Farewell to Hotmail and Hello to Outlook

[Leonardo]

I just heard on the Swedish radio that Micosoft has decided to shut down Hotmail and in the next few months all Hotmail users will be offered an alternative with Outlook.

http://seattletimes....lo_to_outl.html

[_echo]

Interesting. I rarely use hotmail for anything outside of MSN.

[donnato]

Don`t you have to have office to get outlook..?

[vometia]

Don`t you have to have office to get outlook..?

No, they just used the same name to confuse people! Such is corporate branding; it has a web interface, as well as pop3 (no imap though, apparently: I guess that would be following too many standards for Microsoft's liking...)

Grabbed myself a couple of addresses there before all the good ones went. Already found that they have a problem with their SmartScreen spam filter creating false positives; I think I've narrowed it down to them blacklisting the sending IP address since it seems they don't use the usual xBL lookup tables: again, Microsoft and standards, I guess. Even if I can sort out my own messages so they stop being flagged as spam, I'm concerned about what else may go missing, so I'm not sure I'll be an enthusiastic user of the service (besides which, I use my own domain names anyway.)

[Arion]

Its already available....... When you go to hotmail look under options and choose Outlook and it will update your account.

@Don No you dont' need the office suite.. Hotmail's name is changing and style.. Nothing else.

I swtiched yesterday from my old hotmail format and it looks pretty good.

[Si-Shen]

Question I have is, what about all those sites that are linked to my hotmail account, if I upgrade, I have to change all of those over, unless it allows you to keep the @hotmail.com part even if its really outlook.

[InsanitySorrow]

They'll probably have the Hotmail.com/.co.uk automatically re-direct to the new outlook address, at least that would be the smart way of doing things.

[vometia]

They'll probably have the Hotmail.com/.co.uk automatically re-direct to the new outlook address, at least that would be the smart way of doing things.

It would've been, wouldn't it? But they didn't do that and the outlook.com addresses are up for grabs: first come, first served. I imagine quite a few people are going to be a bit irate about that.

[InsanitySorrow]

Stoooooooopid MS

[Si-Shen]

I logged into outlook with my hotmail.com thing but it gives the option to upgrade.

[donnato]

I switched one of mine today then went back and logged in using the hotmail.com, no problem...except the column of ads taking up space on the right side. That and there was mention of Excel and some cloud thing...didn`t see that (except skydrive).

[Arion]

Want answers to your questions about the new and improved Outlook that's going to replace Hotmail. Then go HERE and find out what is really going on instead of gossip and guesswork.

Not everything is implemented yet and you can keep your hotmail address. No one is being forced to change email addresses.

[InsanitySorrow]

Someone needs their morning coffee