This article was previously featured in my ECYAT section of TM’s EveryoneConnects.net. Want the very latest tech updates? Be sure to check it out

This was probably 15 years ago – the year was 1996 and everyone who went online was raving about this new kind of e-mail which you can check using a web browser… WOAH… it was state-of-the-art and they’d give you 2 FREAKING MEGABYTES of space – I was speechless, I had to get HOTMAIL.

Being a kiasu boy since I was young ; naturally, I dialled up using my 14.4kbps modem – thank goodness the line wasn’t engaged, logged on and quickly created my first ever Hotmail account!

@hotmail.com
That e-mail address is what I have till today, I was instantly cool – or so I thought.

Then the internet grew, more free e-mail providers came along, I even had a Disney-land.com e-mail address!! Go Mickey! Yahoo came strong with sleek interfaces, Gmail came with 1 GB of storage and soon, Hotmail was no longer cool – almost forgotten.

Fast forward into 2011
The day came… a few weeks back, I was invited with some bloggers to checkout something the world has not seen – it’s the latest, revitalized, cooler Windows Live Hotmail.
Honestly, I was sceptical at first and then BOOM!

Looks like the people who bought over Hotmail, Microsoft hasn’t been quietly sitting down. They’ve been hard at work to make BIG changes for their over 364 million users – the biggest webmail provider in the world.

First, more secure login – now with Single Use Codes

Apart from the usual login interface, you now have Single Use Codes. It’s a little bit like the TAC code we have for banking.
Especially useful if you’re using a friend’s computer and you don’t want to key in your e-mail password and risk him/her hacking into your account changing your surname & gender preference in profile.

Just key in your Windows Live ID – that’s your e-mail address, select “Get one here” and an SMS with the code is sent to your phone. Key in that single use code and voila – you’re in your e-mail account!

It’s gone ‘IN’!
Hotmail is not only e-mail because it’s now socially connected to your Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn. Once hooked up, you can see your social network timeline, chat with friends on the various networks (ie. Facebook) send “status updates” – all within Hotmail!

Great for the fickle minded like me
Sometimes, I can’t seem to decide what I like so it’s good to have options. Don’t like this view?

Just hit “options” and change it!

TADA!

Easier ways to sort e-mail
Sometimes we go crazy subscribing for all sorts of newsletters, forums, deals etc that we start missing e-mails because it’s all clogged up. This is where the beauty of Hotmail’s built-in sorting begins!

• All – shows all e-mails – duh!
• Unread – duh duh!
• From contacts – only shows e-mails from people that are in your address book – which is great in case you miss this super important mail from your grandma or boss
• Social updates – How many million facebook, twitter, linkedin etc. notifications do you get? I get millions. It’s annoying but yet we want it because we feel loved – click this only shows social update mails yay!
• From groups – Like social updates – but shows forum updates
• and it doesn’t end there, those were just the default, you can create more!

Quick views – another cool sorting feature

Allows you to show only e-mails that are flagged, has photos or has documents. No more searching for e-mails with ‘attachments’ just click and you’re done. Nice.

Sweep – like a broom – literally!

Allows you to sweep through your entire mailbox for certain e-mails and categorize them or delete them.

So if you want to delete all e-mails from an ex, it’s simple – right click on one of his / her e-mails and select “delete all from…” done Of course, if you’re the nostalgic type you can always choose “move all from…” and store it in a secret folder for future reference.

Super awesome photo mailing feature!
This is by far my favourite feature in the new Windows Live Hotmail. Say you want to e-mail a whole tonne of photos.

If you notice above the thumbnails, there’s an option to turn it into an online album!

So imagine you’re sending 100 megabytes super high quality pics to your boss, you might clog up his / her e-mail and end up getting fired. So not worth it for a bunch of photos.

Instead, opt for the “online album” and TADA!

All 100 megabytes get uploaded to a built-in Microsoft Sky Drive account and all your boss gets is this super lightweight beautiful e-mail (as viewed on Gmail)!

Clicking on “view slide show” brings him / her to…

And from there, he / she can pick and choose which photo to be downloaded in full resolution. Simply BRILLIANT!

There are tonnes to explore…
For instance, you’ve got the calendar which now looks really good – it even tells you the weather outlook for the next few days in case you’re planning a picnic on the tarmac of Jalan Bukit Bintang.

There’s also SkyDrive which gives you 5GB of FREE storage to store anything you like and be made accessible anywhere in the world

the Android app that gives push e-mails plus syncs your contacts, calendar between your mobile device & your hotmail account

And so much more…

Oh & there’s one more thing…
Do you know that Hotmail has upgraded it’s original 2 megabytes of storage to a bigger number? Here’s the number – UNLIMITED – Hotmail now gives all its 364 million and growing users unlimited space! * cue * mouth wide open.

I think Hotmail has returned. Welcome back to the cool world. I’m glad I kept my hotmail account all these years.

So, would you give Hotmail a try? How do you like it? Leave your replies below and I’ll do my best to reply to all!