The original free email provider (hotmail.com)

Member Name: jazz_mavericks

Product:	hotmail.com
Date:	30/09/09 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: simple and free to use

Disadvantages: too much junk mail

Hotmail is a web based email provider, that has been around since the early(ish) days of the internet, and is regarded by most to be the most popular web based email provider available, with Yahoo and Googlemail snapping at its toes.

Nowadays knows as Windows Live, the service has evolved fluidly over the years - in someways these changes have been great, in others, quite annoying.

These days the storage capacity is much bigger - 5gb last time I looked, however, Hotmail can struggle with sending larger files.

Something I have found to be an extremely annoying problem, is that Hotmail is a huge target for spam. They have however, tried to solve this problem by having spam filters and a junk box, but things still get through. Also, sometimes things from people with spamlike email addresses will go straight in the junk box, so it is important to always check it befor you delete the contents.

Your mailbox can also be linked to MSN Messenger, which is an instant messaging service, also provided my Microsoft. Your contacts will be synched, and when Messenger is running, it will notify you to new emails in your inbox.

A decent feature is the way that Hotmail allows you to sort out your emails into different folders, which is extremely useful, and I have noticed recently that you can customise the lay out much, much more than you used to be able to.

All in all, it is a fairly decent email provider, especially when you realise it is free. However, if you hoped to be able to link it to your email software, such as Outlook, be ready to pay for the priviledge!

Summary: Simple to use, and free - what more do you need as a throwaway email address?