The security of Web-based e-mail is about to get a lot tighter.
Microsoft gave the media a sneak peek on Tuesday at the new and improved version of its Hotmail service, which has gotten a major facelift and myriad new bells and whistles designed to make it more competitive. Among the changes are a number of less flashy, but perhaps more important, features that will make Hotmail more secure. Hotmail is the No. 1 service worldwide with more than 360 million users, but a distant No. 3 in the United States with 47 million users, according to the Web traffic measurement firm comScore. In the United States, Yahoo Mail is well ahead with 95 million users, while Gmail is gaining with 43 million.
The new version of Hotmail, scheduled to reach consumers this summer “is going to have a substantial impact on consumer security,” said Walt Harp, director of product management for Windows Live. “What we built is what people asked us to build.”
Looking forward to the Hotmail enhancements! My @msn.com is actually a premium Hotmail account for which I pay Microsoft $19.95/year. (When we changed ISPs from MSN dialup to Bellsouth (AT&T) DSL, we wanted to retain our old @msn.com address.)