Hotmail – the first webmailer (PCGH-Retro, July 4th)

…1996: If you want an e-mail account, you can get it from your Internet provider – changing the same also forces the user to choose a new address. The independent e-mail service Hotmail freed its users from this compulsion, suitably launched on July 4, 1996, the US Independence Day. Hotmail not only frees you from providers, but also from e-mail clients: the service can be used from anywhere via a web interface, the browser, without special software. This online focus is underscored by the company name, which started out as “HoTMaiL”, with the capital letters “HTML” for the website structure of the same name. Hotmail soon becomes one of the largest mail providers in the USA and the principle of the web interface becomes the standard; At the end of 1997, Microsoft took over the service and initially renamed it “MSN Hotmail” and later “Windows Live Hotmail”. However, the next leap in the development of web mail services will not come from the pioneer – but from Microsoft’s biggest competitor on the web: Google.