Hotmail

Early Microsoft email

Hotmail was one of the first free web-based email services, launched in 1996 and later acquired by Microsoft.

The name referenced HTML, the language of web pages.

Though Microsoft rebranded it as Outlook.com in 2012, a Hotmail address still signals someone who's been online since the early internet: She still uses her old Hotmail account.

service

email

Digital written communication

  • MicrosoftRedmond technology corporation
  • webmailBrowser-accessed electronic correspondence
  • inboxMessage receiving folder

Outlook · MSN · account · login · password · spam · attachments · folders · contacts · calendar

branding

Windows

Microsoft operating system

logo · interface · update · redesign · merger · successor · rename · conversion · legacy · address

era

1990s

Final twentieth-century decade

  • pioneerEarly explorer or settler
  • earlyOccurring before expected
  • internetInterconnected computer systems

dotcom · revolution · launch · 1996 · acquisition · web-based · breakthrough · Silicon Valley · startup · innovation

Categories
Opposites
email service provider rivalry

HotmailGmail

Search giant's messaging platform

Yahoo Mail · ProtonMail · Outlook.com

web-based vs local software

HotmailMicrosoft Outlook

Email and calendar client

Thunderbird · Eudora · Apple Mail

technological era

Hotmailsnail mail

Physical letter delivery

telegram · fax

Family

hot, hotter, hottest, hotly, hotness, mail, mails, mailed, mailing

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Concrete · Everyday, not technical · Rated G