patrick.net

Microsoft has decided to radically overhaul the most successful email service in the world.

Wait a minute, did you just say, "The Most Successful"?

"We thought it was time to push the boundaries of email," said Chris Jones, head of Microsoft's Windows Live division, which includes Hotmail. "We created a new mail service for a modern user experience."

1995-96 felt the most modern, than the last 18 years combined. It was definitely ahead of its time. If Microsoft wanted to be cutting edge then put NNTP service back in Exchange, revive and improve the Microsoft Comics chat, and even the Virtual Chat 3D World both were cool technologies in a time that the bandwidth didn't really support it very well. What will they accomplish by playing copy cat catch up?

Hotmail, launched in 1996, has just over 325 million users around the globe. That makes it the Web's largest email service, but its lead is shrinking. Google's Gmail now has 298.2 million users. Yahoo Mail is right behind, with 298 million users, according to tracking firm comScore.

Something tells me, that 90% of all .hotmail, .gmail, .yahoo email users, have accounts on all three services. Almost all gmail users I know also have the others. In fact I have gmail and a hotmail account. Not for email, but I have .hotmail because of the .Net Passport for my MSDN subscription, and I have gmail because I need it to activate my Android device.

So Microsoft is really trying to stick it to them selves. Chasing down users they already have.

The only email service I use is my own domain POP3.

It's clear that Microsoft is going after Gmail users, some of whom are dissatisfied with recent changes to the service's user interface. The new Outlook makes porting over Gmail contacts very easy, and it understands Gmail keyboard shortcuts. You can even keep sending and receiving email from a Gmail address. That option lets Outlook invisibly take over behind the scenes.

Just what Microsoft needs an option that takes over behind the scenes. I am ditching Android and Google, when my phone goes on the blink, and opt for a no frills cell phone in the future. If Microsoft gets so over bearing, I will learn to live with out MSDN, I'll just buy a Mac and develop in Objective C or Java for that matter.

Microsoft's goal: To get to 1 billion users around the world.

And you can obtain that if you just ask all of your users to create three accounts.