My Decade Long Love Affair with Hotmail

In 1999 I received an email from a secret admirer to my @utoronto.ca from his @hotmail.com account. Had it not been addressed “To Wendy, the cutest girl on campus…” I would have thought it was spam from a dating site (later I found out that HoTMaiL is actually named after the encoding language “HTML”). So after a fair share of investigation, to this day I still don’t know who my secret admirer is but thanks to him for the introduction to Hotmail because this year we’ll be celebrating 12 years together!

Shortly after Hotmail, I discovered Messenger - a complimentary feature part of Windows Live that totally changed the way I communicate. Messenger allows me to easily stay connected in real time with family and friends around the globe, share photos instantly, play fun games and is perfect for multi-tasking between gossiping with the girls while working on assignments.

Hanging out with MSN Buddy at CES 2011.

Over the years I admit to flirting with others but my loyalty always returned and here’s why Hotmail continues to win me over:

• IMO the best user interface compared to other competitors. Get an overview of Hotmail highlights, social updates and MSN news headlines all on your welcome screen.
• Clutter-free of irrelevant in-your-face ads (as a matter of fact there is only one banner in each of the Highlights and Inbox views and you have the option to close the ad with a simple click).
• The junk mail (spam) filter does not disappoint! In a six months period, typically only one or two unknown emails mistakenly get placed in my Inbox. You can quickly and easily remove them with a click of the “junk” button which marks the sender unsafe.
• Folders system is easy to navigate and keeps thousands of emails neatly organized and readily accessible. Okay maybe I’m an email hoarder but Hotmail gives me plenty of space and has recently added a handy virtual broom feature to “sweep” and help declutter my Inbox.
• Reliable communication – whether sending out last minute class assignments (Hotmail effortlessly integrates with Office Web Apps), job applications, breakup/makeup letters, sharing photos/videos from life’s important moments, you can rest assure that messages get delivered fast and secure.
• Even my mom is a fan! When she finally made the switch over from snail mail to e-mail in the new millennium, I naturally introduced her to Hotmail because for the less technical savvy Hotmail is intuitive and user-friendly.

My home office where it's all about multi-tasking (hence the 4 monitors - for Hotmail, IM, blog, other)!

So now that I’ve given you a Window into my relationship, you can see how Hotmail has survived the college crush phase and stood the test of time. During this past decade Hotmail has made significant changes and improvements and I’m only looking forward to what the next ten years will Bing (ummm I mean “bring”).

A sponsored hip + urban girl post. Check out the rest of the Hotmail series...