Windows Live Hotmail Goes to 5Gb, & 10Gb For $15

Further updates to enhance the service

[engine]

Windows Live Hotmail service now offers a staggering 5Gb storage for free, and an option of 10Gb for $15 per year.

This, and the other enhancements are being rolled out to users over the coming weeks.

In addition, there are quite a few other enhancements announced by Ellie Powers-Boyle, program manager for Hotmail, and these include:

Performance speed and quality of service enhancements, mail retention extention to junk and deleted folders, contacts de-duplication facility, image blocking to help with anti-spam prevention, along with anti-phishing & spam reporting filtering.

If that's not enough, message forwarding now offers the capability of forwarding to other accounts.

Finally, there is an option to turn off the the Today page (MSN News) if you want to go straight to your mailbox.

All I need to do now is work out what to store in that 5GB of storage.

[jake66]

what about their over-active filters? Hotmail is known to completely purge "potentially" spammish mails without alerting the sending party or administrator.

i wouldn't think for a split second to pay for a service that carries this practice.
even for free, they're asking alot..

[vincevincevince]

Yet another 'repackaging' of hotmail and yet the functionality is still miles behind even basic email offerings. It's not a question of space, it's a question of usability.

Here are what I'd have liked them to have done:

Attachments scanned for viruses automatically so I can open a file download box with a single click

URLs in links so I can 'open in new window' or 'open in new tab'

IMAP access

Ability to add Hotmail/Microsoft to the blocked senders list

Most importantly - email processed quickly. Send an email to a hotmail account, cc: a Gmail account and Gmail will have it shown far faster

[piatkow]

Typical 1 to 1 exchange rate from dollars to sterling!

I will have to check if the UK service has been "enhanced" although as image blocking has been around for years I do wonder what actual improvements have been made.

[pageoneresults]

what about their over-active filters? Hotmail is known to completely purge "potentially" spammish mails without alerting the sending party or administrator.

Hotmail is one of the largest targets of spam. I don't blame them for stopping most of the spam in its tracks. Its just like anything else, there will be collateral damage.

How do you avoid that? Become a Trusted Email Provider and be added to their white list. Use a third party provider to send your mail, one who has an established history with @hotmail, @yahoo, @msn, etc. We've had some great topics on this in the past.

Microsoft has been pretty active lately, what are they up to?

I know, they were wanting some balance on the WebmasterWorld Home Page. :)

[jake66]

Hotmail is one of the largest targets of spam. I don't blame them for stopping most of the spam in its tracks. Its just like anything else, there will be collateral damage.

I see what you're saying, but more spam gets through their filters than some legitimate companies' emails. A friend of mine had their university registration mails filtered for crying out loud.. yet there's a never-ending plethora of viagra and "you've received a greeting card from a friend!" in the inbox.

I understand why their filters are as tough as they are, but they PURGE some mails without even sending them to the junkbox and don't even have the courtesy to send a failure response back to the sending server. To me this is baffling. Why send some mail to the junkbox but completely purge the others?