Stiff Competition

[Hybrid Soldier]

By Jim Hu
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Microsoft said Wednesday that it will boost storage limits in its Hotmail Web e-mail service, a move intended to counter similar steps taken by rivals Google and Yahoo.

The upgrade will increase Hotmail's free e-mail storage limits from 2 megabytes to 250MB and its paid e-mail service, which costs $19.95 a year, from 10MB to 2 gigabytes. The changes will begin in early July.

"With these new offers, storage will not be an issue for MSN Hotmail customers," Blake Irving, corporate vice president of communication services for MSN, said in a statement.

The storage follows similar announcements from Google and Yahoo. The storage boost started when Google announced in April that it plans to launch a new e-mail service called Gmail that will give people 1GB of storage for free. The service has attracted some controversy, because it will serve advertisements based on keywords found in the text of peoples' e-mail messages.

Indeed, Google's initial steps into storage increases countered the industry's trend to charge extra for more memory. Over the past few years, Yahoo and Hotmail have both taken steps to decrease memory in hopes of convincing free users to become paying subscribers.

Earlier this month, Yahoo launched its own upgrade to 100MB for free users and 2GB for its paid users. The company said the changes would make e-mail storage a "nonissue."

"We'll remain focused on what e-mailers want and need, and people can expect to see a number of new enhancements to Yahoo Mail in the coming months," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said in response to the Microsoft announcement.

Ask Jeeves also plans to grant its e-mail subscribers more storage room. Earlier this year, the search company acquired Interactive Search Holdings, including My Way, The Excite Network and iWon.com, which all serve Web surfers with free e-mail. Ask Jeeves plans to give each of the sites' e-mail subscribers 125MB of free storage, up from an allottment of 3MB to 6MB previously.

Separately, Microsoft said it will offer free antivirus software to scan e-mails before they appear in a user's in-box.

[coley8605]

i'm definitely liking the whole 100mb storage deal with yahoo. hotmail is evil... now if only they'd work on spam. :shifty:

[Blaze]

goodie. more space is always nice. ^_^

[Glenn]

I heard in PC Mag that googles gmail has a lot of spy/adware

[Hybrid_Bunny]

Originally posted by Glenn@Jun 24 2004, 10:03 PM
I heard in PC Mag that googles gmail has a lot of spy/adware
I just got gmail too! Well, not that I used it anyway....4 invites left. I'm happy with my yahoo one anyway. I'm not that greedy. :lol:

[LPNeSSRGB]

Originally posted by Hybrid_Bunny+Jun 24 2004, 11:00 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Hybrid_Bunny @ Jun 24 2004, 11:00 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Glenn@Jun 24 2004, 10:03 PM
I heard in PC Mag that googles gmail has a lot of spy/adware
I just got gmail too&#33; Well, not that I used it anyway....4 invites left. I&#39;m happy with my yahoo one anyway. I&#39;m not that greedy. :lol: [/b][/quote]
The only problem is that we totally abuse the extra Yahoo space now&#33; :lol:
I&#39;m glad Hotmail is doing something similar. (w00t)

[zaplarue]

Gee...This is great&#33; I wish these companies keep fighting until we get 1 gb of space and i dunno&#33; Free everything&#33; :wacko:

[Blaze]

Originally posted by zaplarue@Jun 24 2004, 10:36 PM
Gee...This is great&#33; I wish these companies keep fighting until we get 1 gb of space and i dunno&#33; Free everything&#33; :wacko:
:lol: we can only hope

[Glenn]

Originally posted by Hybrid_Bunny+Jun 24 2004, 10:00 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Hybrid_Bunny @ Jun 24 2004, 10:00 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Glenn@Jun 24 2004, 10:03 PM
I heard in PC Mag that googles gmail has a lot of spy/adware
I just got gmail too&#33; Well, not that I used it anyway....4 invites left. I&#39;m happy with my yahoo one anyway. I&#39;m not that greedy. :lol: [/b][/quote]
U should use adaware to check ads on ur computer.

[Hybrid_Bunny]

Originally posted by Glenn+Jun 25 2004, 11:25 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Glenn @ Jun 25 2004, 11:25 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
Originally posted by -Hybrid_Bunny@Jun 24 2004, 10:00 PM
<!--QuoteBegin--Glenn@Jun 24 2004, 10:03 PM
I heard in PC Mag that googles gmail has a lot of spy/adware
I just got gmail too&#33; Well, not that I used it anyway....4 invites left. I&#39;m happy with my yahoo one anyway. I&#39;m not that greedy. :lol:
U should use adaware to check ads on ur computer. [/b][/quote]
Way ahead of you..I have four programs for dealing with spyware. :lol:

[Tomi]

And i bet if Google hadnt of done the 1GB mail Hotmail/Yahoo/anyone else would have upgraded their storage.

