Breaking News: Hotmail Still Exists

Hotmail is expected to get a big update this week, which raises the question: Does anyone actually still use Hotmail? I didn’t even realize it was still around.

The update, said to be on the way in the coming few days, will increase the mail service’s speed as much as 70 percent. Which is good, because I suspect most of its users are still on dial-up connections and likely only hitting 2400 BPS.

Seriously, though, Yahoo’s taken a lot of flack for its webmail service following the Sarah Palin hack incident. And I’ll admit, I’ve done my share of Yahoo Mail bashing over the years. But Hotmail? Yahoo Mail sounds like a modern luxury service compared to that. I don’t think I’ve even heard the name come up in half a decade — it seems most of the non-computer literate have at least progressed up to Yahoo Mail by now.

Anyway, though, watch for the improvements this coming week. Maybe Microsoft will even add a cool new domain like Rocketmail as an option…that kind of thing would be sure to lure users in.