Yahoo struggles with mail outage, Microsoft offers users free Hotmail+ to switch now

By Tom Warren, on 28th Apr 11 10:21 pm with 8 Comments

Microsoft’s wasting no time to taking advantage of Yahoo’s mail woes today.

The software giant has started offering free Hotmail+ accounts to Yahoo mail users who switch to Hotmail today. “First 1k #ymail users to testdrivethenew@hotmail.com and send feedback today get HM+ free for 1yr. SwitchToHotmail.com,” reads a tweet from the official Hotmail account:

Microsoft's Hotmail Yahoo outage tweet

Yahoo Mail users are currently experiencing issues accessing their mailbox’s after the company confirmed its mail service is inaccessible to some users. “We are working to correct the issue and restore all functionality immediately,” said a Yahoo spokesperson. The timing of the outage comes just over a week after Microsoft created its own switchtohotmail.com site. The site is designed to convince users to switch from Yahoo Mail to Hotmail. According to the website around 22.6 million people have signed up for Hotmail since its September 2010 redesign. Microsoft lists 5 top reasons why the new Hotmail is “better than” Yahoo! Mail:

  1. Helps protect you from hackers in more ways than Yahoo
  2. Easier to sweep out Junk Mail
  3. Up to 50% fewer ads than Yahoo
  4. View and edit Office docs right inside your Inbox
  5. Share 400x the amount of photos and files in one email

Microsoft’s offer of free Hotmail Plus accounts to those who switch today is limited to the first 1,000 users who provide feedback. Hotmail’s Plus service provides users with 10GB of storage that automatically grows, no account expirations and no graphical ads.

  • Anonymous

    This is bull. My Hotmail+ subscription just renewed in March, where’s my freebie?

  • Stevie

    I switched from Yahoo to Hotmail (I picked the @live.com domain though) recently and I like it a lot. Easy access to OneNote and other cloud Office docs is a bonus.

    • http://itrafficgeneration.com Internet business

      I AgreeD with you.

  • FMH

    “4. View and edit Office docs right inside your Inbox”
    Thats the most major point to convert.

  • http://twitter.com/polaromonas Sorawit Pai

    I still think hotmail needs to revamp its UI. It feel a lot slower than gmail and looks clunkier too.

    • Guest

      Gmail is distracting with its rainbow UI and they personal information-mine your emails. Even a Google engineer read someone’s email.

    • Blizz127

      Anyone anywhere can read emails that has easy access to it. I’m sure someone is going through people’s hotmail accounts and yahoo accounts reading also.

    • Larry

      Gmail UI??? Yeah if you want a “Craigs List” looking webmail Gmail has got it nailed.