Hotmail to Increase Storage Capacity

Randy · 06-23-2004, 05:01 PM

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to give paying customers for its Hotmail e-mail service 2 gigabytes of storage and boost the size limits on free accounts, matching similar moves earlier this month by rival Yahoo Inc., the company said on Wednesday.

Microsoft also said that it will roll out free e-mail and anti-virus protection to all the 170 million MSN Hotmail customers worldwide that will both scan and clean incoming and outgoing e-mail for viruses and worms before they can enter a customer's inbox.

The changes will start early in July, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said.

Yahoo (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) earlier this month made good on a promise to boost the storage it provides to users of its e-mail service, raising the stakes in the e-mail war with Web search rival Google Inc. Google has announced plans for its Gmail service that gives users 1 gigabyte of free storage, far more than offered by Yahoo or Microsoft's e-mail services.

"The playing field has changed," said Blake Irving, vice president of communication services and member platform for MSN. "We're going to take storage off the table as an issue."

Microsoft will now boost storage to 250 megabytes for users of its free MSN Hotmail and also increased the size of attachments that can be sent with e-mails, to 10 megabytes from 1 megabyte previously. Users of the free MSN Hotmail before had 2 megabytes of storage capacity.

Microsoft also announced a premium Web service called MSN Hotmail Plus, for $19.95 per year, giving customers 2 gigabytes of online storage and the ability to send 20 megabyte attachments.

All current Hotmail extra storage subscribers worldwide will be upgraded to MSN Hotmail Plus when it launches globally later this summer, Microsoft said. MSN Premium subscribers will also receive those added storage benefits later this year.

Customers of Hotmail Plus also will not see graphical advertisements -- they will be replaced by text advertisements -- and their accounts will never expire, Irving said. Users of the free Hotmail e-mail service must log in at least once every 30 days or their accounts expire.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5498429

Oh, and I am covering this "Email War" on my blog.

intelliot · 06-23-2004, 11:24 PM

250 MB is still 1/4 of the space Gmail provides. Wonder if they'll do anything about all the dating banner ads?

ljlyblue · 06-24-2004, 03:33 AM

a good news to all the customers
it shuold have been increased.

06-26-2004, 01:34 PM

haha that 2mb that they used to give you was useless, i would always have my inbox full, infact i had an hotmail account for 2 weeks and my inbox was full, so i switched to yahoo, which gave me 6mb, although still not enough, but better than 2mb, yahoo then switched to 4 mb, now that gmail has come out, they both felt competition coming so they increased their inboxes..haha makes me laugh. anyways if they really want to compete, yahoo and hotmail both have to get rid of those annoying flashing ads

kevin · 06-26-2004, 08:52 PM

250m is still useless if you got tons of spam messages everyday.

mandy · 06-27-2004, 02:00 PM

No big difference between 250m and 1G now! The better the service, the more people use it!

Zain · 06-28-2004, 09:21 AM

I really don't think increasing there space will make that much of an impact. I mean they have so many damn ads. Plus most days you get a "server busy" message atleast once. Spam + ads + unreliable server=terrible email service

metalblade1335 · 06-28-2004, 03:01 PM

that sounds like good idea but they will not be able to compet with gmail

absent-minded · 06-28-2004, 04:44 PM

this is another one of the sad, futile attempts to shield Gmail from taking over the free email world and to retain existing users. if anything, the only reason people would keep their Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts - once Gmail is open to the entire emailing public - is to take advantage of the instant messaging features, which will presumably again be taken over by Google in the near future.

absent-minded · 06-28-2004, 05:36 PM

oh, and wait... I just thought about this... maybe Hotmail purposely waited til Yahoo! came out with it's upgrade. the reason behind this is so that even if they know they can't overcome Google's power, they could at least have a slight edge over Yahoo!... it would be embarassing for Yahoo! to yet again upgrade it's storage. doing so would have it mocked upon as a "wannabe" and "trying hard" email provider...

