And Hotmail kicks it up a notch...

[MarineCorps]

Title shamelessly coppied from hbdragon88 thread

Users of Microsoft's free email service will have access to 250MB of storage from the start of next month


Microsoft said on Wednesday that it will boost storage limits in its Hotmail Web email service, a move intended to counter similar steps taken by rivals Google and Yahoo.





The upgrade will increase Hotmail's free email storage limits from 2 megabytes to 250MB and its paid email service, which costs $19.95 (£10.99) a year, from 10MB to 2 gigabytes. The changes will begin in early July.


"With these new offers, storage will not be an issue for MSN Hotmail customers," Blake Irving, corporate vice president of communication services for MSN, said in a statement.


The storage follows similar announcements from Google and Yahoo. The storage boost started when Google announced in April that it plans to launch a new email service called Gmail that will give people 1GB of storage for free. The service has attracted some controversy, because it will serve advertisements based on keywords found in the text of peoples' email messages.


Indeed, Google's initial steps into storage increases countered the industry's trend to charge extra for more memory. Over the past few years, Yahoo and Hotmail have both taken steps to decrease memory in hopes of convincing free users to become paying subscribers.


Earlier this month, Yahoo launched its own upgrade to 100MB for free users and 2GB for its paid users. The company said the changes would make email storage a "nonissue."


"We'll remain focused on what emailers want and need, and people can expect to see a number of new enhancements to Yahoo Mail in the coming months," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said in response to the Microsoft announcement.


Ask Jeeves also plans to grant its email subscribers more storage room. Earlier this year, the search company acquired Internet Search Holdings, including My Way, The Excite Network and iWon.com, which all serve Web surfers with free email. Ask Jeeves plans to give each of the sites' email subscribers 125MB of free storage, up from an allottment of 3MB to 6MB previously.


Separately, Microsoft said it will offer free antivirus software to scan emails before they appear in a user's in-box.


CNET News.com's Stefanie Olsen contributed to this report.

link

 

[Zeekater]

Good, I was getting bored deleting stuff

 

[Gogf]

Still not as good as GMail though. 2MB to 250MB ? That's a huge increase. And the GMail domino affect continues...

 

[MarineCorps]

Thats for free accounts. Premium is 2GB. Hotmail just beat Yahoo. Through I migh get a Yahho account just to increase the number of accounts I have. Google still owns free email. I still find it funny that I am in possion of the most wanted thing on the internet. Gmail invites.

 

[Goober]

Hmm, this is kinda convenient. I don't get E-mails THIS often, but I have my Hotmail through my Outlook, so I put everything important from my Pop3 thingie to my other Inbox. Its weird, but it works.

 

[Gogf]

Thats for free accounts. Premium is 2GB. Hotmail just beat Yahoo. Through I migh get a Yahho account just to increase the number of accounts I have. Google still owns free email. I still find it funny that I am in possion of the most wanted thing on the internet. Gmail invites.

Yes, I wish I had GMail invites. I must invite people! Those that I haven't already reserved (with certain people ), I will probably lotto off.

I wonder if they'll have Hotmail version 2.0 invites that you can purchase or something. Sounds like a good way to make money...

 

[MarineCorps]

I have 4 left. One is reseved for thor.

 

[Turner]

[dance][dance] Thank you google! That's a half gig storage I have now! Woot!

You know, MC, if you wanted to give me an invite, I wouldn't say no! (Not that I'm asking, tho!)

 

[Dell19]

This will be nice since I've been having to delete plenty of PBEM emails recently... Just hope that it doesn't make hotmail perform worse because of more users...

 

[Gogf]

[dance][dance] Thank you google! That's a half gig storage I have now! Woot!

You know, MC, if you wanted to give me an invite, I wouldn't say no! (Not that I'm asking, tho!)

You actually have a quater gig .

 

[Dell19]

I think he probably uses Yahoo as well... I'll be up to 3.25GBs although the 2GB account can't attach files. Oh and I also have another account which I'm not sure whether that one actually has a size limit...

 

[MarineCorps]

[dance][dance] Thank you google! That's a half gig storage I have now! Woot!

You know, MC, if you wanted to give me an invite, I wouldn't say no! (Not that I'm asking, tho!)

Send me an e mail adress. I got plenty left

 

[steviejay]

I'm well chuffed their updating their space, 250 gig will be great, I can finally save all those funny pics I get sent.

But I'm still going for a gmail account just so I can get an email address thats just steviejay instead of having steviejay_1984-2002 or something stupid like that

 

[Turner]

Actuall, I'm at .8 gig now.... (soon more!) Got three Yahoo, and just activated another hotmail. Rather, I'll be at .8 this fall.

MC - Check your PM's....

 

[Captain Carnage]

I wondered when they were going to rid of that 2MB limit

 

[Dell19]

It does seem extremely low to be only offering 2MB when everyone else is offering a lot more...

 

[MarineCorps]

It does seem extremely low to be only offering 2MB when everyone else is offering a lot more...

Yeah. I've never understood this myself. However when 90% of my e mails are from CDG and CFC....

 

[Dell19]

Yeah. I've never understood this myself. However when 90% of my e mails are from CDG and CFC....

I never understand why people subscribe to threads Seems as if you want to be spammed...

 

[MarineCorps]

Seems as if you want to be spammed...

Not really. I am now however using my hotmail account for spam.

I never understand why people subscribe to threads

Because I would forget to check the threads other wise

 

[Dell19]

Not really. I am now however using my hotmail account for spam.

Because I would forget to check the threads other wise

You quoted my post the wrong way round...

I just check the threads I want to check, I don't need reminding.