It was a service introduced in the late nineties; it was at a time when email communication was relatively new and the concept of free emails was a rarity. With this service people realized the convenience of signing up for an account or several and use them to maintain correspondence over the web and access their account from any computer linked to an internet connection.

It has undergone several changes after that. It was acquired by Microsoft who made it part of the MSN portfolio of services. Hence, those who had a domain could also access different services under the MSN banner. As the consolidation efforts of Microsoft continued, it was made part of the Live domain; as a result, one could access their account through the domain as well as through msn.com or Live domain. Today the Outlook web mail service has been launched by Microsoft and has been made part of the Outlook domain as well.

You might have the need to export or import contacts from your account. If you are looking to export your it, here are some steps to follow:

• Sign into your account through the unified login panel in Outlook.
• In the upper left corner of your account’s main page, click on the down arrow.
• Here you will find people option; click on the manage function; here you get the export function choice. Choose to save the file on your desktop.
• This file can be uploaded into any email contacts, settings as required.

If you wish to export it from your email, the above steps ensure that this is easily done. For those who have a subscription bought for MSN Plus, here you can easily synchronize between Outlook Express and your contacts. You will be able to export it from one to another in any format or to any desired application.

If you wish to import it from different email accounts into your account, this is done in a reverse but similar way. For instance:

• Log on to the email you have and visit the account main page.
• Go to settings, especially the section for managing it.
• Here you will find the option to export or import.
• When you select the export option, you will get the option to download the contacts from the account and save them in a desired location or format.
• Now you can log onto your Hotmail account. Visit the section called People or Manage contacts.
• Here you will find the option to import contacts. When you click on this option, you will have choices to choose from such as import contacts from which source and so forth.
• Specify the location and your contacts will be imported into your account.

With this service having undergone several changes under Outlook and Live domain, there are many more reasons to use this service. You get a more secure web mail experience; the quick account access feature provides a preview of the incoming mails, reducing your time of viewing the mail contents, even the attachments that come with your emails. There are easy ways to organize your inbox and use the mobile app to stay connected to your account. With different aliases you can get correspondence from different IDs to the same account.

The above points highlight how Hotmail is a versatile and modern updated email service. If you have an account that has been lying unused, this might be a time to start using it and as the main email account as well.