Outlook.com
Outlook.com, formerly Hotmail, is a free personal email service offered by Microsoft. This includes a webmail interface featuring mail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks services. Outlook can also be accessed via email clients using the IMAP or POP protocols.
Outlook.com inbox with open Skype windows | |
Type of site | Webmail, calendaring, contacts, and tasks |
|---|---|
| Available in | 106 languages |
| Owner | Microsoft |
| URL | outlook |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 500 million |
| Launched | July 4, 1996 (as Hotmail) July 31, 2012 (as Outlook.com) |
Content license | Proprietary and Free |
Founded in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith as Hotmail, it was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million, with it becoming part of the MSN family of online services, branded as MSN Hotmail. In May 2007, the service was rebranded to Windows Live Hotmail, as part of the Windows Live suite of products. It was changed back to Hotmail in October 2011 and was fully replaced by Outlook in February 2013, sharing the same brand as the Microsoft Outlook software which is offered via a Microsoft 365 (formerly Microsoft Office) subscription.
Outlook is offered with any Microsoft account, using @outlook.com, @hotmail.com, @msn.com, as well as @live.com and @passport.com (which are no longer offered) domains.