Microsoft Replacing Hotmail For Outlook

Hotmail, the email service provided by Microsoft, will be replaced by the company's new email technology, Outlook.com. Hotmail was started in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, and then sold to Microsoft in 1998 for $400 million

Users will keep the hotmail addresses, but will now have the Outlook platform, which includes a new visual presentation as well as a feature called “Sweep,” which automatically sorts select messages. Outlook has implemented a $30 million marketing campaign in order to compete with Google’s Gmail. according to ABC News. Outlook claims it will offer more privacy than Gmail, which allows Google to sift through emails for search words to enhance advertising.

The change is certainly a bold move for Microsoft and its 300 million users.

"It’s not a light brand decision," Outlook.com senior director of product management for Outlook.com Dharmesh Mehta told the Los Angeles Times. "I don’t know of any other company that has hundreds of thousands of users and has changed the brand name. But this is something new, an opportunity to set us up for the future." —Hal Sundt