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Hotmail turns 15, checks spam folder for misfiled birthday wishes
This Monday marked the 15th anniversary of the birth of Hotmail. That July 4th launch date is no coincidence -- the service's founders intended its release to highlight the symbolism of its independence from more traditional e-mail models. The following year, the service would be snatched up by Microsoft and housed under the software giant's MSN umbrella. The subsequent years haven't always been easy for the brand, thanks in part to competition from Yahoo and Google-owned services. In 2007, the service fired back, revamping and rebranding itself as Windows Live Hotmail. It's been a decade and a half of ups and downs, but the webmail service continues to be one of the most widely used in the world. Got any Hotmail-related memories? Please share them in the comments below.
Microsoft updates Hotmail with more signature options, Gmail and Yahoo Mail keyboard shortcuts
Okay, it's not as titillating as the time Microsoft added conversation view to Hotmail, but the outfit did just freshen up its email service with a handful of helpful tweaks. Topping the list is an assortment of shortcuts, including the ability to right click a message to reply, reply all, or forward (you could already do this for other things, like marking something as unread). Hotmail also now responds to some additional Gmail- and Yahoo Mail-specific keyboard shortcuts, such as "#" for deleting messages -- a Gmail trick. And the company is none too subtle about admitting it wants the service to be user-friendly for folks if -- or when -- they switch from Google or Yahoo. Rounding out the batch of improvements, you get an easy way to recover deleted emails, an improved back button, HTML5-fueled speed improvements, and the option of changing your default font signature -- something we can't believe Hotmail has been missing until now. Hit the source link for the full spill, and find a short demo video after the break.
Hotmail announces disposable e-mail addresses, those with disposable personas rejoice
It's 3:27am and something is wrong on the internet. You just have to rip that hipster blogger a new one but don't want all the hateful responses from the Kool-Aid drinkers going to your precious Hotmail account that contains just your first name and year of birth -- plus your zip and area codes too. What do you do? You try out Hotmail Aliases, which let you create multiple, "disposable" e-mail accounts that all filter back to your primary one. This is something that you can do on Yahoo, but there you have to pay extra for Plus service and, while Gmail will let you create unique addresses too, there you can only add an extension to your existing handle. Here you're home free to create anything you want. Might we suggest GasPoweredLoverEVsSuck3915@hotmail.com?
