Comments on: Microsoft should sell hotmail http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/ Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:52:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: ejovi nuwere http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-46839 ejovi nuwere Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:13:55 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-46839 The more you click, the more page views. Hotmail advertising is about pageviews, unlike Google. These dynamics unfortunatly lead to bad applications that could be simple but aren't, for the sake of increasing revenue. The more you click, the more page views. Hotmail advertising is about pageviews, unlike Google. These dynamics unfortunatly lead to bad applications that could be simple but aren’t, for the sake of increasing revenue.

]]> By: Sven http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-46783 Sven Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:08:21 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-46783 Anyone noticed that features have suddenly been disappearing from hotmail? Like the ability to arrange your mail by something other than from newest mail to oldest. You used to be able to click on the: "From, Subject, Date, Size" links and arrange it in either of the 2 possible directions. Now they aren't links. And "Junk mail" used to give you a little number by it on parenthesis with the number of new messages. (ie: Junk E-Mail(3) ) If there was no number then you didn't need to check. This is important because messages in there are automatically deleted after a short period. Well, the number isn't there anymore... and I've missed checking it because it didn't say that it had any junk mail. (and I had mail in there that I wanted to recieve.) The number isn't there for "Inbox" either anymore, but I always check that. Not only this, but there used to be a drop down menu that allowed you to chose which page of your inbox you wanted to go to. Like, page 23 of 55. Since we now have over 1GB of space it is likely that we'll have many pages of e-mails. Well this feature is also gone. So now the only way to get to page 23 is to click the forward arrow 22 times. :( That's all I've noticed of the top of my head, but it's happened fairly recently because I've been using these features until very recently. With these features gone, hotmail has truly become unusable. My guess is that thay want to squeeze everyone out so they can make them switch to their new Live Mail Hotmail whatever... But the fact that they would go this far to do it is really infuriating. Now I have no choice but to join live mail (which I've heard many bad things about) or find a new mail account which means a new e-mail and telling all of my contacts that I have a new mail address... it really is unusable; the other day I needed very desperately to find info in an e-mail from about 3 months back. Well, I new who it was from, but I couldn't arrange my mail by name. And I could guess about the page it would be on, but I still had to click 20 or 30 times to get to that page. And when I e-mailed the site and submitted my info which got me a reply e-mail with my password or username or whatever, this e-mail ended up in my junk mail which I never checked because it had no notification that there were unread messages there. Only when I had requested the info again and was getting desperate did I venture into the Junk Mail folder and find the e-mail. (incidently, it was there along with the RSS feed e-mail for Ejovi's site, which never used to be junk...) Hotmail... grrr... Anyone noticed that features have suddenly been disappearing from hotmail? Like the ability to arrange your mail by something other than from newest mail to oldest. You used to be able to click on the: “From, Subject, Date, Size” links and arrange it in either of the 2 possible directions. Now they aren’t links. And “Junk mail” used to give you a little number by it on parenthesis with the number of new messages. (ie: Junk E-Mail(3) ) If there was no number then you didn’t need to check. This is important because messages in there are automatically deleted after a short period. Well, the number isn’t there anymore… and I’ve missed checking it because it didn’t say that it had any junk mail. (and I had mail in there that I wanted to recieve.) The number isn’t there for “Inbox” either anymore, but I always check that. Not only this, but there used to be a drop down menu that allowed you to chose which page of your inbox you wanted to go to. Like, page 23 of 55. Since we now have over 1GB of space it is likely that we’ll have many pages of e-mails. Well this feature is also gone. So now the only way to get to page 23 is to click the forward arrow 22 times. :( That’s all I’ve noticed of the top of my head, but it’s happened fairly recently because I’ve been using these features until very recently. With these features gone, hotmail has truly become unusable. My guess is that thay want to squeeze everyone out so they can make them switch to their new Live Mail Hotmail whatever… But the fact that they would go this far to do it is really infuriating. Now I have no choice but to join live mail (which I’ve heard many bad things about) or find a new mail account which means a new e-mail and telling all of my contacts that I have a new mail address… it really is unusable; the other day I needed very desperately to find info in an e-mail from about 3 months back. Well, I new who it was from, but I couldn’t arrange my mail by name. And I could guess about the page it would be on, but I still had to click 20 or 30 times to get to that page. And when I e-mailed the site and submitted my info which got me a reply e-mail with my password or username or whatever, this e-mail ended up in my junk mail which I never checked because it had no notification that there were unread messages there. Only when I had requested the info again and was getting desperate did I venture into the Junk Mail folder and find the e-mail. (incidently, it was there along with the RSS feed e-mail for Ejovi’s site, which never used to be junk…) Hotmail… grrr…

]]> By: ejovi nuwere http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-34070 ejovi nuwere Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:22:50 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-34070 My main point is that hotmail can be so much better. Its quality is far behind the competing mail services. Namely Yahoo and Gmail, namely because its not very important to them. Like you said, "its predictable" for them. Predictable revenue, predictable usage patterns. Just like Kodak didn't feel like they needed to go into digital because film was a predictable business. This complacency kills business. That's why they need to either sell it or make it a seperate company to reinvigorate it. My main point is that hotmail can be so much better. Its quality is far behind the competing mail services. Namely Yahoo and Gmail, namely because its not very important to them. Like you said, “its predictable” for them. Predictable revenue, predictable usage patterns. Just like Kodak didn’t feel like they needed to go into digital because film was a predictable business. This complacency kills business. That’s why they need to either sell it or make it a seperate company to reinvigorate it.

