outlook.com is delivering on our vision for modern email.  For example, millions of people are connecting Outlook.com to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to keep up-to-date on their friends’ contact info, updates, photos, and Tweets.  And a number of people have expressed appreciation that Outlook.com replaces advertising with the latest updates from Facebook or Twitter when they’re reading email from one of their contacts.  In fact on average, people saw 60% fewer ads when using Outlook.com because they’re now getting much more relevant updates from their friends.

So you’ll be more connected than ever before. Hmmm…. Sounds like an attack on Gmail to me.

If you’re on Hotmail, switching is only a couple of button clicks. You’ll keep your current e-mail address (though they would really like it if you created yourself one of those Outlook.com e-mail addresses) and all your stuff will migrate over.

The net result? Hotmail now joins Netscape, Alta Vista, and Geocities in the graveyard of the Internet. But as far as Microsoft is concerned, you’ll have a much better e-mail experience.

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