Later, Hotmail was “re-invented” to add new features such as Categories, Instant Actions, scheduled Sweep, etc.įrom then, the MSN brand shifted its primary focus to online content like news, weather, sports, and entertainment, which was made available through its web portal msn.com and Windows Live covered all of Microsoft’s online services. The service focused on improving the speed, increasing the storage space, better user experience and usability features. As a result of this, MSN Hotmail became Windows Live Hotmail among the other renamed MSN services. Microsoft initially planned to rename MSN Hotmail to Windows Live Mail but the beta testers preferred the well-known name Hotmail. In 2005-2006, Microsoft announced a new brand name for many of the MSN services, i.e., Windows Live. Microsoft later linked it with Microsoft Passport (now Microsoft account) and further merged it with other services under MSN like MSN messenger (instant messaging) and MSN spaces. Then, Hotmail was rebranded as MSN Hotmail, while it was still popularly known as Hotmail itself. Microsoft acquired Hotmail in 1997 and merged into Microsoft’s internet services, known as MSN (Microsoft Network). It became quite popular within just a year of its launch. It allowed users to access their inbox from anywhere and therefore freed the users from ISP-based email. Hotmail was created and designed using HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and, hence, was originally type cased as HoTMaiL (notice the capital letters). One of the first webmail services, known as Hotmail, was founded and launched in 1996. Here’s how the journey from Hotmail to Outlook was: HOTMAIL

Ever since Microsoft acquired Hotmail, it has been renaming the service time and again, completely confusing its users. So basically,, Msn.com,, and all refer to, more or less, the same webmail service.

This is because Hotmail, in fact, was rebranded to Outlook. What is the difference between, Msn.com, & ?Īre you confused between, Msn.com,, and ? Wondering what they are and how they are different from each other? Well, have you ever tried reaching If you did, you would have been redirected to Outlook sign-in page.

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