At a time when email services being web based and free was unknown, Sabeer Bhatia, an IT entrepreneur along with his partner Jack Smith, founded the service. It was a webmail service that was launched in 1996, around the same time when Yahoo, another email service was launched for web based usage. It made it possible for users to sign up for a new email account from anywhere in the world and access it to send across emails to any email address, as long as one had access to a working internet connection.

The service gained vast popularity and by 1997 there were more than eight million subscribers for this novel email service. It was bought off by Microsoft in the same year and made part of the MSN group offerings. Microsoft introduced the following features to enhance the use and popularity of it:

• It was made popular and available through local domains for different countries.
• The subscription base grew from eight to thirty million in two years after it was acquired by Microsoft.
• Microsoft started to integrate email with different functions and services; when it was made part of MSN it became integrated with the instant messaging feature of MSN as well as with other social network programs.
• The domain was moved to Windows Live which was part of the integration effort that Microsoft took up in the new millennium.
• It was then made part of Outlook service. This was the latest integration effort of Microsoft by which the Windows based Outlook program was made into a web based email service. Under the Outlook domain all other email and messaging services were included which brought in it under this domain as well.

With the new synchronized service, accounts can now be accessed through Live or Outlook domain. The existing account users find their contact, tasks and calendar data to be intact and saved on the new domain and email inbox. With the emails synced in the new platform, users benefit by finding new features to use that are part of the modern Outlook mail domain.

There are several new features on offer in the new inbox:

• The email inbox has a new layout interface along with several new features to use.
• The users can use the new concept of aliases as introduced to Microsoft account users along with features like sweep action to remove clutter which can be scheduled to occur in one’s inbox as well as categories and instant actions to use in one’s inbox.
• The updates that are issued for security purposes get extended to accounts as well.
• The two step verification feature ensures that account users can stay logged into their account from different devices as well as have easy ways to retrieve their password as and when required.
• The integration of social media accounts of users helps them see the updates and posts on such accounts as and when they come and are able to reply and post updates as well.
• Users can use their login ID details as an integrated feature for using with different services of Microsoft. Hence, the same login details can provide access to Windows services, Xbox access, as the login details to OneDrive, Skype and others.
• The Outlook app for smart phones allows one to stay connected to their account on the go. The email, mobile interface is easy to use and allow similar organizational features as are found in the desktop interface.

Hotmail having moved to Outlook domain has changed in several ways. The mail interface is modern and there are several new features that make the mail inbox usage convenient.