At that point, they had the choice to either keep their original Hotmail address or get a new Outlook address. Microsoft launched Outlook in 2012, and all Hotmail users were allowed to upgrade to Outlook for free. In the end, Hotmail just couldn’t compete, and despite an update to Windows Live Hotmail in 2005, it was ultimately doomed. When Gmail was launched in 2004, it put a lot of pressure on both Hotmail and Yahoo since it had better features – and it was providing those features to users for free. By 1997, it was already popular enough to sell to MSN and become part of their suite of tools for over $400 million. Launching in 1996, Hotmail was one of the earliest – and most popular – email service providers around. If you’re interested in Hotmail’s past and the rebrand, read on for a brief history. That said, we wrote an in-depth comparison between Outlook and Gmail worth checking out. Hotmail doesn’t exist as a provider any longer. And why’s that? Well, Hotmail was rebranded as Outlook several years ago. Well, that’s one of the easiest questions that we’ve answered on the Right Inbox blog…ever. So what’s the difference between Gmail and Hotmail? Which of the two is better?