;)

[emmmers]

The service has attracted some controversy, because it will serve advertisements based on keywords found in the text of peoples&#39; e-mail messages.
Does that mean Google searches will actually find keywords in people&#39;s emails from then on?

[Todd]

Yes, google does scan the email. No, people who work there aren&#39;t reading your email. A computer scans your email to display related words. Like if someone e-mailed you about dogs, Google would then show a small ad on the side of the page related to dogs. Its not spyware.

[Alex]

*hugs his gmail account* :D

[Derek The Infamous]

Originally posted by Todd@Jun 27 2004, 01:07 PM
Yes, google does scan the email. No, people who work there aren&#39;t reading your email. A computer scans your email to display related words. Like if someone e-mailed you about dogs, Google would then show a small ad on the side of the page related to dogs. Its not spyware.
So if your hot girlfriend, writes you about how she wants to sex you up at the soonest possible date, they&#39;ll display an ad for Viagra?

No thanks, I&#39;d rather not have ANYTHING scan my emails.

[Will]

You&#39;d have to be really paranoid to not even let a respected company like Google with secure servers scan your email. :rolleyes:

[Mark]

If I wanted advertisements displayed when I read my e-mail, I&#39;d google for results myself. They should give you the right to turn off the feature.

I believe I&#39;ll wait for the new Hotmail.

[Will]

See, I don&#39;t understand what the problem is.

Yahoo&#33; displays ads. Hotmail displays ads. Email.com displays ads. Et cetera, et cetera.

The only difference with Google is that they display ads based on what your email is about.

I don&#39;t see the big deal about that.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Derek+Jun 27 2004, 11:05 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Derek @ Jun 27 2004, 11:05 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Todd@Jun 27 2004, 01:07 PM
Yes, google does scan the email. No, people who work there aren&#39;t reading your email. A computer scans your email to display related words. Like if someone e-mailed you about dogs, Google would then show a small ad on the side of the page related to dogs. Its not spyware.
So if your hot girlfriend, writes you about how she wants to sex you up at the soonest possible date, they&#39;ll display an ad for Viagra?

No thanks, I&#39;d rather not have ANYTHING scan my emails. [/b][/quote]
We scan peoples posts for swear words and change them. Its just the same thing. And the ads on gmail are tiny winy things

Take a look.. this is me reading my gmail with the ad on the side

[mirtheory]

Is Gmail available now for everyone, or is it still in beta stage? :mellow:

[Hybrid_Bunny]

Originally posted by mirtheory@Jun 28 2004, 11:18 AM
Is Gmail available now for everyone, or is it still in beta stage? :mellow:
I think you still need invites to get one. That&#39;s how I got my account.

[Stick N move]

Originally posted by Hybrid Soldier@Jun 24 2004, 09:23 PM

By Jim Hu
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Microsoft said Wednesday that it will boost storage limits in its Hotmail Web e-mail service, a move intended to counter similar steps taken by rivals Google and Yahoo.

The upgrade will increase Hotmail&#39;s free e-mail storage limits from 2 megabytes to 250MB and its paid e-mail service, which costs &#036;19.95 a year, from 10MB to 2 gigabytes. The changes will begin in early July.

"With these new offers, storage will not be an issue for MSN Hotmail customers," Blake Irving, corporate vice president of communication services for MSN, said in a statement.

The storage follows similar announcements from Google and Yahoo. The storage boost started when Google announced in April that it plans to launch a new e-mail service called Gmail that will give people 1GB of storage for free. The service has attracted some controversy, because it will serve advertisements based on keywords found in the text of peoples&#39; e-mail messages.

Indeed, Google&#39;s initial steps into storage increases countered the industry&#39;s trend to charge extra for more memory. Over the past few years, Yahoo and Hotmail have both taken steps to decrease memory in hopes of convincing free users to become paying subscribers.

Earlier this month, Yahoo launched its own upgrade to 100MB for free users and 2GB for its paid users. The company said the changes would make e-mail storage a "nonissue."

"We&#39;ll remain focused on what e-mailers want and need, and people can expect to see a number of new enhancements to Yahoo Mail in the coming months," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said in response to the Microsoft announcement.

Ask Jeeves also plans to grant its e-mail subscribers more storage room. Earlier this year, the search company acquired Interactive Search Holdings, including My Way, The Excite Network and iWon.com, which all serve Web surfers with free e-mail. Ask Jeeves plans to give each of the sites&#39; e-mail subscribers 125MB of free storage, up from an allottment of 3MB to 6MB previously.

Separately, Microsoft said it will offer free antivirus software to scan e-mails before they appear in a user&#39;s in-box.
I don&#39;t actually believe that. such things are usually not true.....
I hate that. wish it was true that&#39;ll be COOOOOWLLLL&#33;&#33;&#33; :lol: :o :o

[Kate]

I&#39;m perfectly happy with Yahoo&#33; and 100 megs. I&#39;m never going to use all of it anyway, so why bother changing to Hotmail?