Hotmail had to integrate better with Windows and other strategic Microsoft products in addition to being a first-class email solution. But with this move from MSN to the Windows Live umbrella came a new level of responsibility. (For more information about this, please refer to my articles, MSN: The Inside Story and Windows Live Preview.) Given its popularity, Hotmail had always been strategic to Microsoft, of course. Hotmail, like many of the products and services that had previously come out of MSN, was switched over to the new Windows Live initiative. During that time, of course, Microsoft switched gears on its plans for the Internet. Eventually, the pool of people testing the service grew to over 20 million, a considerable sum for a free online service. The company started working on this revision years ago, and it first entered external beta back in mid-2005. In contrast with the rapid-fire release schedule of other Windows Live services, Microsoft really took it's time with this new Hotmail version, which was completely rearchitected from the ground up to meet the needs of today's users. Indeed, Hotmail is different from other Windows Live services in many ways. Now rebranded as Windows Live Hotmail after a short time during which Microsoft planned to rename the service as Windows Live Mail, this new Hotmail version is poised to deliver where other Windows Live services, thus far, have fallen short. But this week, for the first time ever, Hotmail is being significantly upgraded with new underpinnings that Microsoft hopes will last another decade. It is one of the most successful Web services ever created: Hotmail, the Web-based email solution that Microsoft purchased in late 1997, now serves over 280 million active users, and the fact that it's lasted as long as it has on its creaky original foundations is nothing short of miraculous.

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