In 1996 my university email account, my first, was deactivated due to my graduation. I actually went several months without an email address. You could get away with that in those days. Email was still a novelty and many Americans didn't have an address.
Knowing I was heading to Spain for a year I established an account with hotmail. Hotmail was free and web based so it could be accessed anywhere. I found that pretty amazing at the time. I set up my account but my name, in several iterations, had already been taken. I was forced to go with dcarltonwhite@hotmail.com which I always thought was a little long. Plus I always had to spell it out to people on the phone.
Other web based hosts never tempted me to switch over. Yahoo had too much bulk and junk mail. Gmail didn't have enough features to cause me to ditch hotmail. Microsoft made great improvements to hotmail over the last few years. But it was never enough to erase the stigma that had been associated with the name. Hotmail was seen as a service used by computer novices. Many were embarassed to have one. I was never one of those. Hotmail always worked great for me.
But on August 1st Microsoft began their phase out of Hotmail. I quickly set up an account in order to stake my claim to a better email name. My first two choices were taken but I ended up with a pretty good name. Hotmail addresses will still be operational for the time being but they have shifted to the new format. The new name for MSN's web based email is actually an old name...Outlook.
Outlook has been MSN's client based email for years. My current SMU account is an Outlook account. But the new web based Outlook has a new, clean, minimalist format. It's very user friendly and has been getting excellent reviews from techies at Slate, Mashable and CNET. I've been impressed as well.
I hate to send out that email to my contacts about my address switch. I know it's a hassle for people to make the switch. I'll be sending it out in a few weeks. I'll keep my Hotmail for awhile, forwarding all my emails to my new Outlook account. I'm a little nostalgic about phasing it out. That email has been the constant throughout job changes (and the accompanying email changes) and service provider changes.
So goodbye Hotmail. You were a great email home.
