Back at the inception of the free email era, it was Hotmail that ruled the roost — in fact, for a time, it was the only electronic mail service that provided users with free email accounts.  And the Microsoft (News - Alert) product quickly grew in popularity. But times change, and other services soon provided competition; many, in fact, offered better features and more storage space.  Soon, Microsoft was under serious threat by the services like Yahoo! and Gmail.  Now, as Hotmail tries to regain its position as the top consumer email service, it is finding that the competition is considerably tougher than a decade ago. 

 

When the company announced Windows Live Hotmail back in 2005, it did so with the expectation it would once again lead to market domination. But with so many alternatives, gaining ground has proven more difficult than ever. Realizing it would need to provide something new, Microsoft has now introduced a host of new features to Windows Live Hotmail — including greater storage space.

 

Hotmail users will now get a storage space of 4 gigabytes (double the previous allotment); paying customers will get 10 GB, instead of five. Still, when other Web-based email providers are offering unlimited storage, Microsoft’s offer is, at best, superficial. The odds are stacked against Microsoft being able to convince customers they should pay for 10 GB when they can get more for free — unless Microsoft sweetens the deal.

 

Indeed, Microsoft is planning to introduce new features, features it says are unavailable with other email services.  For instance, the company says it plans to increase the time messages are left in “junk” and “deleted” folders.  It also plans to make it easier for users to see embedded links and images in messages. And there is also a tool to get rid of duplicate entries.

 

Language support is something that Microsoft takes seriously — as is evident from the vast selection of languages supported by its Office products. For Hotmail, Microsoft has added support for Hebrew and Arabic languages — where words run from right to left.

 

Finally, Microsoft says it is enhancing its network architecture to increase the speed ot the service, which received frequent complaints.

 

With all these changes set to deliver an enhanced user experience, Microsoft hopes it can win back some of the users it has lost in during the last ten years. But, unless it can convince users that it can truly make a difference with the few features it has added, it will still be an uphill battle — especially if it does not add POP3 support, which users are increasingly requesting.