Hotmail was the first FREE web-based E-mail facility started by Sabeer Bhatia. A unique concept in those days when E-mail was a privilege of few working in companies that ran E-mail servers or students studying in Universities.
FREE web-based E-mail was what gave boost to internet surfing & despite all Instant Messaging, Chatting softwares out there... E-mail still continues to be the No. 1 web-based application used by Netizens.
Pioneer Advantage
Hotmail was the first to hit market & quickly able to capture a large chunk of the clientele. The association of E-mail to Hotmail is so strong that to many ’’Email is Hotmail’’. Many times when I ask acquaintances thier E-mail id they stop at ’’xyz’’... when asked ’’what next?’’ they look strangely at me and continue ’’@hotmail.com’’
It is FREE
When I was having a discussion with my mentor about Linux V/s Windows... he said ’’You cannot compete with something that is Free’’. As long as a Free working alternative is available, why would someone spend money on anything... even if they come with state of the art options??
The fact that web-based E-mail comes Free also makes it risky... especially after the experience of USA.NET turning to paid service with thousands losing their E-mail accounts. I am sure most [may be all?] of us have Yahoo! as well as Hotmail accounts (just in case)
Anti-virus to check attachments
Hotmail uses McAfe Virus scan to check attachments for computer Viruses. With so many Viruses, worms spreading via E-mail anti-virus capability is a must have feature in any E-mail option.
Secure Login
The only feature of Hotmail (IMHO) that beats Yahoo is using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for initial user login. The reason could be that Hotmail has historically been Hackers favourite haunt ever since it’s take over by Microsoft.
SSL uses a strong encryption/decryption between web server & browser so that the data [for e.g. your user-id & password ] being sent is visible only to the Web Server & not to Hackers monitoring [sniffing] web traffic to catch User-id/passwords.
In a nut-shell SSL (version 3.0) is the most secure web communication method currently available which secures most of E-commerce, internet banking & other online financial transactions.
If you feel Hotmail login is slow compared to Yahoo one of the major reasons is Hotmail using SSL for sending login information. [ There ain’t no such thing as free lunch ]
Microsoft
A lot of computer users/net-surfers feel it is safer to bet on Microsoft. Since it is run by one of the richest companies the chances of it going bust are lesser compared to smaller players like Rediff, IndiaTimes etc.
The down-side is that M$ [ Hacker way of referring to Microsoft] also happens to be ’’Pet-hate’’ of Hackers & Crackers & always prone to Denial of Service attacks (DoS/DDoS) (often bringing down Hotmail for days) & Hacking.
Over all site Usability
Excuse me... I might appear a bit out of league, but IMHO Yahoo mail User interface is much much better than Hotmail.
1) Yahoo! uses lesser number of images than Hotmail
2) Yahoo! limits the number of E-mails shown to 25 [ can be changed ]... but Hotmails shows the full Inbox !!!! If you have some 200 E-mails in your Inbox... Hotmail will take forever to load.
3) Hotmail may provide the most exotic tools to compose E-mails... but can the other person who doesnot use Hotmail [for whatever reasons] see your E-mail & comprehend your E-mail?? Especially those on Dial-up tend to prefer Text only E-mails over HTML E-mails to reduce ISP & telephone bills.
4) Hotmail ’’contacts’’ is also quite primitive compared to ’’Yahoo!Addresses’’ for a user like me having 150+ E-mail contacts often requiring me to run searches to find the ’’right person’’
5) Just 2MB mail storage compared to Yahoos 6MB for loyal oldies & 4 MB for newcomers. Taking any average of 10KB per E-mail it means 102 E-mails per extra MB... total 408 more E-mails for oldies & 204 more E-mails for newbies [ Do you still love Hotmail? :))]
The only place where Hotmail scores is in confirmation while deleting E-mails permanently... acts as a safe guard against deleting important E-mails permanently [ for e.g. offer letter for your next job]
Spamming
Even the most die-hard Hotmail fanatic will agree though grudgingly that Hotmail is a ’’Spammers paradise’’.
Though I don’t get any lesser SPAM in my Yahoo! account than Hotmail... what differentiates Yahoo! is the ’’Spam Guard’’ technology continually improved by Yahoo! which sends most (75%) of the Spam to ’’Bulk Mail’’ folder without any user filters.
Hotmail lacks any such Default filters & leaves it totally as the responsiblity of users to set filters. Again since these filters are limited in number ... soon you will be at the mercy of Spammers.
One of the reasons for heavy Spamming on Hotmail could be Microsoft lethargy in countering automated bulk E-mail generating web-sites.
Urban Legends
Outlook can be used only with Hotmail : Though Outlook Express for obvious reasons provides wizard to easily setup Hotmail accounts... Outlook can be used to download E-mail from Yahoo!, Eudora or any other service provider which provides you POP3 service.
The converse is also true... you can download Hotmail E-mails using Nescape Messenger, Eudora or any decent E-mail client worth it’s name.
E-mail downloading [POP3] is NOT free on Yahoo!, but Free on Hotmail. A feature which could be a boon for Dial-up web-surfers worried about ever increasing ISP charges & telephone bills.
Hotmail integrates easily with Windows
Yes... it integrates well with Windows operating system (XP), with Windows Messenger [poorer cousin of MSN Messenger]... But so what?
Yahoo! Messenger works equally well for me. I am yet to see any practical benefits of this so called seemless integration.
It is nothing more than a Microsoft ploy to cross-sell products. For e. g. MS Money requires Hotmail/MSN account for secure online download of Bank Statements!!! Why? Don’t ask me.
Passport is a Secure Login mechanism
Microsoft has made Hotmail the testing ground for it’s much touted ’’Passport’’ authentication/authorization service.
Books have been written by security experts about vulnerabilities in Passport which make it easier for Hackers to hack ’’Passport’’ system. But still M$ continues to push it... why?
The intended purpose of ’’Passport’’ is to authenticate/authorize E-commerce transactions. Something like on-line credit-card payments or PayPal. Microsoft makes money by charging merchant web-sites using Passport service charge per transactions [ultimately cost will get transferred to buyers].
To prove to the E-commerce customers ’’Passport’’ is a viable security mechanism, ’’Passport’’ is being used in Hotmail exposing Hotmail users to Hacker attacks till it becomes a truly secure system.
Final Analysis
Since it is Free... no harm in having it Hotmail as secondary or back up E-mail id to Yahoo!.
But as primary E-mail... I don’t recommend it