Hotmail, one of the free Internet mail services that has been around since 1994 will be getting a facelift from Microsoft.
Microsoft is hoping to overcome the perception that Hotmail was past its prime as Google and Yahoo have added more user friendly features to their free Web mail service.
Ideally, the new features will enable people to spend more time enjoying and taking in what’s in the messages and less time managing their in boxes.
But its customer usage has been impressive. Notwithstanding the fact that Yahoo mail and Google Gmail have made impressive changes, Hotmail is still the most widely used service in the world. It has 360 million users, from statistics complied by comScore Inc. with Yahoo ranking second globally at about 284 million users and followed by Google’s Gmail at 173 million users.
However, in US usage, it is Yahoo mail with 95 million users, Hotmail with 47 million, and Gmail with 43 million. But Microsoft is hoping that it can increase that number by adding new features to their mail service.
What new features?
The most significant change will be to new ways to look at photos and videos sent through e-mail. This is important because Microsoft says 55 percent of Hotmail’s storage comes from photos sent through attachments.
A new panel will connect Hotmail to Microsoft’s Internet search engine, Bing to allow videos and other Internet material to be found and uploaded with a mouse click. The e-mail recipient will be able to see the video or other content without having to use a Web link.
Security will also be upgraded. Microsoft will try to make Hotmail it more secure by using some recently adopted changes by Gmail. Microsoft is adding a “secure sockets layer.” The “https” designation will appear before a Web address. This will encrypt the e-mail message to make it less susceptible to computer hackers.
Source: Microsoft
