Microsoft To Phase Out Hotmail, Focus On Outlook E-Mail
94 replies, posted
[quote]Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), the world’s biggest software maker, will introduce a new, free Web-based e-mail portal under its Outlook brand and phase out Hotmail over time as it seeks to draw users from Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Gmail.
A preview of the new service is going online today and Hotmail probably will be phased out in the next year, said Brian Hall, a general manager in Microsoft’s Windows group, in an interview.
By going with Outlook, Microsoft is trying to capitalize on the brand behind the most-used corporate e-mail service, sold as part of its Office suite. While Hotmail is the world’s most popular Web-based e-mail provider, it has lost ground in the U.S. to Google and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) as well as other, newer methods of communication, such as social media.
“E-mail is one of the only areas in technology that’s gone eight years without a significant change -- the last big move was the release of Gmail -- and for us it’s maybe been even longer than that since our last big change,” Hall said. “None of the social networks existed then, and the types of e-mail we get have changed.”
Hotmail was the only one of the top three Web-mail services to lose unique visitors globally in the year through June 2012, falling 4 percent, according to ComScore Inc. (SCOR) Yahoo Mail gained 2 percent and Gmail increased 17 percent.
Hotmail had 324.2 million unique visitors in June, compared with 290.3 million for Yahoo Mail and 277.6 million for Gmail, according to ComScore.
New Features
While Hotmail derives revenue through ads, the main value lies in how often people use e-mail, Hall said. Google is using Gmail to lure customers to its online word processing and spreadsheet applications and away from Microsoft’s Office.
The Outlook Web-mail service can tell whether an e-mail is from a personal contact, in which case it shows content from Facebook Inc. (FB) and Twitter Inc. from the sender. Users will be able to see if a sender is online and enter into a Windows Messenger or Facebook chat session with them. In the future, Skype Internet calling capability also will be added, Hall said.
The new portal will let users sort by types of e-mail to categorize messages from their contacts, social media updates or newsletters such as a Groupon Inc. (GRPN) offer. They can set it to only keep the latest Groupon offer or the last few, and clear out the rest.
It’s also meant to have a clean-looking design that leaves more space to display e-mails, compared with Gmail, Hall said. Ads are also less obtrusive, he said, and don’t appear alongside personal messages.[/quote]
[url=http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-31/microsoft-to-phase-out-hotmail-focus-on-outlook-e-mail.html]Source[/url]
My poor technologically retarded parents who took ages to get accustomed to Hotmail!
I like Outlook
and dislike Hotmail
It looks more professional than hotmail.
[url]http://www.outlook.com[/url]
[QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;37021423]I dislike Outlook
and like Hotmail[/QUOTE]
ftfy
It's a nice change. Hotmail UI was pretty horrific however I will keep with Gmail for now...
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;37021448][QUOTE=POLOPOZOZO;37021423]I dislike Outlook
dislike Hotmail
and like GMail
[/QUOTE]ftfy[/QUOTE]
ftfy
Also I like the new UI, I am a sucker for metro UI though!
What about Games For Windows Live games and accounts?
Oh man I hope they don't fuck this up, they force you to link games to GFWL accounts and GFWL accounts all use hotmail accounts.
I'm curious if Outlook's (the application) UI will be similar to Outlook (web), because if there's one complaint about the application is that its UI is a clusterfuck.
[editline]31st July 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;37021537]What about Games For Windows Live games and accounts?
Oh man I hope they don't fuck this up, they force you to link games to GFWL accounts and GFWL accounts all use hotmail accounts.[/QUOTE]
It's just a new UI and a name change, services and all won't be affected.
Hotmail was like using a webmail system that was subpar when it came out in 2007
probably because that's what it was
[QUOTE=Panda X;37021551]I'm curious if Outlook's (the application) UI will be similar to Outlook (web), because if there's one complaint about the application is that its UI is a clusterfuck.
It's just a new UI and a name change, services and all won't be affected.
[/QUOTE]
it looks like this is more based around the UI for Windows Mail, then outlook
[QUOTE=Electrocuter;37021537]What about Games For Windows Live games and accounts?
Oh man I hope they don't fuck this up, they force you to link games to GFWL accounts and GFWL accounts all use hotmail accounts.[/QUOTE]
This is false. My live account is a gmail account, all you need to do is change [email]youremail@gmail.com[/email] to [email]youremail@googlemail.com[/email], and it works fine. Something about windows not liking the redirect server or something, either way it works fine for me.
[QUOTE=Panda X;37021438]It looks more professional than hotmail.
[url]http://www.outlook.com[/url][/QUOTE]
rofl it's a reskin
[QUOTE=Elspin;37021636]This is false. My live account is a gmail account, all you need to do is change [EMAIL="youremail@gmail.com"]youremail@gmail.com[/EMAIL] to [EMAIL="youremail@googlemail.com"]youremail@googlemail.com[/EMAIL], and it works fine. Something about windows not liking the redirect server or something, either way it works fine for me.[/QUOTE]
It works fine for @gmail.com
I can log into Windows 8 just fine with it, which will create a live account with it.
[QUOTE=PyroCF;37021659]It works fine for @gmail.com[/QUOTE]
Never worked for me, and in any case my live account is in fact [email]myname@googlemail.com[/email], just logged into the new outlook now. It looks pretty awesome, gotta say.
[QUOTE=viperfan7;37021624]it looks like this is more based around the UI for Windows Mail, then outlook[/QUOTE]
Microsoft has been making nearly all if not all there programs and services in Metro, but Outlook in Office 2013 is already Metro, however it could still be just as cluttered before, which is why I was curious.
I like the new UI - the only complaint I have is really that Skydrive isn't skinned accordingly yet. It'll be a in a weeks/months, so that's pretty minor.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;37021448]ftfy[/QUOTE]
I don't know I think MSN just looks ugly plus I'm always impressed at just how useful the entire Office suite is for just about anything.
Interesting.
I clicked on Panda's link and now my hotmail is forever Outlook mail.
Everything is intact, but it's just outlook now instead of hotmail.
Maybe they'll bother upgrading their security as well.
[QUOTE=Resfan;37021770]Interesting.
I clicked on Panda's link and now my hotmail is forever Outlook mail.
Everything is intact, but it's just outlook now instead of hotmail.[/QUOTE]
If you want to change it back there's a option in the options menu to go back:
[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/0Uptfd.png[/IMG]
Outlook is looking pretty neat.
But I'll have to stick with thunderbird/gmail, sorry :(
Guy on the home page for hotmail looks like the guy from IT crowd.
[IMG]http://www.comedy.co.uk/images/library/people/180x200/t/the_it_crowd_moss.jpg[/IMG]
Always used Hotmail, it is pretty cool that Outlook accepts your Hotmail account. I like the UI
Thanks Microsoft! Now all my tranny porn and bestiality emails are back!
Love the new UI.
Never had an actual problem with Hotmail besides the bloated and cluttered UI, so this is just what MS needed to do in my opinion
whoaaaaaaaaaaaa
defo using this from now on, didn't even know it existed :v:
[QUOTE=Ereunity;37022015]Thanks Microsoft! Now all my tranny porn and bestiality emails are back![/QUOTE]
I've had a mail account with them for over 13 years, and I've not recieved a single piece of spam mail. Maybe you should stop signing yourself up for tranny porn and bestiality emails? :v:
So long hotmail, thousands of myspace alerts and deviantart newsletters will go down with that ship.
I like it, and it's faster that the old one.
[editline]31st July 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Don Knotts;37022265]So long hotmail, thousands of myspace alerts and deviantart newsletters will go down with that ship.[/QUOTE]
You can use your hotmail account in it.
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