06-23-2004, 05:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
Randy Google Guru Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 2,133 Thanks: 0 Thanked 4 Times in 3 Posts	Hotmail to Increase Storage Capacity SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) plans to give paying customers for its Hotmail e-mail service 2 gigabytes of storage and boost the size limits on free accounts, matching similar moves earlier this month by rival Yahoo Inc., the company said on Wednesday. Microsoft also said that it will roll out free e-mail and anti-virus protection to all the 170 million MSN Hotmail customers worldwide that will both scan and clean incoming and outgoing e-mail for viruses and worms before they can enter a customer's inbox. The changes will start early in July, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said. Yahoo (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) earlier this month made good on a promise to boost the storage it provides to users of its e-mail service, raising the stakes in the e-mail war with Web search rival Google Inc. Google has announced plans for its Gmail service that gives users 1 gigabyte of free storage, far more than offered by Yahoo or Microsoft's e-mail services. "The playing field has changed," said Blake Irving, vice president of communication services and member platform for MSN. "We're going to take storage off the table as an issue." Microsoft will now boost storage to 250 megabytes for users of its free MSN Hotmail and also increased the size of attachments that can be sent with e-mails, to 10 megabytes from 1 megabyte previously. Users of the free MSN Hotmail before had 2 megabytes of storage capacity. Microsoft also announced a premium Web service called MSN Hotmail Plus, for $19.95 per year, giving customers 2 gigabytes of online storage and the ability to send 20 megabyte attachments. All current Hotmail extra storage subscribers worldwide will be upgraded to MSN Hotmail Plus when it launches globally later this summer, Microsoft said. MSN Premium subscribers will also receive those added storage benefits later this year. Customers of Hotmail Plus also will not see graphical advertisements -- they will be replaced by text advertisements -- and their accounts will never expire, Irving said. Users of the free Hotmail e-mail service must log in at least once every 30 days or their accounts expire. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5498429 Oh, and I am covering this "Email War" on my blog.

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06-23-2004, 11:24 PM	#2 (permalink)
intelliot Google Guru Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 2,528 Thanks: 15 Thanked 128 Times in 34 Posts	250 MB is still 1/4 of the space Gmail provides. Wonder if they'll do anything about all the dating banner ads?

06-24-2004, 03:33 AM	#3 (permalink)
ljlyblue Noogle Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	a good news to all the customers it shuold have been increased.

06-26-2004, 01:34 PM	#4 (permalink)
stuck_fugu Guest Posts: n/a	haha that 2mb that they used to give you was useless, i would always have my inbox full, infact i had an hotmail account for 2 weeks and my inbox was full, so i switched to yahoo, which gave me 6mb, although still not enough, but better than 2mb, yahoo then switched to 4 mb, now that gmail has come out, they both felt competition coming so they increased their inboxes..haha makes me laugh. anyways if they really want to compete, yahoo and hotmail both have to get rid of those annoying flashing ads

06-26-2004, 08:52 PM	#5 (permalink)
kevin Noogle Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 6 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	250m is still useless if you got tons of spam messages everyday.

06-27-2004, 02:00 PM	#6 (permalink)
mandy Noogle Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 7 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	No big difference between 250m and 1G now! The better the service, the more people use it!

06-28-2004, 09:21 AM	#7 (permalink)
Zain Noogle Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 5 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I really don't think increasing there space will make that much of an impact. I mean they have so many damn ads. Plus most days you get a "server busy" message atleast once. Spam + ads + unreliable server=terrible email service

06-28-2004, 03:01 PM	#8 (permalink)
metalblade1335 Senior Googler Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 161 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	that sounds like good idea but they will not be able to compet with gmail

06-28-2004, 04:44 PM	#9 (permalink)
absent-minded Googler Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 70 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	this is another one of the sad, futile attempts to shield Gmail from taking over the free email world and to retain existing users. if anything, the only reason people would keep their Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts - once Gmail is open to the entire emailing public - is to take advantage of the instant messaging features, which will presumably again be taken over by Google in the near future.

06-28-2004, 05:36 PM	#10 (permalink)
absent-minded Googler Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 70 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	oh, and wait... I just thought about this... maybe Hotmail purposely waited til Yahoo! came out with it's upgrade. the reason behind this is so that even if they know they can't overcome Google's power, they could at least have a slight edge over Yahoo!... it would be embarassing for Yahoo! to yet again upgrade it's storage. doing so would have it mocked upon as a "wannabe" and "trying hard" email provider...

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