Hotmail

"Switching to Hotmail is a hassle."

"I want to switch, but I'm not ready to give up my Yahoo! email address."

"I would rather switch to Gmail."

"Hotmail is full of spam."

"You say that Hotmail has advanced spam protection, but I just logged into an old Hotmail account and saw tons of spam."

"I tried Hotmail a long time ago and it was slow and didn't have much storage."

"I don't want an @hotmail.com email address."

"Hotmail doesn't work with my smartphone."

"My Hotmail account expired after I didn't check it for a few weeks."

"I don't like taglines on my messages."

"Hotmail is able to deliver one of the cleanest inbox experiences to the end user. Hotmail's ability to fight spam, today, is very much on par or better than the accepted industry averages." –Radicati Group February, 2010

Back in 2006, around 35 percent of the email in a Hotmail inbox was spam. Since then, we've worked hard to keep spam out and the new Hotmail inbox contains less than 4 percent spam mail—thanks to our advanced anti-spam technology, SmartScreen®, blocks more than 98 percent of spam sent to Hotmail. And, the new Hotmail has a feature called Sweep, so you can automatically get rid of junk mail, even if it's not technically spam.

Learn More »

"The best new feature… is Sweep. Sweep is not some frightening one-button tool that tries to make decisions for you ...[It] lets you do smart stuff." –PC Magazine May, 2010

Old email addresses can attract tons of junk mail that you no longer want. With Hotmail, you can selectively get rid of junk mail you don't want using Sweep, which lets you block junk mail and get rid of junk mail that's already there.

Also, we've reduced the number of informational emails we send to our customers to just 2 per month. If you don't want to get them at all, you can opt out any time.

Learn More »

"Back in the days before Gmail, webmail on the Internet was really, really bad. Inboxes were limited to 10 or 20 megabytes, interfaces were slow and ugly.... This is how I remember Hotmail. I hated it... So when I say that the new version of Hotmail that's launching this summer has me excited, that's saying something." –TechCrunch May, 2010

The new Hotmail has little in common with the old Hotmail. The new Hotmail is faster and gives you 5 GB of storage to start—automatically giving you more if you need it. We also deliver unique features to help you keep your inbox clutter free, help protect you from spam, share more photos and videos, and work with Office right from your inbox.

Learn More »

"Hotmail has released a cool new feature today: the ability to receive and send e-mails from other addresses, including ones from Gmail or Yahoo! Mail [Plus]." –Mashable/Tech November, 2010

The new Hotmail lets you send and receive emails using your existing address. For example, you can send and receive mail from yourname@gmail.com or yourname@aol.com using Hotmail.

You can also get an @live.com email address or buy a domain name.

Learn More »

Both Hotmail and Gmail are great free email services. If any of the following are true, then you should consider the new Hotmail:

• You use Microsoft Office. Using the new Office Web Apps, Hotmail lets you view and edit Office docs for free right in your inbox. You can't do this in Gmail.

• You use Microsoft Outlook. The new Hotmail syncs mail, calendar, and contacts with Outlook for Windows. Gmail only offers similar Outlook support if you're a paying business customer.

• You use Facebook. You can update your status, chat with Facebook friends, view their updates, and comment right from your Hotmail inbox. You can't do this from Gmail.

• You share lots of photos or large attachments. The new Hotmail lets you share up to 10 GB of photos or other files in one message. You can't do this in Gmail.

Gmail might be the right choice for you if:

• You want to use the IMAP protocol with your email client.

• You have an older version of an Android phone that doesn't yet support the modern Exchange protocols that Hotmail uses. You want to use the experimental features in Gmail Labs.

"One of the most eagerly awaited features of the new…Hotmail...is the availability of Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support" –Supersite for Windows October 2010

The new Hotmail supports Exchange ActiveSync, which lets you synchronise your email, calendar and contacts with leading smartphones like the iPhone, Windows Phone, Android phones and the iPad. You also get instant notifications when you get new messages.

Learn More »

We've made it really easy to make the move from Yahoo! Mail and other email services. Here are a few tips:

Sign up for Hotmail - Signup is simple and takes just a few minutes.

