By Lars Lubienetzki | Aug 29, 2023 at 5:45 p.m
The network knows various indicators and codes that act as synonyms for certain areas. The name change from Twitter to X is currently causing a stir. When it comes to the letter X, many Internet users tend to think of the red light districts on the World Wide Web. Similar thoughts arose in 1996 – with Hotmail.
The developers Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith thought in a completely different direction. The name of the new service alludes to the then relatively unknown abbreviation HTML – HoTMaiL. Two years later, Microsoft bought Hotmail for $400 million. The result is a 15-year success story.
Along with RocketMail (later Yahoo Mail), Hotmail is one of the first webmail services. At the time of the start in 1996, it was normal to use the e-mail service of one’s own Internet provider. Webmail, on the other hand, promises freedom from providers and the ability to access email from anywhere in the world. Within just one year, the service can attract 8.5 million users.
Hotmail initially without competition
Hotmail was one of the first major email service providers back then. With the entry of Microsoft, interest increases rapidly. From 12 million users, the number increases to over 400 million in the best of times.
Microsoft doesn’t have to do much at first to be successful. Of course, the well-known name helps as a draft horse. From a purely technical point of view, there is very little that is ‘hot’ with Hotmail. Technical defects are later only one of the reasons why Hotmail finds itself in troubled waters.
As early as the early 2000s, reports surfaced that a hacker had broken the already meager Hotmail access blocks with just a few lines of code. The online thief steals the credit card numbers of unsuspecting Hotmail users.
Subsequently, similar stories reinforce critics that Hotmail does little to protect users’ privacy.
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Gmail outperforms Hotmail
Serious competition only appeared in 2004. At that time, Google launched its Gmail email service. At that time, the search engine was just rising to number one for most Internet searches – ahead of Yahoo. As befits a budding Internet giant, Google has added a few extra features to its mail service that suddenly make Hotmail look pretty dated.
Microsoft is reacting to the powerful competition and is beautifying its own Hotmail service. In 2005 Microsoft presented its new online service Windows Live Hotmail. The service was originally supposed to be called Windows Live Mail, like the corresponding e-mail client for Windows 7. This name was intended to be more legitimate, but caused confusion among beta testers, so Microsoft kept the old name.
The new Hotmail also comes with memory that grows with the user. There are limits, but they are “so big that you probably won’t even come close”. This is Microsoft’s reaction to Gmail, which has attracted users from the start with one gigabyte of free storage space.
Although the renaming of Hotmail did not work for the time being, Microsoft is having doubts as to whether the name Hotmail still fits a global IT company. As a result, Microsoft continues to experiment. In 2012, the company started a beta test with Outlook – a new e-mail service analogous to the well-known client, to which Hotmail users can switch for free.
Hotmail puts the Microsoft logo in the red light
Word got around on the dark side of the World Wide Web in the late 2000s that Hotmail addresses could be used as a spam launcher. This development poses more and more problems for Microsoft.
In fact, the somewhat disreputable name is now endangering the future of Microsoft’s email service. E-mail addresses in the form [email protected] or [email protected] appearing more and more frequently on the internet put the Microsoft logo in the red light.
Many users are also turning away from Hotmail. Because the name of the service is now too sexualized and thus burned for serious purposes.
It took until 2012 before Microsoft finally decided to change the name to Hotmail. Previously, it was already indicated in which direction the company is heading. So the new name for Microsoft’s email service, Outlook, comes as no surprise.
Outlook stands for a factual mail program and message management. All former Hotmail accounts have been switched since 2013. Microsoft has missed a few additional features over the years as its service has changed. For example, Skype is now an integral part of the Outlook world, just like the Microsoft Office package.
Top mail service provider in Germany
According to Statista figures from 2022, completely different email providers will rule in Germany. In Germany, the services of Web.de and GMX dominate by far, each with 25 percent. Both providers are now part of the 1&1 cosmos. Outlook only appears at number 4 in this list. Microsoft will certainly cope with this placement – because Outlook is widely used, especially for professional use. All in all, the Hotmail takeover was good business for the IT group, despite the (actually not) suggestive name.