]]> By: David Jacobs http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-33276 David Jacobs Thu, 30 Nov 2006 22:03:23 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-33276 I'm mostly playing devil's advocate, but I really don't think Microsoft thinks that way. They have a simple predictable service, and it's fine for the vast majority of users. The people who would even think to be dissatisfied (most of your community here) are not within their target base. They are happy to give away the disgruntled users, as long as it's the vocal 10%, to gmail. The rest of mail users they split with Yahoo - still a good business. They probably make a few dollars a user a year on each ad space. A lot of money! I’m mostly playing devil’s advocate, but I really don’t think Microsoft thinks that way. They have a simple predictable service, and it’s fine for the vast majority of users. The people who would even think to be dissatisfied (most of your community here) are not within their target base.

They are happy to give away the disgruntled users, as long as it’s the vocal 10%, to gmail. The rest of mail users they split with Yahoo - still a good business. They probably make a few dollars a user a year on each ad space. A lot of money!

]]> By: ejovi nuwere http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-32942 ejovi nuwere Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:12:27 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-32942 Does hotmail make a lot of money? How much does it make? Its not really clear. The reason to sell is it, is that as a seperate company I think it would be able to make MORE money because it wouldn't be constrained by Microsoft's antiquated advertising infrastructure. Also, you can see from comments here, and many people I've spoken to. A lot of people who use hotmail are not happy. "when they want more they leave" is just terrible business. How many successful companies use this model? Does hotmail make a lot of money? How much does it make? Its not really clear. The reason to sell is it, is that as a seperate company I think it would be able to make MORE money because it wouldn’t be constrained by Microsoft’s antiquated advertising infrastructure.

Also, you can see from comments here, and many people I’ve spoken to. A lot of people who use hotmail are not happy. “when they want more they leave” is just terrible business. How many successful companies use this model?

]]> By: David Jacobs http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-32440 David Jacobs Sat, 25 Nov 2006 04:20:48 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-32440 Hotmail has a lot of users, but why would MS sell it? It makes a lot of money for them, and the users don't ask for more. When they want more, they leave. It's a great relationship for all involved! Hotmail has a lot of users, but why would MS sell it? It makes a lot of money for them, and the users don’t ask for more. When they want more, they leave. It’s a great relationship for all involved!

]]> By: Paolo Gagliardi http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-31633 Paolo Gagliardi Mon, 20 Nov 2006 21:11:34 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-31633 Oh Yeah!!! APPLAUSE HERE! Oh Yeah!!! APPLAUSE HERE!

]]> By: Sven http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-31512 Sven Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:58:06 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-31512 Yeah, exactly!! How can you feel safe about all your important e-mails in info if it could get deleted when you take a long vacation. I was annoyed way back when they started auto-deleting your "sent messages" after 30 days. I mean, if I checked that little box that says "save this message" then I would expect it to be saved. Instead I lost many messages. So now I periodically transfer all the files from "sent messages" to a new folder "sent" that I created in my hotmail account. It is basically no change as far as hotmail is concerned, but then my mail isn't deleted. Just a stupid system. And to solve the bigger problem, I periodically let all of my hotmail be downloaded to Outlook so it is saved on my computer. (and yes, you can still do this, even though they say you can't, you just need the right prog.) Yeah, exactly!! How can you feel safe about all your important e-mails in info if it could get deleted when you take a long vacation. I was annoyed way back when they started auto-deleting your “sent messages” after 30 days. I mean, if I checked that little box that says “save this message” then I would expect it to be saved. Instead I lost many messages. So now I periodically transfer all the files from “sent messages” to a new folder “sent” that I created in my hotmail account. It is basically no change as far as hotmail is concerned, but then my mail isn’t deleted. Just a stupid system. And to solve the bigger problem, I periodically let all of my hotmail be downloaded to Outlook so it is saved on my computer. (and yes, you can still do this, even though they say you can’t, you just need the right prog.)

]]> By: westsan http://blog.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-31446 westsan Sun, 19 Nov 2006 13:29:45 +0000 http://www.ejovi.net/2006/11/19/microsoft-should-sell-hotmail/#comment-31446 Word! You said it all -G!! Word! You said it all -G!!

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