When one conjures up memories of the early days of the internet three things come to mind: AOL CDs arriving in the mail twice a week, the weird sound dial up modems made while connecting and Hotmail email addresses.
While Hotmail was able to endure longer than the other two, it finally met its demise Friday as Microsoft rolled the email provider into their new Outlook service.
"We want to give a huge 'Thank you' to all of you who have supported Hotmail over the years, for some of you, that's going back as far as 1996," Dick Craddock, Program Manager of Outlook.com wrote on his blog."It has been an amazing journey and we've been honored to provide you with a great mail experience for many years."
Hotmail accounts won't be disappearing completely. All accounts are being moved onto Outlook without requiring users to change their email address.
When Hotmail was started by Sabeer Batia and Jack Smith in 1996 it was one of the first web based email services. The name was originally spelled HoTMaiL in order to reference the provider's use of HTML , according to the blog "A Short History of Hotmail." When Hotmail debuted it became very popular very quickly in part because of the price, it was free. At the time most users were paying providers such as AOL or Prodigy to host their email.
Outlook will be taking responsibility over the 300 million active Hotmail accounts. Outlook is in many ways an upgrade of Hotmail. Still, many users will miss the old Hotmail for nostalgic purposes if nothing else.
"Our belief is that as people start using the new experience, they will come to love it even more than they loved Hotmail," Craddock said. "We are keenly listening to what our customers have to say, and we'll make the right set of adjustments to ensure we make the experience as great as it can be."
