Are Hotmail Trying To Lose Their Customers?

[Shoeboat]

I have modestly defended Hotmail for the seven years I have had it, snubbing Yahoo for it's silly name and eventually getting a second email address last year in the form of a gmail account - their biggest threat apparently.

So it is with great surprise - not to mention annoyance - that seconds after opening a new email from a friend or family member, it is replaced by a fresh white page with a banner ad for the new Gillette razor or Auto Trader magazine or the all new Seat Ibiza motorcar. How rude and patronizing, and I have also heard that soon they will be charging for Hotmail which has so far been free.

Is this really their way of winning back their customers??? - many have which already jumped ship to gmail or Yahoo.

What are they thinking?

[webfact]

I have modestly defended Hotmail for the seven years I have had it, snubbing Yahoo for it's silly name and eventually getting a second email address last year in the form of a gmail account - their biggest threat apparently.

So it is with great surprise - not to mention annoyance - that seconds after opening a new email from a friend or family member, it is replaced by a fresh white page with a banner ad for the new Gillette razor or Auto Trader magazine or the all new Seat Ibiza motorcar. How rude and patronizing, and I have also heard that soon they will be charging for Hotmail which has so far been free.

Is this really their way of winning back their customers??? - many have which already jumped ship to gmail or Yahoo.

What are they thinking?

Hotmail is owned by Microsoft...

[basjke]

I have modestly defended Hotmail for the seven years I have had it, snubbing Yahoo for it's silly name and eventually getting a second email address last year in the form of a gmail account - their biggest threat apparently.

So it is with great surprise - not to mention annoyance - that seconds after opening a new email from a friend or family member, it is replaced by a fresh white page with a banner ad for the new Gillette razor or Auto Trader magazine or the all new Seat Ibiza motorcar. How rude and patronizing, and I have also heard that soon they will be charging for Hotmail which has so far been free.

Is this really their way of winning back their customers??? - many have which already jumped ship to gmail or Yahoo.

What are they thinking?

I also had those annouying almost full page advertisings.However for some reason I had to format my drive a few weeks ago and misteriously I haven't seen one since.Coincidence or not?

[Groongthep]

...... I have also heard that soon they will be charging for Hotmail which has so far been free.

You are using the free Hotmail service. You are not their customer because you pay them nothing. How can you compain about something that someone is giving you for free?

[Shoeboat]

^ Quite easily, the NHS is free but we complain about that all the time... And by the way, NOTHING is really for free - which is the crux of this post. They are providing a so called free service and now spoiling it with these ads at a time when they should be competing with their two FREE main competitors... Neither of which throw ads in your face when you're just about to read an important email.

By the way these ads can't be closed, one must refresh the page and start again from the homepage.

[Shah Jahan]

I used hotmail for many years and even was paying $19.95 a month for the 'premium service'

then one day they started including car insurance ads in the footers of my messages. This is fine and all if I am using it for free. but for a paying customer - I thought that is why I was paying not to have that.

anyways made the switch to gmail a few years ago (hosted gmail too for my domain accounts)

and imho slams yahoo and hotmail dead in the water in terms of usability and ease.

[Beacher]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

[george]

Because we are a little bit more lenient here in the Internet/computer forum.

[2008bangkok]

and imho slams yahoo and hotmail dead in the water in terms of usability and ease.

I wouldnt say slams infact yahoo is by far the best free web based email the only problem is they charge for pop access biut for some reason if you have a .com version and not a .co.uk hey dont charge(well they dont mine anyway)

Bring round of applause for Yahoo everyone

[jfchandler]

I regularly use Hotmail (multiple accounts/IDs) for many years and I haven't seen the appearance of any of the kind of ads the OP is talking about. In addition, within Firefox, I use the add-in Ad Block Plus to remove even the page/banner ads.... The result... ad free Hotmail.

To accomplish this, within Ad Block Plus, just click the "block" tab next to any particular ad on a web page... That brings up a pop-up window with the web address for that particular ad/image. Then choose to block that ad, but replace the end part of the ad address with a simple /* That * serves as an all characters symbol (remember DOS???), meaning the program will block any content from that ad server (everything before the final /) no matter what more detailed address/filename follows it... That works nicely because in Hotmail for example, the ads all come from particular servers. Once you block the address for that server, no matter how the individual ads and their filenames change, you're still blocking content from that (ad) site.

[smartecosse]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

quiet day is it or are you upset that a topic you posted got closed

lets make it relevant to thailand bot both your posts

simon lives in Thailand and wants to lose weight

mant BM's have hotmail account and use them in Thailand

[toptuan]

I used hotmail for many years....anyways made the switch to gmail a few years ago ....and imho slams yahoo and hotmail dead in the water in terms of usability and ease.

Ditto

[mgjackson69]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

Most topics in this forum are *not* going to be unique to Thailand...so should we not discuss?

Dumbass

[yeti]

By the way these ads can't be closed, one must refresh the page and start again from the homepage.

Hmm, I don't use hotmail, but an ad page that you can't close seem quite strange. Are you sure it's a new hotmail policy and not due to an ad-ware on your computer?

[nikster]

"Are Hotmail Trying To Lose Their Customers?, It certainly seems that way"

Yes. They are.

The question is what to do about it:

A - Whine

B - switch to Gmail

I would recommend B

[Shoeboat]

By the way these ads can't be closed, one must refresh the page and start again from the homepage.

