Microsoft's Hotmail, struggling to fight Gmail et al, looks to Reddit users for hope

December 9, 2010 3:16 PM
Matthew Lynley
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The team behind Microsoft’s oft-maligned email service, Hotmail, is hoping to score back some of its users from the titans in the industry like Gmail by doing something Google hasn’t quite pulled off: showing they are human.

Hotmail team members appealed to the community of news aggregation site Reddit.com by posting an “ask-me-anything” thread today, where users can come in and basically ask questions about the service and get feedback from the Hotmail team.

But leave it to the tech- and Internet-savvy Reddit community to ask the hardest question. The top-rated question in the thread is why users should abandon their Gmail accounts and head over to Hotmail. The comments immediately put the Hotmail on the defensive, with Reddit users wondering why the service didn’t use some of the most popular email protocols that sync up to mobile devices and external email programs.

Hotmail has faded into a bit of obscurity after Gmail emerged as the clear email service to beat. (Though in terms of total users, research firm comScore shows that Hotmail’s still king, with 361.7 million users compared to Gmail’s 193.3 million.) Gmail syncs with the rest of its applications like Google Calendar. Google also has the edge in that a lot of companies use its email service and connect it with other apps, like Analytics. Google Apps has signed up 3 million companies with more than 30 million users total.

The Hotmail team said Microsoft is trying a number of things to differentiate itself from Gmail and make it more viable, like removing limits on attachment sizes and offering a deeper level of connectivity with its web-based Office applications. But file-sharing is really a non-issue at this point with the emergence of services like Dropbox. Google has also been in the web-based office game for some time now.

It’s not the first time Microsoft has ventured into Reddit. The company dove into Reddit back in September to help promote the newest version of its Internet-browsing application, Internet Explorer 9. The feedback then was pretty positive — but that’s mostly because it was actually a decent application. Microsoft even purchased advertising for IE9 on Reddit, a community that hasn’t traditionally been friendly to the black sheep of the browser family.

It seems the fangs are out in this thread as well. Best of luck to Microsoft while it navigates the Internets on this one.

  • LouFr

    The tech- and Internet-savvy Reddit community responded with intelligent questions like “Are you aware that the people who still use your email service are computer retarded?”

  • nsccstudent

    ROFLMAO… over the fact that while the Hotmail folks were defending themselves, Hotmail was down most of the day (and still is) so the few users it still has can't access their messages. But why bother with the little people, right?

  • http://www.advancedwebads.com/ Mel Webads

    Hmmnn… that’s odd. With 361M users, why bother getting feedback from reddit? It seems they have the numbers but mostly are dormant users. They keep on trying to ass features such as delimiting the file size for attachments but that is not what email users want now. That is old school.

  • http://twitter.com/hurhurhurhurhuh I was prostitutioned

    grow up kid. it's an email address. I have dozens of them. it tells you nothing more about me than some stupid logo on your tshirt would tell me about you.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/kpkpkp kP

    “361M users” – I would be more interested in learning the number of “Active” users. And by active, I mean, those that COMPOSE an email now and then, not just receive spam and occasionally forward a chain letter.

  • yungYotz

    Well the bottom line is Hotmail S U C K S! Period. Its the most privacy unfriendly service there is. You cant even use it under a proxy!http://www.being-anon.us.tc

  • 99000

    The 361M IS active users. However, all services suffer from non-active users. Including gmail. I have 5 gmail accounts only one of which I use. The reality is that hotmail and yahoo far outnumber gmail even though the supposed tech nerd's myopia often convinces the loudest people on the web differently. That is ComScore's finding and they are not the only ones to see that either. From a recent article on a email traffic report Compete compiled:Based on unique visitors from the US IBP (internet browsing population), Gmail doesn’t even hold a candle to Hotmail (94% larger than Gmail) and Yahoo Mail (190% larger). Gmail’s buzz is obviously much larger than it’s bite.>>That is in the US of course. Worldwide gmail is even further back.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/dbin78 Dain Binder

    I don't like when companies try to use these platforms (Reddit, Digg, Quora, SLashdot, Tumblr, etc.) for direct marketing purposes. Sure it has its benefits to on both sides, but I think it would be much better and “more human” to be a member of the community. Spend time with us and mingle; that is how you become human.

  • ringoenglewood

    I'm sorry, but Microsoft is hardly struggling to fight Gmail. Just look at the recent statistics reported here: http://www.connectedinternet.c…/Don't hate…just get your facts straight.

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