Hotmail
Windows Live Hotmail, formerly known as MSN Hotmail and commonly referred to simply as Hotmail, is a free web-based email service operated by Microsoft as part of its Windows Live group. It was founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith and launched in July 1996 as "HoTMaiL". It was one of the first web-based email services. Its original name and capitalization refers to HTML, the encoding language used by the World Wide Web. It was also one of the first free email providers. It was subsequently acquired by Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million, and shortly after it was rebranded as "MSN Hotmail". The current version, "Windows Live Hotmail", was officially announced in 2005 and released worldwide in 2007.
Windows Live Hotmail features unlimited storage, security measures for which patents have been filed, Ajax technology, and integration with Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail Calendar, SkyDrive and Contacts. According to comScore (August 2010) Windows Live Hotmail is the world's largest web-based email service with nearly 364 million users. Second and third are Yahoo! Mail (280 million) and Gmail (191 million). It is available in 36 different languages.
The Hotmail development and operations groups are based in Mountain View, California. When Hotmail Corporation was an independent company, its headquarters were in SunnyVille, California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail)
Windows Live Hotmail features unlimited storage, security measures for which patents have been filed, Ajax technology, and integration with Windows Live Messenger, Hotmail Calendar, SkyDrive and Contacts. According to comScore (August 2010) Windows Live Hotmail is the world's largest web-based email service with nearly 364 million users. Second and third are Yahoo! Mail (280 million) and Gmail (191 million). It is available in 36 different languages.
The Hotmail development and operations groups are based in Mountain View, California. When Hotmail Corporation was an independent company, its headquarters were in SunnyVille, California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail)
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! Mail (shortened to Y! Mail) is a free web mail service provided by Yahoo!. It was inaugurated in 1997. According to comScore, Yahoo! Mail is the second largest web-based e-mail service with 273.1 million users as of November 2010.
Currently, Yahoo! offers two versions of Yahoo! Mail: an Outlook-like Ajax interface based upon code the company acquired from Oddpost in 2004, as well as the traditional full-page-scroll "Yahoo! Mail Classic," which continues the availability of the simpler 1997-2006 interface for the brand's considerable installed base of users. In early 2008, Yahoo! started offering unlimited mail storage to its users, in response to heated competition in the free-web mail market segment.
On June 27, 2009, Yahoo! Messenger was integrated with Yahoo! Mail Beta. This means that Messenger and Mail are together in one place, allowing users to connect instantly with others who are online, switch between e-mail and chat, with no download or setup required. This new feature is now available for Mail Classic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Mail)
Currently, Yahoo! offers two versions of Yahoo! Mail: an Outlook-like Ajax interface based upon code the company acquired from Oddpost in 2004, as well as the traditional full-page-scroll "Yahoo! Mail Classic," which continues the availability of the simpler 1997-2006 interface for the brand's considerable installed base of users. In early 2008, Yahoo! started offering unlimited mail storage to its users, in response to heated competition in the free-web mail market segment.
On June 27, 2009, Yahoo! Messenger was integrated with Yahoo! Mail Beta. This means that Messenger and Mail are together in one place, allowing users to connect instantly with others who are online, switch between e-mail and chat, with no download or setup required. This new feature is now available for Mail Classic.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahoo!_Mail)
GMail
Gmail, known as Google Mail in Germany, was made available to the public by Google on 1 April 2004, after extensive rumors of its existence during testing. Owing to the April Fool's Day release, the company's press release aroused skepticism in the technology world, especially since Google had been known to make April Fool's jokes in the past, such as PigeonRank. However, they explained that their real joke had been a press release saying that they would take offshoring to the extreme by putting employees in a "Google Copernicus Center" on the Moon. Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice-president of products, was quoted by BBC News as saying, "We are very serious about Gmail."
In March 2004, Google said that Gmail would probably be released publicly after six months of testing, which would have placed their launch in September 2004. Speculation regarding the release date followed a The New York Times indication that they had "credible sources" saying "Gmail will be released publicly by the end of the year 2005." Until July 2009 however, the site remained in beta development stage. The number of invitations existing account holders can send has been varied, presumably to control the usage and growth of the system. The use of the invitation/text message system helped prevent spammers from registering numerous accounts for purposes of spamming and ensured that any account used illegally would have the invitation e-mail address or phone number to trace a user back to.
In March 2004, Google said that Gmail would probably be released publicly after six months of testing, which would have placed their launch in September 2004. Speculation regarding the release date followed a The New York Times indication that they had "credible sources" saying "Gmail will be released publicly by the end of the year 2005." Until July 2009 however, the site remained in beta development stage. The number of invitations existing account holders can send has been varied, presumably to control the usage and growth of the system. The use of the invitation/text message system helped prevent spammers from registering numerous accounts for purposes of spamming and ensured that any account used illegally would have the invitation e-mail address or phone number to trace a user back to.
Other Links related to Google
Google History:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html
Time Article “Meeting The Google Guys”:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1158956,00.html
Forbes article on the man who invented China’s Google and Google’s possible competition: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/technology-baidu-robin-li-man-whos-beating-google_2.html
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/history.html
Time Article “Meeting The Google Guys”:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1158956,00.html
Forbes article on the man who invented China’s Google and Google’s possible competition: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/technology-baidu-robin-li-man-whos-beating-google_2.html
