If you’re like me, your first email address was a hotmail account, but these days, hotmail users are rare.
If you go to hotmail.com, you will be redirected to outlook.com, as microsoft has transitioned all hotmail users to its more popular and robust outlook platform. consequently, the only real “difference” between gmail and hotmail is that gmail still exists.
However, it’s still interesting to look at hotmail as it existed in the past and explore how gmail became the dominant competitor.
a brief history of hotmail
hotmail was one of the first email services, launched in 1996 and given a name similar to the letters html (hotmail). In 1997, it sold for over $400 million, joining the MSN suite of services, and quickly became popular from there.
but in 2004, google announced a competing email service, gmail, available for free to individual users even today. With more storage space, flexibility, and overall speed, Gmail put a lot of pressure on Hotmail (as well as Yahoo Mail, another big competitor at the time).
Microsoft worked quickly to release a new version of the email system, Windows Live Hotmail, in 2005. It was subject to a series of updates over the next few years, but it wouldn’t last forever.
In 2012, Microsoft introduced Outlook.com as a new standard for email. When it was introduced, existing users of Hotmail under the Microsoft umbrella were given the option to freely upgrade to Outlook. users can keep the “@hotmail.com” extension on their email accounts or switch to a new @outlook.com email address. either way, hotmail users could keep their old accounts.
today, outlook remains gmail’s main competitor in the email world, with over 400 million active users.
can you sign up for a hotmail account?
Unfortunately, hotmail is no longer available to new users. The closest you can get is signing up for an Outlook email address. The only people who have an existing hotmail email address are those who created their account many years ago and have decided to keep their original @hotmail.com email address.
Modern Hotmail users now rely on Outlook for all of their email needs. This isn’t hotmail, exactly, but it may be what you’ve thought of as hotmail since you transitioned. also, outlook is where hotmail.com redirects you.
If you are interested in knowing the differences between Outlook and Gmail, we have written a complete guide on the subject here. In the article, we discuss some of the main differences between Outlook and Gmail, including their features, design, and general practicality for different businesses.
We also determined which platform is “best” in each of several different categories, including cost, available storage, ads, security, organization, search, contacts, plugins, customization, and more.
the bottom line: gmail vs. hotmail
We’ve written a few email platform comparison posts, and in most of them, gmail comes out on top. in this case, between gmail and hotmail, it’s a no-brainer because hotmail is dead and gmail played a role in killing it.
Of course, “dead” is a relative term. You or someone you know may still have “@hotmail.com” at the end of their email address, and you may still have old emails in your inbox that you received during Hotmail’s heyday. If this is the case, you are understandably reluctant to make the transition; just remember that you can migrate your emails to gmail at any time, so you won’t lose anything.
Be sure to check out our other posts comparing Gmail to popular email providers!
- gmail vs outlook
- gmail vs yahoo mail
- gmail vs apple mail
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one of the best tools on the market for gmail is emailanalytics. Integrate your account in minutes and discover new ways to increase your productivity. If you’re interested, you can sign up for a free trial today!