Microsoft has announced that it has completed the transition of all existing Hotmail addresses to the Outlook.com email server, effectively shutting down the popular Hotmail, according to U.S. media reports.
Users do not need to change their @hotmail.com addresses, but Microsoft has redirected them all to Outlook.com, which is experiencing a surge in users and currently has about 400 million active users on this service. According to claims from Microsoft, this was not an easy task as it required migrating hundreds of millions of active accounts, with about 150 million GB of data, including emails, calendars, contacts, and personal settings of all user accounts. The process took a full six weeks.
– We believe that people will love Outlook more than they loved Hotmail. We are carefully listening to what our users are saying and will make all adjustments and changes to ensure they are even more satisfied, said Microsoft program manager Dick Craddock.
Outlook.com has a completely different look and navigation compared to Hotmail, and most of the new features were seen in the new Windows 8 operating system. The new service will also allow users easier integration with services such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Hotmail, one of the most popular email servers, was first introduced in 1996. At that time, Hotmail was an independent company, and Microsoft acquired it in 1998 for $400 million.