Hmm, I don't use hotmail, but an ad page that you can't close seem quite strange. Are you sure it's a new hotmail policy and not due to an ad-ware on your computer?

I'm an Apple user, my computer is perfect.

[quiksilva]

(Until it becomes obsolete and you have to buy a new one)

[Lucifer]

^ Quite easily, the NHS is free but we complain about that all the time... And by the way, NOTHING is really for free - which is the crux of this post. They are providing a so called free service and now spoiling it with these ads at a time when they should be competing with their two FREE main competitors... Neither of which throw ads in your face when you're just about to read an important email.

By the way these ads can't be closed, one must refresh the page and start again from the homepage.

[/quote

I think you'll find all tax payers pay for the NHS, and are entitled to complain.

[pampal]

I gave up on hotmail years ago, try opening hotmail in China, impossible

[Jimjim]

Hotmail has sucked every since Yahoo mail came around. I think Yahoo is better and gmail is best. Hotmail started deleting your account after no activity in quite a short span, has less storage space, etc. I don't see why anyone still uses it. Around 1998 it was the best free email, at least most widely used, but that was a long time ago.

[cophen]

^ Quite easily, the NHS is free but we complain about that all the time...

The NHS is not free at all. Large slices of tax are taken from all employees in the UK to pay for it. It's free 'at the point of delivery'.

On other hand Hotmail is free to you. It's paid for by the entities whose adverts you're complaining about.

[JetsetBkk]

I gave up on hotmail years ago, try opening hotmail in China, impossible

Never been to China, but have used Hotmail for about 10 years via Outlook Express (for free) without too many problems.

I hate the Gmail web interface, so get my Gmail using Outlook Express.

[apex2000]

You will find that GMail is MUCH better than any other service. That's my humble opinion anyway. I have used it siince it opened for service and never had any complaints at all.

I have modestly defended Hotmail for the seven years I have had it, snubbing Yahoo for it's silly name and eventually getting a second email address last year in the form of a gmail account - their biggest threat apparently.

So it is with great surprise - not to mention annoyance - that seconds after opening a new email from a friend or family member, it is replaced by a fresh white page with a banner ad for the new Gillette razor or Auto Trader magazine or the all new Seat Ibiza motorcar. How rude and patronizing, and I have also heard that soon they will be charging for Hotmail which has so far been free.

Is this really their way of winning back their customers??? - many have which already jumped ship to gmail or Yahoo.

What are they thinking?

[frenchFARANGbkk]

Hotmail has sucked every since Yahoo mail came around. I think Yahoo is better and gmail is best. Hotmail started deleting your account after no activity in quite a short span, has less storage space, etc. I don't see why anyone still uses it. Around 1998 it was the best free email, at least most widely used, but that was a long time ago.

I was wondering if somebody would say the truth about free emails !

Hotmal / msn / live / yahoo are so lame that they don't see the difference between an email sent by one of your friend (in the contact list) and a spam message !

For those who still don't like Gmail, sorry, but you will have to like its style sooner or later as this is the future of email service, and this is already the best email service available online.

[rawnnie]

GMail is definitely the way to go. It's faster than the competition, mails load up quick, minimal page refreshes, the best spam filter around (you wouldn't believe the amount of spam i keep getting on Hotmail TO THIS DAY!!) and a very efficient and clean user interface. It also provides more features than any of the rest, without being annoying or getting a single bit in your face. Free POP3 and IMAP service, need I say more? It certainly is a no frills email service. Hotmail has gone down the drain, along with most of it's Windows Live counterparts. Microsoft tries, but never quite gets it unfortunately.

Edited August 3, 2008 by rawnnie

[crab]

Blocking the ads is easy, but getting access to Hotmail in Thailand can be a real pain. Often the site is inaccessible for days on end. Does this reflect Microsoft's disdain for the Thai market?

[Sabum]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

I'm sorry Sir, are you lost? Perhaps I can direct you to the pattaya bar threads? Right this way Sir, not a problem at all, happy to help.

[JetsetBkk]

I don't see what this has to do with Thailand, so why hasn't it been closed?

I'm sorry Sir, are you lost? Perhaps I can direct you to the pattaya bar threads? Right this way Sir, not a problem at all, happy to help.

I think Beacher had one of his threads closed as "not related to Thailand", and has been on a mission ever since...

[sniffdog]

...... I have also heard that soon they will be charging for Hotmail which has so far been free.

You are using the free Hotmail service. You are not their customer because you pay them nothing. How can you compain about something that someone is giving you for free?

Is something is free, there should be no counter prestation .... ie the wind. As you have to endure ads, there is a counter prestation. To judge something is free or not, money doesn't have to be a deciding factor.

[Groongthep]

...... I have also heard that soon they will be charging for Hotmail which has so far been free.

You are using the free Hotmail service. You are not their customer because you pay them nothing. How can you compain about something that someone is giving you for free?

Is something is free, there should be no counter prestation .... ie the wind. As you have to endure ads, there is a counter prestation. To judge something is free or not, money doesn't have to be a deciding factor.

The phrase "As you have to endure ads..." is prejudicial. You don't have to use hotmail if you don't choose to do so. The ads come along with your choice to use the service. Advertisers pay Microsoft to post the ads, the user is out nothing; money or otherwise. Hotmail is free. If you don't like it, don't use it.

Edited August 5, 2008 by Groongthep