Bring in your Yahoo! Mail contacts and mail - Hotmail has partnered with TrueSwitch to import information from Yahoo! and other email accounts. (Don't worry; nothing will be deleted from your Yahoo! Mail account.)

Tell your friends - You can include your new email address in your Yahoo! Mail vacation auto response. Or as part of your TrueSwitch import, you can send a message to all of your contacts.

Once you're moved into your new inbox, here are a couple tips to settle in:

Sync your phone - To get your Hotmail inbox, calendar and contacts on your iPhone, Windows Phone or other smartphone.

Add your Facebook and LinkedIn contacts - To import contacts from your social networks. You might also want to update your social network profiles with your new Hotmail address.

You can always keep your old Yahoo! account and login to it occasionally. (Most people have over 3 email accounts!)

Also, you can choose to send messages in Hotmail using your old Yahoo! account as the "from" address. That way, you can try out Hotmail – perhaps to send emails with many photos to your friends, and when they reply, their emails will still go to your Yahoo! address. Here's how to set it up.

We extended the time period for expiring unused accounts from 30 days to 270 days so we're on par with other leading email services.

When we launched the new Hotmail, we got rid of the taglines (the text that used to be at the bottom of message sent from Hotmail).

"Which E-mail Service is Safest? Hotmail – 4.5 out of 5 stars… Yahoo! Mail – 3 out of 5 stars" – Fox Business, Jan 2011

"New Hotmail: Sleeker & Faster, With Some Powerful Weapons Against Inbox Overload." – TechCrunch, May 2010

"Yahoo!'s [lack of free] POP access, forwarding and the amount of ads convinced me to change providers.." – ex-Yahoo! Mail user*

Hotmail is PC Magazine’s Editors’ Choice. “The most popular webmail service in the world got there for a reason” - PC Magazine, Feb 2011

, ,

Total number of people that have signed up for the new Hotmail since September 2010

Should you switch too?

"Photo viewing just looks and works better on Hotmail vs. Yahoo!" – ex-Yahoo! Mail user*

"I wanted [to] view . . . my e-mail addresses in one place." – ex-Yahoo! Mail user*

"If you use multiple e-mail accounts… consider putting [the new] Hotmail back in the mix." – USA Today, Jul 2010

"[Hotmail] is easier to use.." – ex-Yahoo! Mail user*

Helps PROTECT YOU FROM HACKERS in more ways than Yahoo!

Easier to SWEEP OUT JUNK MAIL.

Up to 50% FEWER ADS than Yahoo!

VIEW AND EDIT Office docs right INSIDE YOUR INBOX.

Share 400x the amount of photos and files IN ONE EMAIL.

"Which E-mail Service is Safest? Hotmail – 4.5 out of 5 stars…Yahoo! Mail – 3 out of 5 stars" – Fox Business, Jan 2011

•

The new Hotmail provides an encrypted connection during your entire session to help guard against hackers. Yahoo! provides an encrypted connection only at certain times like login.

•

Hotmail also lets you create one-time passwords to help protect you on public PCs and identifies "trusted senders" in your inbox using special safety icons. Yahoo! does not.

Learn More »

"Sweep is not some frightening one-button tool that tries to make decisions for you …[It] lets you do smart stuff."

– PC Magazine, May 2010

The new Hotmail includes Sweep, a virtual broom that helps you clean up old messages in your inbox. It can also automatically file away or delete messages you receive from specific people or businesses.

Yahoo! offers filters which you can set up manually, but they don't help you get rid of unwanted messages that are already in your inbox.

•

The new Hotmail keeps the focus on your email with up to 50% fewer ads than Yahoo! between you and your email inbox.

•

There are no ads on the sign-in page and you can go straight to your inbox. You can also opt out of viewing an ad every time you send a message. Yahoo! doesn't let you do this.

•

Hotmail lets you view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from virtually any PC – without leaving your inbox–for free. You can't do this with Yahoo!

•

You can also sync Hotmail with Outlook and connect it to other webmail services – for free – unlike Yahoo!, which charges for that.

•

Share up to 200 50 MB files (10 GB) in a single email using SkyDrive. The most you can send with Yahoo! is 25 MB per message.