Windows Live Hotmail Increases to 5GB Free Space

Microsoft increases the storage space for the e-mail services that they offer, trying to pose a threat to Google, but far from reaching the unlimited space offer that Yahoo is providing.

The storage space limit for a free Windows Live Hotmail account will be increased from 2GB to 5GB. The change will happen in the next two weeks, accompanied by a set of new upgrades. A major change is expected in the e-mail client interface, in order to become more competitive on the market.

Google now offers around 2.8 GB storage space, for a free e-mail account, Microsoft wanted with this offer to show that they can be better, in the race for Internet supremacy.

Last week, Google, started to offer paid extra storage space, which can be used for Gmail or for other services like Picasa, charging $20 a year.

In response, Microsoft will also offer the possibility of having 10GB storage space in the Windows Live Hotmail account for $14,99 a year. These users, that are paying the yearly fee, will also be able to forward the e-mails received in their Inbox, directly into other e-mail accounts which they desire to use.

Unfortunately, this option is not available for the free Windows Live Hotmail users, the service is restricted to only forwarding e-mails from one Hotmail account to another Hotmail account, blocking their access to another free e-mail service that they would want to use.

Another new option, that is included in Windows Live Hotmail is the ability to cancel the "Today" option, which shows news gathered from the Microsoft MSN portal. This option has been bothering a lot of people using Hotmail, and that is what made Microsoft decide to remove it.

Another new option is the "Reporting phishing" option, that can be used to alert Microsoft of possible phishing e-mails that are sent to their servers, and promptly block them, so they will affect a smaller number of users. This option, will make Hotmail a less attracting target for scam artists, which mainly rely on the inability of users to promptly alert such e-mails, therefore preventing them from reaching other users.

Overall, this new service will be more user friendly, and more capable than the old one, but still it was not created with the intent of helping users, but to continue the battle with Google, which is the main goal of Microsoft at the moment.